In the wake of JPMorgan’s ill-conceived hedging strategy, which cost the bank its sterling reputation along with $2 billion and counting, Advanced Trading decided to highlight some of Wall Street’s worst bets ever.
May 21, 2012
2. Bruno Iksil, JPMorgan Chase
The recently-beached “London Whale” was best-known at JPMorgan Chase for taking overly aggressive positions that more often than not led to huge returns. The Wall Street Journal noted that last year his bets against struggling firms like American Airlines parent AMR Corp., or the now-bankrupt power company Dynegy Inc., scored a $450 million windfall for the bank. But his ill-conceived use of credit derivatives cost the firm $2 billion — and counting — in losses and just may have given market reform zealots the ammo they need to get the most aggressive interpretation possible of the Volcker Rule.
[How Exactly Did JPMorgan Pass a Fed Stress Test?]
