A top JPMorgan trader asked to move from London to Dubai. Some are moving the other way
If you're a trader and you're moving from London to the UAE, you are probably joining a hedge fund. Hedge funds have embraced the Emirates with enthusiasm. Even Jain Global is getting an office there.
Moving to the Emirates is less easy if you're at a bank. Banks are typically less willing to move staff internally to the oasis of low taxation. But it does happen.
It happened at JPMorgan, where we understand that Duncan Barclay, a top EuroStoxx trader in London wanted to move to Dubai. JPMorgan obliged and Barclay is thought to have arrived there recently. JPMorgan declined to comment on his relocation.
Barclay's migration follows that of various other London traders who've left banks for hedge funds in the Emirates ever since war in the Middle East broke out in February. Some, like Daniel Dangoor, who left Goldman Sachs in London for ExodusPoint in Dubai in June, have since left again.
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Yesterday, the British government updated its travel advice for the Middle East, to caution that, "The context in the Middle East remains deeply unpredictable and the risk of sudden escalation is high," and that, "British nationals in, or planning to travel through, the Middle East should be prepared for possible flight cancellations, airspace closures, and travel disruptions."
Finance professionals in the Middle East are nonetheless adamant that life there is better. "I lived in the UK for two decades and I loved it," one senior trader tells us. "But the taxes in the UK are too much. I'm not getting any younger and I don't have many years left in which to cash in."
Despite many such sentiments, some senior traders are choosing London over other locations. Citadel's London office, for example, recently hired David Caulfield, an equities portfolio manager from Millennium in Dubai. It also hired Raphael Magrath, who was last seen trading agricultural commodities for a fund in Rio de Janeiro.
One London salesperson told us he would never move to Dubai. "Whenever I visit clients in Dubai they are so desperate for you to visit them," he said. "You read between the lines – you can tell they're lonely. Some people love it, but I wouldn’t want to go two months at a time without seeing my wife and kids”
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