A New Chapter in a Financial Life

Friday was the last day at my job. The financial crisis claims another victim and I am now a statistic. We had built and launched an electronic trading product that was best of breed and made a real impact with the customers that used it. We had a strong group of core clients from big name banks and we were getting close to the tipping point where growth takes on a life of its own.

Unfortunately, markets are unpredictable and in our case they turned out nasty. First came the credit crisis in the summer of 2007. Traders were still active as the markets were still climbing. The stock markets started tumbling down from the second half of January, and given that most of the clients were heavily invested and had borrowed to leverage their positions, trading took a huge hit. The body blow was given when Lehman Brothers defaulted. Trading seized up as people scrambled to cover their exposure to Lehman. Further, people had to review their entire portfolios and reassess their counterparties and business profiles. I am happy to say for my former team that volumes over the past few weeks have really turned around and a few customers have really announced their presence on the platform. The green shoots of recovery for that sector of the market seem to be peeking through. Good Luck!

Where do I go from here? I've got a few different objectives. First, I want to stay in the market - these are scary times, but very interesting ones. they form the core of futures stories that I will be boring people with in the coming years! I had a great experience at my last company and so I remain excited and energetic. Second, I am really new to this blogging thing, but I love it. I will carry on my other blog that relates to the securities lending industry, but this one will be wider ranging. I will write about my hunt for consulting work in the industry, but I won't feel limited by any artificial constraints. Maybe that will make it harder to get more readers - who knows? Time will tell.

Enjoy, and as always, feel free to send in comments, questions and suggestions.