Updated
Updated · Financial Times · Jul 21
Former Colleagues Narrow Gary Stevenson’s Citi Claim to $35 Million G10 FX Profit in 2011
Updated
Updated · Financial Times · Jul 21

Former Colleagues Narrow Gary Stevenson’s Citi Claim to $35 Million G10 FX Profit in 2011

2 articles · Updated · Financial Times · Jul 21

Summary

  • $35 million in 2011 made Gary Stevenson Citi’s top G10 foreign-exchange trader for one year, two former colleagues told FT Alphaville, narrowing his broader claim that he was the bank’s most profitable trader worldwide.
  • Those colleagues said any ranking beyond developed-market FX was effectively unknowable because Citi did not appear to keep a bank-wide profitability league table, and one cast doubt on Stevenson’s claim that a confirming spreadsheet existed.
  • The clarification partly softens earlier pushback from ex-colleagues, some of whom had said Stevenson was not even the top earner on his own STIRT desk, but it still leaves his global No. 1 claim unsupported.
  • The dispute matters because Stevenson, now a YouTuber with 1.6 million subscribers and a campaigner for a 2% wealth tax on assets above £10 million, has used his Citi record to bolster his public authority on inequality.

Insights

Why do global banks lack a 'top trader' list, and what does this secrecy hide about their profits?
If a top trader's success is unprovable, can we trust his radical solutions for fixing the economy?