Who's still hiring traders?
Following on from last week's inordinately popular article on who's hiring investment bankers, here's something similar for traders - who are arguably doing even worse when it comes to job opportunities right now, particularly if they've been trading prop.
As with the investment bankers, extracting information on hiring firms was like getting blood from a stone, but we've elicited the following generalizations, plus a few specifics. Needless to say, these are not comprehensive, so feel free to add any information you have on hirers below.
Global macro hedge funds
David Durham of Durham Consultants, a hedge fund recruiter, won't say which global macro funds are hiring exactly, but he swears that many are.
We recommend trying: Citadel, which is in the process of raising a $2bn global macro fund; the Research Analysis Driven Absolute Returns (RADAR) fund, a new global macro fund sponsored by Barclays Capital; or Resurgam Capital Management, a new global macro fund set up by in February by ex-Bear Stearns trader Mark Ellis.
Equity long short traders aren't wanted at all, says Durham: "I've got tons of CVs for equity long short stacked up in a corner."
Separately, multi-strategy fund Millennium Global is also rumoured to be looking for staff.
Commodities trading houses
Commodities recruiters wouldn't name names, but the head of commodities at one European bank says Glencore, Vitol, Trafigura and Noble are all hiring as usual.
Banks are still picking up commodities traders too. JPMorgan and BarCap are said to be hiring, Scotia recently recruited a 60 person team from UBS.
"Activity is pretty normal," says the commodities head. "Last year a huge swathe of banks piled into the space. You don't have that any more, but hiring hasn't declined dramatically."
FX businesses
Citigroup is looking for FX traders according to one London FX headhunter. CIBC is also thought to be in the market for additional FX muscle after bringing in Mark Sweeting from Unicredit in February. National Australia Bank is also rumoured to be interested in FX people, but apparently has yet to commit....
Infinity Capital markets
We reported that Infinity Capital markets was picking up traders back in September. It's happening still.
Managing director Grant Ashton says they've hired 33 people so far, many of them ex-prop traders from investment banks, and are still open to bringing in more.
Interdealer brokers
Speaking on CNBC with Nouriel Roubini last week, Cantor's Howard Lutnick kept returning to their ability to pick up top traders from banks in the current environment. It now transpires that Cantor is hiring 100 people for fixed income alone this year.
One London headhunter says rival interdealer brokers are picking up traders too.
