A Deutsche Bank fixed income trader left to become a "crazy obscene" recruiter

Deutsche Bank has neither announced nor paid its bonuses yet, but they are supposed to be up by 10% when it happens. One trader there has not waited to discover the reality.

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Faiz Mitha, a self-described fixed income derivatives trader at Deutsche Bank, has left to become a business development manager at high frequency trading firm Jump Trading. 

Business development managers are not traders. Instead, they are recruiters for hedge funds and market making firms who, in the words of one senior banker a few years ago, often bid-up pay to "crazy, obscene" levels.

It's not clear whether this is Mitha's intention at Jump Trading, which employs around 270 people in the UK and pays them an average of nearly $800k each. However, it is not inconceivable that he will attempt to persuade his Deutsche Bank colleagues to join Jump when bonuses have been paid. 

Mitha's decision to stop trading after two years seems a shame, given that his LinkedIn profile suggests he spent a long time working up to the role. He says he began his career in product control and worked his way from being a business manager to being an actual trader over a 15-year period. 

He may, however, have been persuaded by some of the perks of the business developer life. Practitioners reportedly spend their time, "meeting for coffees, lunches, dinners, with any trader who will take their call." They're also paid more than standard recruiters, which is why Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley managing directors (MDs) become them.

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