There was much press a couple of days ago when Trader Monthly announced that the top five earners on its top traders listing all brought home more than $1 billion last year. (Of course, “brought home” is a really stupid way of putting it: in fact, the vast majority of these earnings are reinvested in the traders’ hedge funds.)
But who lies beyond the top five? The Guardian today has the whole list. They’re giving earnings in pounds, so double all the figures to get the dollar equivalents. Interestingly, no fewer than four Goldman Sachs traders are sprinkled in among the hedge-fund managers, and they all made more money than CEO Lloyd Blankfein.
Raanan Agus, Driss Ben-Brahim, Pierre-Henri Flamand, and Morgan Sze all made between $80 million and $100 million last year, we’re told. Meanwhile, former Goldman star Eric Mindich – one of those people who says “I can make more money at my own hedge fund” and goes off to start one – is nowhere to be seen. Maybe Agus, Ben-Brahim, Flamand and Sze would do well to stay where they are.