FORTUNE -- Is Dodd-Frank, the law that is supposed to make the banks less risky, actually to blame for JPMorgan's huge trading loss?
Earlier this year, Neil Chriss, who runs hedge fund Hutchin Hill, said in a Bloomberg interview that he was looking to profit by buying up positions that the large banks might be forced to exit because of Dodd-Frank banking reforms. It appears he found one. Hutchin Hill is one of the many hedge funds rumored to be making money on JPMorgan's $2 billion trading blunder.
Star hedge fund manager and chess master Boaz Weinstein, who ranked 17 on FORTUNE's 40 under 40 last year, appears to be on the other side of the JPMorgan trade as well. Back in February, he told a crowd at a charity event that his No. 1 investment idea was to buy 10-year credit default swaps on the CDX IG 9, which are the exact type of CDS contracts being sold by JPMorgan's London whale. He told the attendees at the conference that the CDS contract was "very attractive" and was trading at a discount.
VIDEO: Stop treating Dimon like a Rockstar
A spokesperson for Hutchin Hill and Weinstein's Saba Management declined to comment.
Wall Streeters who specialize in the CDS market say it appears that dozens of hedge funds have piled into the anti-JPMorgan trade. A number of the funds, including BlueMountain Capital and Lucidus Capital, are run by traders who formerly worked at JPMorgan. Perhaps that's not all that surprising. CDS contracts were basically created at JPMorgan more than a decade ago. So it makes sense that the traders with the most expertise in the market would come from the bank. But it's just another sign that many traders who are fleeing the big banks are coming back to haunt their old employers.
To be sure, much of the blame for the $2 billion trading loss should be heaped on JPMorgan and its flawed idea that you could make money and hedge at the same time. Nonetheless, it appears Dodd-Frank may be amplifying JPMorgan's losses. Dodd-Frank was supposed to move the risky business of Wall Street out of the really large banks that have federally insured deposits, and, oh yeah, an implied backing from the government, and into hedge funds. It was known that banks would lose money because they would have to close businesses they were no longer allowed to be in. But on top of that hedge funds appear to have figured out that there is money to be made by exploiting the transition and that money is coming out of the profits of the banks. JPMorgan is the first clear example of this, but expect to see more.
MORE: How JPMorgan made its $2B blunder
Without the law, JPMorgan probably would have been able to devote more resources to the trade. In fact, Dodd-Frank was reportedly one of the reasons some hedge funds got into the trade in the first place. They figured JPMorgan's position was so large that regulators under would eventually crack down on the bank and force it to sell its positions at a loss. It didn't exactly happen that way. The Volcker rule, which is suppose to limit risky trading at the banks, doesn't officially go into effect for another two years. Nonetheless, as more hedge funds rushed into the trade - buying the CDS contract that was being sold by JPMorgan, which was betting it would fall in value, that pressure instead caused the CDS contract to rise in value producing losses at JPMorgan.
If losses at JPMorgan and other banks are being created in part by Dodd-Frank, it certainly is an unintended consequence, but surprisingly it might not be a bad one. Regulators, for instance aren't going to be able to police every trade at a big bank to make sure it is not proprietary trading. But as the banks have mission creep away from pure hedging, the fact that the law allows hedge funds to be more nimble and deliver a smackdown to banks that get out of line is a good thing. True market regulation. That is as long as the losses suffered by the banks, as is the case in this instance with JPMorgan's $2 billion hit, are not big enough to cause a bank to fail.
MORE: Charlotte after the bank crisis: Doing just fine
But unlike say John Paulson's bet against housing, or Soros against the pound, this trade is unlikely to produce a huge haul. BlueCrest Capital, another hedge fund firm that is reportedly making money taking the opposite trade of JPMorgan, has a closed end mutual fund that anyone can buy into. The fund, BlueCrest AllBlue, which is traded on the London Stock Exchange, has about a third of its funds in the BlueCrest hedge fund that has the anti-JPMorgan trade on. But anyone that has bought into the fund hoping to make a big haul on JPMorgan's misfortune has so far been mostly disappointed. The closed-end fund's net asset value is up just 1.2% since JPMorgan disclosed the news of its trading losses last week. Not a whale of a trade.
Preparing to host the Democratic convention, the nation's other financial hub looks beyond its wounded institutions.
By Ken Otterbourg, contributor
FORTUNE -- Charlotte is a corporate town. Counting its suburbs, it's still home to eight Fortune 500 companies, thank you very much. It's still very much the country's other banking center. But to make sense of what's happened here in the past four years -- the bust, the bottom, and what MORE
May 15, 2012 5:00 AM ET
Sure, blame JP Morgan's traders. But don't forget what motivated them to take on extra risk -- the Federal Reserve's low interest rate policy has left banks scrambling to make up for lost income on loans.
