The seven traders at Chase Manhattan Bank's equity management unit in New York could be out of work soon under a reorganization plan for the bank's equity portfolios. Altogether, the reorganization puts 32 employees at risk.
Chase is combining its equity portfolios managed in New York with those run out of its Houston operation. New York oversees $10 billion in stocks while Houston manages $25 billion.
Terry Goodwin, who joined Chase as head of the desk in the spring of 1996, is among the group of seven traders who work on the New York desk. He is a 30-year trading veteran.
At Chase, his mandate was to restructure the desk, following the bank's merger with Chemical Bank. Before he started in his current post, Goodwin was head trader at UBS Asset Management.
Reassignments
A spokeswoman for Chase Global Asset Management and Mutual Funds, the umbrella organization for Chase Asset Management, says the company will make every effort to reassign the employees internally. One possibility is the Houston operation, which employs three traders. Chase said it wants to assign two more traders to the desk in Houston.
At press time, career plans by Goodwin and his colleagues were not available.
Buyside traders generally face a tough job market. Some pros with a stellar record are always in demand, of course. Goodwin's certainly stands out.
Still, Richard Baggott, a consultant at Executive Search Placements in Boulder, Colo. says the job market overall is not good for buy-side traders. "We haven't been getting many job orders for them," he said.
Despite the experience of Goodwin and his team, careers on the buyside are considered stable and attractive. For many traders, "it is always a tough job market because of that stability," said Sam Toy, a buy-side trader with New York's Fortis Advisers.
