Morgan Stanley Trader Probed On Futures Manipulation

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Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)’s head of global interest rate products, Edward Glenn Hadden, is under investigation for trades in Treasury Futures he made four years ago. Regulators at the CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME) opened an investigation against Hadden for trades in treasury futures during his time at Goldman Sachs. The New York Times first published the news of the investigation.

Morgan Stanley Trader Probed On Futures Manipulation

Regulators in the CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME), who run commodity and future exchange, are probing whether Hadden’s purchase of treasury futures in the last hours manipulated the closing price in the market, which allowed him to make higher profits in other trades.

Hadden, who has a clean record and was considered as an exemplary on paper to operate the large bond trading in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), has been informed by the CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME) that there is an investigation initiated against him for the manipulation in treasury futures four years ago. Mr. Hadden is known to be the most profitable Bond trader on the Wall Street.

Mr. Hadden is considered to be the one of the most domineering and positively risk taking traders. He is one of the highest paid professionals at Morgan Stanley. It is something unusual that a professional of such credentials and stature faces a civil complaint of such nature. But, if charges are proven to be true, then Hadden could be penalized for millions and can even be barred from trading in the CME group.

Mr Hadden joined Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) in the year 1999, and in 2008 was given the title of Partner, and was also known as ‘Commercial Killers’ inside Goldman. This title in Goldman is given to executives who make enormous financial contributions to the organization. Some believe that Hadden made $10 million annually in his bets for years. Current and former colleagues said Mr. Hadden, who has been known to drink copious amounts of Gatorade at work, was almost “machinelike” when he traded. “He gets this look in his eye,” one former colleague said. “It is scary”.

It was after receiving complaints from Federal Reserve of New York; Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) took action and put Hadden on paid leave in the year 2009. The paid leave was extended endlessly, and in the year 2010 Hadden made an exit from Golman Sachs. Despite the complaint by Federal Reserve, Hadden was hired by Morgan Stanley as soon as he exited from Goldman sachs. The executives who hired him believed that Hadden has done nothing outside the law

“Wall Street is always looking for a proven moneymaker and has been known to look the other way on things in pursuit of that,” said Michael Driscoll, a former senior trader at the Wall Street firm Bear Stearns, who now teaches at Adelphi University.

According to the spokesperson of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), Hadden is still an employee with Morgan Stanley. He did not give any further information.

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