Lunchtime Links: Meet the 35 year old billionaire natural gas trader

Fortune Magazine has an interesting article about John Arnold, CEO of Houston-based commodities hedge fund Centaurus.

Among other things, it transpires that Arnold has a nervous stutter and drinks lots of water. We also learn that he grew up in Dallas, attended Vanderbilt University, and began his trading career as a trainee at Enron, where he reportedly earned the firm $750m in 2001. When Enron blew up, he moved to UBS, which apparently offered him $8m to stay, but he moved on and set up Centaurus anyhow.

When trading, do not rely on testosterone. (The Times)

Nomura has fired two people for not marking its derivatives properly. (Bloomberg)

Are AIG FP traders worth their pay packets? (The Atlantic)

UBS plans to hire more than a dozen equities sales and trading staff in Canada. (Bloomberg)

UBS may not be totally undercapitalized after all. (Alphaville)

Morgan Stanley has hired a senior real estate banker. (DealBook)

BofA shares will surge if when it finds a new leader. (Bloomberg)

Half of banks' losses still hidden off their balance sheets. (Reuters)

"The decadent international but individualistic capitalism...is not a success. It is not intelligent, it is not beautiful, it is not just, it is not virtuous - and it doesn't deliver the goods." (Financial News)