Goldman Sachs rehired a commodities trader from Citi, made him an MD after Citi didn't
When James Hamm, a London-based Goldman Sachs trader working on commodity index and base metals trading, decided to leave for Citi in 2017, he presumably thought it was a good idea. Citi had built out its metals trading business after acquiring Deutsche Bank's base metals trading book in 2014, and was growing its commodities business as rivals pulled back.
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After nearly seven and a half years at Citi, though, Hamm has retraced his steps. He's gone back to Goldman Sachs in London, but with a bigger job and a bigger title.
Hamm is now Goldman's head of base metals trading and a managing director (MD) in London. At Citi, he joined as a director and remained at that level.
Hamm's return to Goldman Sachs comes after the bank lost top commodities traders like Ed Emerson and Jeff Currie in recent years and seemingly suffered a 38% decline in commodities revenues year-on-year in 2023 based on unrealized mark to market losses. It also comes as banks like Deutsche Bank are getting back into the metals trading business after exiting it previously.
Citi's EMEA commodities trading business is run by Mbar Diop, who was promoted in 2021. The US bank's global metals trading business is run by veteran trader James Conway, based out of London. It's not clear why Hamm left Citi, but his failure to make managing director and bigger job at Goldman are probably not unrelated to his move. Citi promoted 40 markets MDs last year, but Hamm was not on the list. Citi declined to comment.
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