Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Man Who Beat Iksil and JP Morgan (JPM)

From the New York Post:
The man who beached ‘Moby Iksil’
Call him Boaz.

A 38-year-old hotshot trader and chess master named Boaz Weinstein was the driving force behind the harpooning of the “London Whale,” hedge-fund industry sources told The Post.

Weinstein, who runs Saba Capital Management, helped shine light on the credit default swap index trade that blew a $2.3 billion hole in JPMorgan Chase’s balance sheet.

The JPMorgan position was amassed by a trader in the bank’s London office named Bruno Iksil — called the “London Whale” for the large positions he was accumulating in the Investment Grade Series 9 10-Year Index CDS.

Weinstein, a renowned CDS index arbitrageur who launched Saba in 2009, in early February recommended the index, which tracks a basket of US corporate bonds.

“They are very attractive” and can be bought at a “very good discount,” said Weinstein, a former Deutsche Bank proprietary trader, speaking at the Harbor Investment Conference on Feb. 2....MORE
HT: FT Alphaville