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Wall Street experts are crying foul on an overlooked yet dangerous signal that a market meltdown is near
It seems as if every time Joseph Harvey opens The Wall Street Journal, he's presented with a fresh batch of signals that the current market cycle is nearing its conclusion.
Speaking at last week's CIO Global Forum in New York, hosted by UBS, Harvey - the president and chief investment officer at Cohen & Steers - told the room of attendees that he had been increasingly bombarded with red flags, even with the equity bull market plowing ahead into its ninth year.
One recent story that caught his eye addressed the rapid surge in leveraged-buyout, or LBO, activity, which is on pace to have the highest dollar volume since 2007, according to Dealogic.
To him, this type of activity - which involves borrowing a bunch of money to buy companies and is frequently done by private-equity firms- is a glaring late-cycle warning. And while Harvey acknowledges he has no idea when the inevitable downturn will strike, he's doing what he can to withstand the turbulence.
Q&A with Barclays' new head of prime sales
Many Wall Street banks experienced stellar equities performance in the first quarter amid volatility spikes and increased client trading. Industrywide, equities revenue rose 28% during the period, according to research from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.
But no bank grew more precipitously than Barclays, which saw its equities revenues shoot up 43%, to $827 million, compared with $577 million in the first quarter of 2017, with derivatives and financing leading the way.
While many of Barclay's senior positions were filled through external hires in the months since Stephen Dainton joined as global head of equities in August, the bank this spring made an internal promotion for a key role: its head of prime brokerage sales in the Americas, which is now led by Betty Gee, a rising star who joined the bank in 2016 as its head of strategic consulting within that same division.
The firm's prime brokerage business - the group that provides financing and other services to hedge funds - is a crucial component to turning the ship around and winning back market share in the $42 billion equities industry, Gee told Business Insider in an interview at Barclays' midtown Manhattan headquarters.
JPMorgan poaches a star equities trader from Goldman Sachs
JPMorgan has hired Borzu Masoudi from Goldman Sachs as a trader on its US index flow trading desk, according to a person briefed on the appointment. He'll replace David Kim, who left for Bank of America last month, the person said.
Masoudi, a vice president, is seen as a rising star in the world of equity derivatives, according to a recruiter with knowledge of the industry. He was also part of the team which allegedly made more than $200 million in profit in one day earlier this year.He's expected to join the New York-based bank in August after spending a little more than a year at Goldman, according to his LinkedIn profile. He spent the majority of his career at Deutsche Bank.
Mike Novogratz hires a former wrestling champ to head up his crypto-bank's trading desk
Bitcoin king Mike Novogratz has poached a former Wall Streeter to lead his crypto firm's trading operations, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The hedge funder turned crypto-enthusiast has been building out Galaxy Digital, a crypto-merchant bank that will invest and trade crypto. Galaxy has four business lines, including asset management, trading, advisory, and principal investing.
Yoshi Nakamura, a former director at Citi within its institutional equities sales team covering hedge funds, has joined the firm as head of sales for the firm's trading division, which oversees Galaxy's prop trading, over-the-counter trading, and market making business.
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