In April and May 2012, large trading losses occurred at JPMorgan's Chief Investment Office, based on transactions booked through its London branch. The unit was run by Chief Investment Officer Ina Drew, who has since stepped down. A series of derivative transactions involving credit default swaps (CDS) were entered, reportedly as part of the bank's "hedging" strategy.[1] Trader Bruno Iksil, nicknamed the London Whale, accumulated outsized CDS positions in the market. An estimated trading loss of $2 billion was announced, with the actual loss expected to be substantially larger. These events gave rise to a number of investigations to examine the firm's risk management systems and internal controls. In February 2012, hedge fund insiders such as Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital Management[2][3] became aware that the market in credit default swaps was possibly being affected by aggressive trading activities. The source of the unusual activity turned out to be Bruno Iksil, a trader for JPMorgan Chase & Co. Heavy opposing bets to his positions had been made by traders, including another branch of JPMorgan, who purchased the derivatives that JPMorgan was selling in such high volume.[4][5] Early reports were denied and played down by the firm in an attempt to minimize exposure.[6] Major losses of $2 billion were reported by the firm in May 2012 in relation to these trades. On July 13, 2012, the total loss was updated to $5.8 billion with the addition of a $4.4 billion loss in the second quarter and subsequent recalculation of a loss of $1.4 billion for the first quarter. A spokesman for the firm claimed that projected total losses could be more than $7 billion.[7] The disclosure, which resulted in headlines in the media, did not disclose the exact nature of the trading involved, which remained in progress as of May 16, 2012 as JPMorgan's losses mounted and other traders sought to profit or avoid losses resulting from JPMorgan's positions.[8][9] As of June 28, 2012, JPMorgan's positions were continuing to produce losses which could total as much as $9 billion under worst-case scenarios.[10] The trades were possibly related to CDX IG 9, a credit default swap index based on the default risk of major U.S. corporations[11][12] that has been described as a "derivative of a derivative".[13][14] On the company's emergency conference call, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the strategy was "flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed, and poorly monitored".[15] The episode is being investigated by the Federal Reserve, the SEC, and the FBI.[16] On February 2, 2012, at the Harbor Investment Conference, speaking to an audience of investors, Boaz Weinstein recommended buying the Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Series 9 10-Year Index, CDX IG 9.[17] This is a derivative that measures the spread (difference in interest rates) between the interest rates of investment-grade worthy companies and the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). This was a derivative which Weinstein had noticed to be losing value in a manner and to a degree which seemed to diverge from market expectations. It turned out that JPMorgan was shorting the index by making huge trades.[18] [19] JPMorgan's bet was that credit markets would strengthen; the index is based on 121 investment grade bonds issued by North American corporations.[17] Investors who followed Weinstein's tip did poorly during the early months of 2012 as JPMorgan strongly supported its position. However by May after investors became concerned about the implications of the European financial crisis the situation reversed and JPMorgan suffered large losses. In addition to Weinstein's Saba Capital Management, Blue Mountain Capital, BlueCrest Capital, Lucidus Capital Partners, CQS, III, and Hutchin Hill[20] are hedge funds which are known to have benefited from taking the other side of the trade to JPMorgan.[2] A separate unit of JPMorgan was also on the winning side. The $2 billion loss came from three positions which partially offset each other. It occurred when the world's financial markets were in relative calm. Had quality spread curves twisted or worldwide economic distress been more pronounced the loss could have been much higher. The Financial Times "Alphaville" analysis suggests that these positions were not volatile enough to account for the full losses reported.[21] They suggest that other positions are likely involved as well. The internal investigation concluded in July 2012. It involved more than 1,000 people across the firm and outside law firm WilmerHale. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_JPMorgan_Chase_trading_loss Image By Steve Jurvetson (Flickr: Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

• published: 17 Jun 2014
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