Equity derivatives professionals quitting Goldman Sachs amidst hiring boom

Equity derivatives recruitment is hot this year and Bank of America isn't the only bank losing staff. Three equity derivatives sales and trading professionals have left Goldman Sachs in London and New York City.

Ning Sun, an equity derivatives trader who joined Goldman in 2011 after graduating from Imperial College is understood to have left the firm in London. In New York, Goldman has lost Kathryn Gandolfo, an equity trader turned saleswoman who joined in 2011 and is on garden leave, plus C.T. Fisher, an associate in equity derivative sales who left in the past few days. All three had spent their entire careers at Goldman.

The exits come as headhunters say equity derivatives hiring is picking up. "There's more going on now than there has been for a few years," says one London-based equity derivatives headhunter. "- Banks have realised they can pick up good people for comparatively little money."

Credit Suisse is among those building in equity derivatives under Mike Stewart. Goldman itself has also been hiring, and quietly building a new equity derivatives sales team in Paris. 

Goldman didn't immediately respond to a request to comment on the exits. They come as the firm has been losing junior and mid-ranking traders from its fixed income business. Some Goldman insiders suggest the exit of junior lifers is a sign of Goldman's diminished appeal. "These were supposed to be the next generation of leaders," says one. "It's the average and low performers who have nowhere else to go."