
Ex-Goldman Sachs Trader Says Bonus Cut to $8.25 Million Unfair - arch_stanton
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-18/ex-goldman-trader-says-bonus-cut-to-8-25-million-unfair.html
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smackfu
A messy situation. If you are giving bonuses related to how much money the
person makes for the company, but then docking them based on other factors,
there's a lot of room for abuse by the company. Every dollar you don't pay as
bonuses to this guy get paid to soemone else, right?

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confluence
As much as it sucks that GS lied about him getting a raise for making them a
bunch of money, he really should have gotten their promise in writing.

As any trader knows, words mean nothing. This isn't kindergarten.

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mhb
Traders don't know that at all. They often make deals solely on coming to a
non-written agreement. For example, trading in the pits.

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confluence
He wasn't a pit trader, and GS isn't a pit. If the guy can handle making a
couple of billion trading mortgages, I'm sure he can handle contracts 101.
Pits work entirely on trader to trader rep. Bonuses are discretionary
management items, and the rule is if you don't like their discretion, you jump
ship and stick it on base at Bank 2.

If you want a bonus guarantee, get it in writing, and stick it on base.

Otherwise, suck it up.

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bushido
_> He wasn't a pit trader, and GS isn't a pit._

Pit trading changed a lot in the late-90's. And moved to Level-2 systems in
office buildings with near real-time access to all ECNs giving a unforeseen
level of control and participation (yay tech!). As expected all proprietary
traders and everyone else called it the pit.

And sure, GS isn't a pit. But until late 2009 - early 2010 when they wound up
most of their proprietary trading business in response to Dodd-Frank they were
one of the mightiest pit traders, with multiple seats on every pit, this was
beyond their market makers and remote traders.

Their trading activity on CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) was legendary.
Some would say they had seats on the exchange, other may say they owned the
pit (figuratively).

But you're right that still doesn't make them a pit.

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johnpmayer
I understand that bonuses are supposed to be performance based compensation.
But if this guy is claiming that he's consistently performant and has a great
reputation, maybe that portion of his compensation should have been moved from
bonus to base. I can't blame him for leaving, but I also can't really
sympathize with him for thinking any portion of the bonus was guaranteed.

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user24
Is there a bigger picture that I am missing? Not sure why this is significant
beyond the sheer amount of money.

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didgeoridoo
This guy sounds fantastically unhappy. Welcome to the hedonic treadmill.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill)

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rayiner
Does he?

> Deeb Salem, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) trader who said he helped
> the bank earn more than $7 billion, wants to be paid the almost $5 million
> difference between his 2010 bonus and what _he told his mother to expect_.

Money is the glue that keeps these firms together. If I felt I was
legitimately owed this money, I'd pursue arbitration too. I'd rather buy my
mom an island somewhere than pad the pockets of Goldman's shareholders with my
money.

