Some days you win, some you lose

Wall Street Journal is reporting that on 15 separate days last year, Citibank saw it traders lose over $100m but they also had gains of over $100m on 55 days.

In the context of Citibank profits, these days aren't individually catastrophic [Q107 - net income from Citibank capital markets was $2.62bn], but you can bet some traders experienced a few sweats.

Contrast that with Goldman Sachs, which according to the Alea blog

During the year ended in november 2007, Goldman Sachs Daily Trading Net Revenues were positive [ winner!], 212 days out of 264 or about 80% of the time.