Why Goldman Sachs and Citi’s trading desks are the best places to work
2024 wasn’t the best year for traders, but it was still better than 2023. Revenues went up across the board, both in equities and fixed income, currencies, and commodities (FICC). But which bank was the most… Alluring?
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That's hard to measure, even in jobs as attractive as those in financial services. But if you're a trader, one measure might be your ability to take risk.
As part of their 10-K disclosures, banks list the number of days they made a defined level of profit or loss trading. Not all do this (most notably JPMorgan), but those that do, break out the number of days that their trading desks made over $100m in profit. The prevalence of these days implies a bank is pursuing a higher-risk trading strategy. T
The bank with the most of these >$100m days in 2024 was Goldman Sachs, with 62 – two whole months’ worth. Citi was its closest competitor, with ~50. Last year, the two banks had 52 and ~74 respectively; the implication therefore is that, between 2023 and 2024, Goldman loosened its risk boundaries for traders while Citi tightened theirs.
Goldman Sachs' trading days by profit, 2024
Citi's trading days by profit, 2024
By comparison, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley had the fewest >$100m days, with ~19 and 12, respectively. Both banks had more of these super-days than in 2023, when they posted ~15 and 7, respectively. The implication here is that both loosened their risk requirements between 2023 and 2024.
BofA's trading days by profit, 2024
Morgan Stanley's trading days by profit, 2024
The changes in risk profile make looking at the banks’ full year 2024 results more illuminating. Goldman’s looser risk profile lead to middle of the road gains in both FICC and equities, while Citi’s tightening of risk may have damaged its FICC traders but boosted its equities desks.
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