Some Traders Will Be Able To Jump Ship From SAC Capital, Some Will Definitely Not
The truth is, you might have them, and you might not.
This morning, Lawrence Delevingne at CNBC reported that three SAC Capital traders went over to hedge fund Millennium Partners. It's the kind of horse trading we haven't seen since the insider trading related legal troubles at SAC really heated up this year.
And we may not see a lot more. A lot of traders are staying loyal to SAC. They're taking advantage of higher pay and hoping that legal problems that could truly debilitate the firm won't materialize for a few years.
Other traders have no choice. Since Wall Street doesn't really know the extent of the government's case against the firm, the fear that there are more names to be named lingers. That especially casts a shadow over traders that worked in sectors the government is investigating - health care and technology, media and telecoms.
Traders that aren't in those sectors could exit if they want to. Alexey Chentsov, one of the SAC traders that went to Millennium, was a quant portfolio manager. Not a concern to Preet Bahrara and his posse.