tradergirl
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2008
- Messages
- 865
To me, it's pretty straightforward.
If your firm made money for its investors, groovy, compensate everyone. That would eliminate about 95% of them this year.
Any Wall Street investment bank whose stock has declined over about 10-15% shouldn't be paying anyone a dime in bonuses. I have heard all the BS about keeping the top talent. You know what? All of them have made obscene amounts of bonus money over the past 3-5 years. We're talking bonuses of $1-50M. Is there a reason they haven't held onto it and can't live without a bonus this year? What a lot of BS. What I was seeing last year and in '06 was the 30 year old "trader" taking his bonus and swapping the $6M pad for a $20M one, more in keeping with his stature as a Master of the Universe. Most of them are probably pounding the pavement right now. They made outsized returns using extreme leverage and OPM, including money such as pension fund money which they had no business risking like that but that cuts both ways. My mailbox is full of email from suicidal trading friends who have lost everthing this year. I wish I could empathize more. A little common sense would have gone a long way for all of them.
I had a hell of a year because I'm a short seller. Last year was good too. In 2003, I barely kept the lights on and didn't pay myself anything.
If your firm made money for its investors, groovy, compensate everyone. That would eliminate about 95% of them this year.
Any Wall Street investment bank whose stock has declined over about 10-15% shouldn't be paying anyone a dime in bonuses. I have heard all the BS about keeping the top talent. You know what? All of them have made obscene amounts of bonus money over the past 3-5 years. We're talking bonuses of $1-50M. Is there a reason they haven't held onto it and can't live without a bonus this year? What a lot of BS. What I was seeing last year and in '06 was the 30 year old "trader" taking his bonus and swapping the $6M pad for a $20M one, more in keeping with his stature as a Master of the Universe. Most of them are probably pounding the pavement right now. They made outsized returns using extreme leverage and OPM, including money such as pension fund money which they had no business risking like that but that cuts both ways. My mailbox is full of email from suicidal trading friends who have lost everthing this year. I wish I could empathize more. A little common sense would have gone a long way for all of them.
I had a hell of a year because I'm a short seller. Last year was good too. In 2003, I barely kept the lights on and didn't pay myself anything.