Founders: One Bank, But Two Sales Stories

[W]e can't help but wonder if the only role these "strategists" have is to make it easier for the two banks' euphorically bullish trading desks to find sellers

[W]e can't help but wonder if the only role these "strategists" [JPM’s Kolanovic and MS’s Wilson] have is to make it easier for the two banks' euphorically bullish trading desks to find sellers

-ZeroHedge, 2023 (more below)

That much of this happens because the gov’t is too stupid to see the inherent conflict of interest in what a broker-dealer does…. Either you trade for yourself, or you trade for others. Period.

-VBL ZerhoHedge 2010 (rehosted)

COMMENT: SHIT NEVER CHANGES

As ZeroHedge notes in their comment above and as we implied in 2010, Bank strategists’ opinions face the general public— interviews, reports, stories, sell-side research etc. Meanwhile, Bank trading desk opinions (when they voice them at all) face only large institutional clients and their own inhouse traders. Frequently these are also at odds with each other for no good or explained reason

The ability to trade for your own account (principal) while handling customer orders (as agency) is permitted in the US stock market. Meanwhile this practice was prohibited in the commodity markets decades ago to remove the conflict of interest.

In equities that is called being a Broker-Dealer and is a legacy of banks negotiating/lobbying with inept regulators.