JPMorgan Chase Takes $2 Billion In Losses On 'Poorly Executed' Derivatives Bets

Wall Street Journal:

J.P. Morgan Chase JPM +0.25% & Co. has taken $2 billion in trading losses in the past six weeks and could face an additional $1 billion in second-quarter losses due to market volatility, Chief Executive James Dimon said Thursday in a hastily arranged conference call after the market closed.

The losses stemmed from derivatives bets gone wrong in the bank's Chief Investment Office, a part of the corporate branch of the bank that manages risk for the New York company. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that large bets being made in that office had roiled a sector of the debt markets.

Read the whole story at Wall Street Journal

Comments

[rdk70816]

10:19 PM on 05/11/2012

JP Morgan can take the loss, but the exposure of their reckless ways might do them and the rest of the world some good. A pox on the wheeler dealers and their favorite marionette.

[walstir]

12:52 PM on 05/11/2012

This $2 billion loss is not large relative to the size of JPMorgan. It represents:
6.25% of $32 billion earnings for the last two years
0.086% of $2.32 trillion of assets
2.22% of $190 billion shareholder equity