Ex-Barclays macro trader achieves top job irrespective of youth
Barclays' London macro desk has a habit of hiring child prodigies. Prodigies past include Hadley Parrie (now at Deutsche Bank), who passed his maths A level with a grade A aged 14 after only eight months' revision. They also include Ed Harding, a GBP Swaps trader who left for Santander last year.
By our reckoning, Harding is 31 years old. He graduated from Cambridge University with a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 2016. Santander has just promoted him as its head of EUR swaps trading. Neither the bank nor Harding responded to requests to comment.
Running euro swaps trading at Santander aged 31 isn't quite the same as making partner at Goldman Sachs at the same age, but Harding is known in the market for his precocity. He spent a brief 11 months at hedge fund Rokos where he was allegedly known as "mini Chris."
Harding's success at Santander comes as Barclays' London macro desk has been losing and hiring staff and promoting people to keep them happy. Nico Huss, who left in June, is expected to appear at Citi next week after a summer off.
Harding's new job at Santander underscores the apparent benefits of leaving GBP trading to trade EUR swaps instead. Mark Samarasinghe, who left UBS to work for child prodigy Hadley Parrie also went from GBP to EUR trading in the process.
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