As we reported last week, Rupam Yadav, a newish partner in the Goldman Sachs Electronic Trading Division (GSET), decided that Goldman’s $950k partner salary, partner bonus pool and profit share incentives, weren’t worth sticking around for. Yadav quit Goldman less than two years after being promoted. He’s joining Citadel instead.
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Following Yadav’s exit, it’s become apparent that he’s not the only senior person to have left GSET in the past year. At least five other senior and mid-ranking people have gone.
They include: Jeremy Diamond and Anthony La Salle, a vice president (VP) and director in electronic trading sales respectively, who went to Barclays last summer; Keith Casuccio, a managing director who went to Virtu last June; John Cosenza, Goldman’s former head of America’s electronic trading, who left last September, and Julie Nocerino, a VP who left to do something different this April. All were based in New York. “People have been leaving GSET in flocks over the last year or two,” says one source.
Goldman Sachs declined to comment on the exits, but it’s understood they’re only a small proportion of the overall GSET team and that additional staff have been moved internally to fill any gaps.
Insiders at Goldman says the exits mostly took place last year and were a result of the poor 2022 bonus round. Morale is understood to have recovered after Goldman bonuses improved for 2023. “They acknowledged that the previous year was tough and responded appropriately,” says one former member of the team.
Even so, the exits are a reminder that all banks – including Goldman – need to pay their electronic trading professionals well if they want to keep them. It’s not only rival banks and hedge funds that aspire to poach them, but electronic trading firms like Citadel Securities and Jane Street.
“As the market becomes more digital, there are a lot of opportunities for people with electronic trading backgrounds,” says the Goldman insider. “That makes it challenging for banks during difficult comp cycles. Everyone’s personal situation is unique, but when there’s high market demand for electronic trading skillsets, people are more likely to look elsewhere.”
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