Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Strengthen Algo Trading Units With New Hires

Despite the summer months traditionally constituting slower hiring periods, both Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have bucked this trend, adding new personnel. This includes senior talent in the algorithmic (algo) trading segment, which has quickly emerged as one of the more important areas amongst banks.
Algo trading has been an important component for many banks in recent months, with the latest hires possibly portending a drying up of supply to meet a growing demand. In any scenario, banks have been quickly scooping up top-tier talent in the algo trading arena, with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan emerging as the latest players to do so, per a report from eFinancial Careers.
Algo trading driving new hires

As such, Goldman Sachs has brought in Tim Rohkemper from Credit Suisse to serve as its Vice President in the area, based out of London. Goldman Sachs has worked on fortifying its electronic and algorithmic trading capabilities following years of lagging behind in the algo trading space.
The appeal is obvious, given the propensity for high returns in what has been a rather troublesome period for banks. Mr. Rohkempter joins Goldman’s systematic trading strategies team following a period of two years in quantitative investment strategies at Credit Suisse.
By extension, JPMorgan has appointed Fabian Mehmke to a new senior role in algo trading, having joined from Deutsche Bank. In addition, he will also be serving this role out of London, following a stint of five years in Deutsche Bank.
It will remain to be seen whether there is a continued uptick in hires during the latter stages of summer or into fall. As banks look to continue to improve their profitability, a natural solution could be algo trading, which has indeed stood as one of the more lucrative segments.
For example, Barclays has already been investing in electronic trading, as well as hiring heavily from Credit Suisse, and managed to achieve a 30 percent year-on-year increase in its equities revenues during H1 2018.