HSBC ejected a hedge fund trader it hired as an MD in 2017

In theory, hedge fund traders (presuming they're not just the execution type) are better than the traders who work for banks. According to this narrative, any hedge fund traders who return to banking are somehow doing banks a service and only coming back to avail themselves of the high salaries and superior visibility on trading flow that you get with banking jobs. Banks should be very pleased to have them. 

HSBC, however, hired itself a senior hedge fund trader in April 2017, and has just let him go again.

Greg Sadler joined HSBC as head of financials trading in April 2017.  It's now July 2019 and he's not in his seat.

Neither HSBC nor Sadler are saying anything about his departure (HSBC declined to comment), but it's thought that Sadler was put at risk as part of HSBCs programme of cuts. In other words, he hasn't categorically left the bank yet and may resurface doing something different, although this is a genuinely rare occurrence. 

Sadler joined HSBC from hedge fund CQS, where he spent nearly six years, and cultivated a reputation as a 'big risk taker.' Before CQS he spent a long time in banking at Barclays, Citi and Morgan Stanley. His next move is unclear. 

If Citi's results yesterday are anything to go by, then banks should have had an excellent second quarter in credit trading. However, eyebrows are being raised at the 43% year-on-year increase in Citi's Q2 'spread trading and other' revenues. "The jump in Credit trading might be down to Citi's $355m gain on their Tradeweb investment ," says one analyst, adding that this seems an odd place to include it, but would account for the strangely good quarter.

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