By Cyrus Sanati
FORTUNE -- Who is to blame for JP Morgan's growing multi-billion dollar trading loss? While it is easy to just fire and demonize the traders and managers who executed the trades, as MORE
May 14, 2012 10:52 AM ETThe bank's bad bet could curtail profits for years to come.
Update May 13, 11:00 PM
FORTUNE -- For years, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), perhaps the riskiest bank in the world, got a pass. Sure there were minor hiccups along the way. But basically investors had the attitude with the bank run by Jamie Dimon that they were going to be hands off. Sub-prime mortgage loans: You've proved you can handle them. Foreclosure MORE
Stephen Gandel, senior editor - May 11, 2012 2:02 PM ET
Bash JPMorgan all you like, and feel free to snicker at the spectacle of Jamie Dimon losing his swagger. But don't confuse Morgan's mess-up with the supposed need for the Volcker Rule. By Allan Sloan
Allan Sloan, senior editor-at-large - May 11, 2012 1:13 PM ET
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon strenuously denied that a trader's positions may have been problematic before he had investigated it. His bravado backfired.
By Roger Ehrenberg, contributor
FORTUNE -- With the web afire with criticism over JP Morgan's recently announced (and unexpected) $2 billion trading loss, a few "life lessons" came to mind as to how Jamie Dimon - and his PR department - bungled this badly:
Know the facts before taking a MORE
May 11, 2012 11:29 AM ET
The U.S. government is sill unloading its huge stake in AIG. But why must it offer discounts?
FORTUNE -- On the surface, it seemed like highway robbery: The U.S. Treasury sold off almost $6 billion worth of AIG shares yesterday at $30.50 each -- a whopping 7% discount to AIG's stock price before the weekend.
By day's end, the stock had climbed right back up. After shares dipped to the offering price Monday morning, they traded MORE
Scott Cendrowski, writer-reporter - May 8, 2012 12:05 PM ET
Former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill, who pushed to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act, is among those blamed for the financial crisis. Today Weill says it's time to stop blaming and instead focus on the future.
FORTUNE – After a long career on Wall Street, Citigroup's former CEO and chairman Sandy Weill is trying to put the near collapse of the bank behind him. In recent years, Weill has been focusing most, if MORE
Nin-Hai Tseng, Writer - May 7, 2012 11:37 AM ET
Tech banker leaves BofA.
FORTUNE -- Johnny Williams has stepped down as a managing director of equity capital markets with Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC), where he co-led the firm's technology, media and cleantech practice, Fortune has learned.
Williams had been based out of Palo Alto, originally joining Merrill Lynch's San Francisco office in 2003 to led its institutional equities specialty sales (tech) effort. It sounds like he's planning to take MORE
Dan Primack - May 4, 2012 10:09 AM ET
* Joseph Stiglitz: Politics is at the root of the problem
* Layoff recipe: Too many bankers chasing too few deals
* Pre-IPO comparison: Google was stronger than Facebook
* Virtual goodies: Will the IRS crack down on online gamers?
* Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, European shares rebound and the Nikkei falls.
* Norman Matloff: Coding is for the young
* In memoriam: George Rathman, founding CEO of Amgen
* They're ba-ack: 'Cov-light' deals return to U.S. loan MORE
Dan Primack - Apr 24, 2012 6:59 AM ETEvery morning, discover the companies, deals and trends in tech that are moving markets and making headlines. SUBSCRIBE
Receive Fortune's newsletter on all the deals that matter, from Wall Street to Sand Hill Road. SUBSCRIBE
Covering the digital giants of Silicon Valley and beyond, an in-depth look at enterprise companies, and the startups disrupting them. Emailed twice weekly. SUBSCRIBE
Anne Fisher answers career-related questions and offers helpful advice for business professionals. SUBSCRIBE
| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 6.90 | -0.08 | -1.14% |
| Dell Inc | 12.37 | -2.71 | -17.97% |
| Ford Motor Co | 10.26 | 0.07 | 0.69% |
| Intel Corp | 25.15 | -0.88 | -3.38% |
| Microsoft Corp | 28.85 | -0.91 | -3.06% |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,370.48 | -132.33 | -1.06% |
| Nasdaq | 2,816.81 | -22.27 | -0.78% |
| S&P 500 | 1,304.07 | -12.56 | -0.95% |
| Treasuries | 1.72 | -0.08 | -4.29% |
| Investors sue Facebook, Morgan Stanley | ||
| Lawmakers looking at Facebook IPO deal | ||
| HP prepares to announce mass layoffs | ||
| Tech sell-off, Greece worries hit stocks | ||
| Facebook stock finally posts gains |