What are the reasons for leaving the Trader role?

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree six years ago and have been working in derivatives trading at a major European bank ever since. Although I myself have not yet left the role, many of my peers have. The main reasons can be summarized as follows: 1. Company bankruptcy or termination of trading-related businesses. The week I joined the bank coincided with Lehman Brothers’ collapse—my roommate at the time was unfortunately caught in that fallout. In recent years, new regulatory environments have further forced major banks to progressively scale back or exit certain trading businesses that no longer generate profits as robustly as in previous years—especially in Fixed Income, Currencies, and Commodities (FICC). Many friends and former colleagues have consequently left. 2. Poor performance. The evaluation criteria for traders are straightforward: primarily PnL (Profit and Loss). No firm wants to retain traders who fail to generate profits—or worse, incur losses. The above cases represent involuntary departures; below are reasons for voluntary exits: 3. Better opportunities. Employee mobility is generally high across the financial industry. Especially during periods of weak investment banking activity and reduced year-end bonuses, many senior traders have moved to hedge funds or asset management firms to become portfolio managers.

Has Macquarie suddenly exited the European and U.S. equity trading markets, signaling the onset of an intensified phase in stock brokerage competition?

According to reporters from Yicai News, global equity trading, equity derivatives, and prime brokerage (services provided to hedge funds) all declined simultaneously for the first time since 2015. Data from Coalition Development shows that, under current conditions, European equity trading revenue fell by approximately 15%–17% year-on-year in the first half of this year—placing additional pressure on banks already operating at low or even negative profit margins. In practice, this means that only the top three banks in any given equity trading market—or, when including prime brokerage and derivatives, the top five banks—possess sufficient scale to withstand challenging market conditions and thereby capture greater market share. Moreover, growing investor preference for passive investment strategies has further harmed investment banks offering equity trading services. Investment bank Jefferies recently noted that exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other index-based products surged from less than $700 billion before 2008 to over $5 trillion by 2018—a 7.14-fold increase over the past decade. Against this backdrop—and compounded by negative or low interest rates and post-2008 regulatory changes—investment banks’ profitability has been severely eroded, placing mounting pressure on the boards and executives of mid-sized banks to justify maintaining equity trading operations in other regions where margins hover around zero or even dip into negative territory. Shahani commented: “These investment banks need to consistently achieve healthy operating margins of 15%–20% to sustain viable businesses. Meanwhile, large banks continue cutting prices to boost trading volumes—leaving smaller banks and brokers with virtually no competitive chance.” Macquarie had recently been recruiting staff for its European equity brokerage business Over the past five years, the ‘Big Five’ U.S. banks—including Citigroup and Bank of America—have consistently outperformed Europe’s seven largest competitors in equity trading. Collectively, these five U.S. banks held a combined market share of 59.1% in the first half of 2019—up sharply from 46% in 2014. Yicai News reporters also observed that although Macquarie is neither the first nor the largest bank to exit European and U.S. equity brokerage (Deutsche Bank announced a similar plan in July), the move came as a surprise given that Macquarie had recently been hiring personnel for its London-based equity brokerage operations. A LinkedIn search by Reuters for Macquarie employees based in London revealed 38 individuals whose job titles explicitly linked them to Macquarie’s equity team (e.g., sales, trading, or finance), including 20 who joined Macquarie in either 2018 or 2019. Additionally, just days before Macquarie released its first-half results, the bank reported record profits, with revenues from its commodities and global markets division rising by 15%. Alex Harvey, Macquarie’s CFO, told Reuters that the bank sees neither attractive value-return opportunities nor compelling investment prospects for equity trading activities in North America and Europe.

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