Sales trader accepts demotion to join Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs is continuing to hire outsiders, and they're not all joining at the executive director level. Some of the firm's most recent hires include juniors brought in from firms outside Goldman's typical purview.

Goldman insiders say the firm has bolstered its London electronic sales trading team with two people, drawn from Instinet Europe and Canaccord Genuity in London.

Chet Varsani joined from Instinet, where he previously spent four years as a sales trader. Mark Warren joined Goldman from Canaccord, where he spent three years as a sales trader and seven years in trade support.

Warren's LinkedIn profile indicates that he took a demotion to join Goldman: at Canaccord he was a vice president, at GS he is just an associate.

Goldman Sachs is building out its electronic trading capabilities. During the call accompanying the bank's second quarter results, CFO Marty Chavez said the firm is pursuing opportunities in "low touch execution" and that it gained "volume market share" in this business in every region during the second quarter.

Goldman didn't respond to a request to comment on its new electronic trading hires. They follow the promotion of Alex Harman, an electronic sales trader hired from Barclays in 2014, to head of EMEA electronic sales trading in April 2018.

Equities isn't the only market where Goldman's fishing from a wider pond. London headhunters suggest the firm has also recently hired Andrew Crutchlow, a corporate credit trader from Mizuho. Meanwhile, the firm is understood to have lost Joseph Staniford, a promising associate on its multi-asset fixed income sales platform in New York Better.com, mortgage fintech company with offices in New York and San Francisco..

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