J.P. Morgan in London is expanding its propriety trading activity into correlation trading with two new hires from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. Carl Dou, director and correlation trader at DrKW, and Usman Naeem, associate on the same desk, are joining a new group to be headed by Rajeev Joshi, managing director in proprietary trading, according to Dou. Joshi declined comment.
J.P. Morgan already has a well-established proprietary trading book but Dou said a new group is being formed to trade correlation specifically. "Liquidity in the correlation market has increased tremendously over the past six months," said Dou.
At DrKW, Dou and Naeem reported to Greg Lieb, head of correlation trading. Lieb did not return calls by press time.