When Richard Moore was leaving Citigroup after two decades at the bank, in roles including global head of foreign exchange, he told colleagues he was considering a career shift to professional poker player.

MF Global’s spectacular failure could have a knock-on effect on confidence in another mid-sized firm with ambitions to join the investment banking elite: Jefferies.

Central bankers seem to have had just about enough of Jamie Dimon’s spittle-flecked rants about the dangers of increased regulation. The JPMorgan chief executive lambasted Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke over the costs of regulation in a public debate in June, then followed up by arguing with Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney during the recent IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington. Dimon has also warned that some reforms are “anti-American”.

The run on Morgan Stanley’s stock and credit default swaps in the final days of September had alarming similarities to the collapse in confidence in the bank during 2008.

CDS spreads balloon as fears grow over potential flight of funds; Did US firm mis-time ramping up of risk in fixed income markets?

Warren Buffett’s stick-up of Bank of America in late August was a classic piece of opportunistic investment. The $5 billion deal marked an evolution in Buffett’s signature approach of renting his reputation to troubled financial companies in return for a near-extortionate fee. Rather than waiting for a firm such as Salomon or Goldman to come to him begging for protection, Buffett this time foisted a deal on Bank of America.

Bank of America’s acceptance of Warren Buffett’s extortionate investment terms represented at best as a gimmicky decision to pay for an endorsement and at worst a disregard for the bank’s existing shareholders

The collapse in fixed-income revenues at Goldman Sachs in the second quarter might accelerate the war of succession between rivals for the role of next chief executive.

Growing concern in the US that a Greek default could prove to be Europe’s equivalent of the Lehman Brothers collapse threatens to exacerbate trans-Atlantic tensions and spoil trading prospects for global investment banks.

JPMorgan did a fine job in downplaying the significance of its recent payment of $153.6 million to the SEC to settle accusations of fraud over a mortgage-backed CDO squared product from 2007. The SEC had alleged that JPMorgan was negligent in failing to disclose the role that hedge fund Magnetar played in selecting the mortgages in the synthetic CDO, then taking the short side of the credit derivatives trades used to create the portfolio.

The oil markets generate plenty of accusations about skulduggery, ranging from allegations of bribery surrounding production to speculation about suspicious developments in the timing of physical delivery of supplies. But these have been overshadowed recently by conspiracy theories surrounding trading of both precious and base metals.

A couple of extremely well-timed commodity price calls by analysts at Goldman Sachs helped to exacerbate the recent sharp volatility in the asset class and prompted gnashing of teeth at the bank’s rivals.

Strong first-quarter results at UBS might have come just in time to prevent the implosion of its bid to regain a spot at the top table of investment banking.

Goldman Sachs cut out trading completely in the first quarter – at least that’s what the language of its earnings filing indicates. The bank managed to avoid using the t-word at any point in its earnings announcement, although it mentioned clients 29 times and made 46 references to investment.

The strong first-quarter results at UBS might have come just in time to prevent the implosion of its bid to regain a spot at the top table of investment banking.

Goldman Sachs cut out trading completely in the first quarter – at least that’s what the language of its earnings filing indicates.

Morgan Stanley recently unwound credit hedges on monoline insurer MBIA at possibly a big loss. This could hit first-quarter results for the firm’s troubled fixed-income division and compound its reputation as disaster-prone, at least when it comes to credit trading.

The return of Bill Winters to the financial markets was something of a damp squib, at least to those who had come to view him as the once and future king of investment banking.

Has Barclays perfected the art of interest rate alchemy? It seems to think it might be close to mastery of the vagaries of interest rate curve management, judging by statements in its recently released annual report for 2010. Barclays said that interest rate hedges of product balances such as deposits had generated a gain of £1.403 billion ($2.28 billion) in 2010, while comparable hedges of group equity brought in £1.788 billion.

Goldman Sachs posted weak fourth-quarter results in January and released a code of revised business principles that threatened to slow its legendary speed in closing deals.

Recent insider-trading investigations in the US and the UK have focused on bit players by financial market standards. The three hedge funds raided in the US are low-profile firms. Don Chu, the expert network official charged with channelling confidential corporate information, was described in the case against him as a New Jersey resident paid $6,000 a month by his research firm employer – peanuts to a Wall Street player.

The widening insider-trading probe in the US is creeping closer to systemically important financial market players, as subpoenas have been received by hedge funds SAC and Citadel and two big mutual funds: Wellington Management and Janus Capital.

The proposition that if you build an investment banking franchise clients will come was severely tested in the third quarter. Sales and trading revenues were weak for most dealers, though with wide variance between big firms. Results were particularly poor for banks such as Morgan Stanley and UBS that had been rebuilding their investment banking franchises on the assumption that an aggressive push into flow business lines would result in increased client volumes.

The confirmation of disappointing third-quarter sales and trading revenues for most banks set the stage for a crucial fourth-quarter push by investment bankers – the push to maximize their own bonus payments.

Dismal trading volumes in the third quarter were punctuated by some chunky investment-grade bond issues and stock offerings that were a disappointment to investment banks in terms of fee generation.

As the high-yield debt markets converge further with leveraged loans, the model of a modern head of leveraged finance at a big house is a banker with a focus on lending, such as Andy O’Brien at JPMorgan or David Flannery at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. An Irish surname isn’t obligatory, but a reputation for hard work and patient application to client needs is, and flashy behaviour is not encouraged.

The trickle of proprietary dealers out of investment banks could become a flood in the coming months. This will provide a welcome diversification of sources of market risk-taking as traders end up at corporations and sovereign wealth funds, as well as the obvious destination of hedge funds. A broadening of the range of institutions actively trading across asset classes should help to offset a reduction in liquidity resulting from the death of the traditional bank prop desk.

The obvious port of call for a prop trader leaving a comfortable berth at a bank is a hedge fund. Another potential destination nowadays is a sovereign wealth fund. Most sovereign wealth funds are treading cautiously as they move towards making greater use of tradable markets but their sheer size means that their impact on liquidity could be significant, along with their potential contribution to bank revenues.

A serious second-quarter equity trading stumble by Goldman Sachs led to predictions that its investment banking dominance might be coming to an end as a new regulatory era dawns.

Students of internal politics at Goldman Sachs will be closely watching the career path of David Heller in the coming months. As the global co-head of securities with primary responsibility for equity trading, Heller might be expected to take the fall for a disastrous second-quarter performance in equity derivatives.