The Financial Times reports that Goldman Sachs has moved one of its top London-based prop traders into a management position. Driss Ben-Brahim was one of those Goldman few who was rumoured to have bagged a $100m bonus last year, but the newspaper says that he has been kicked upstairs after 'a year in which his trading performance was mixed'. The banker is said to be going to head up FX sales & trading within emerging markets, a massive growth areas for the firm (he can't have had that bad a year, then!).
Bloomberg reports that Merrill Lynch is making acquisitions at its fastest pace for over 10 years, as it bids to play catch-up with rivals. The firm has acquired 17 companies since 2004, including mortgage lender First Franklin Financial and niche energy investment bank Petrie Parkman, and has spent a cool $2.6bn in the process.
The New York Post reports that three former New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) members are to go to court and will claim that they were 'duped' into selling their seats at low prices. The three former seat holders sold out in late 2005 for around $1.5m each, only to see the prices rise considerably after the announcement of the Big Board's merger with electronic-trading exchange Archipelago (prices immediately jumped to $2.4m each, and peaked at $4m). All three are said to be claiming another $1m, saying that NYSE boss John Thain should have tipped them off that a big deal was on the way.
Finally, The Post also reports that Mike Carboni, who spent 24 years trading commodities at the New York Mercantile Exchange, is sticking up daily trading advice on youtube. How ironic that Carboni is using new technology to increase his exposure - he left the Nymex after new technology made his old job obsolete! Good luck to him.
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