There are increasingly loud whispers that a senior figure at one fairly big bank has done his cods again this year and has been told to stop trading. The buzz suggests that he has also been told he has to make all of his loss back next year before hell even get a sniff of a bonus, which seems a risky policy given his track record. The bank concerned wont comment but it is aware that the rumours exist.
Few people can ever hope to report a profit every single day unless of course theyre backed up by a dodgy model. Many prop traders work on different time horizons, so a loss one year might not be particularly relevant. However, the individual concerned in this example has left big black holes behind him at at least two banks that employed him and yet he still manages to resurface. From what I hear from people I trust, this is a sad indictment of the whole interviewing process and it also reflects pretty badly on compliance and regulation.