large banks

"Traders on Koch’s floor considered the rest of the world to be a herd, and not a particularly smart herd at that. There was an overwhelming amount of activity in the markets, but seemingly very little insight. When Koch cautiously branched into a new market, the traders were often surprised at how easy it was to make money there with just a little bit of forethought. “We couldn’t believe how the incumbent counterparties couldn’t see the enormous profits that existed in those markets. Even though these were very established markets . . . dominated by the large banks, or large incumbent parties, like insurance companies, et cetera. But they just looked at it fundamentally very different,” one trader said."

"Traders on Koch’s floor considered the rest of the world to be a herd, and not a particularly smart herd at that. There was an overwhelming amount of activity in the markets, but seemingly very little insight. When Koch cautiously branched into a new market, the traders were often surprised at how easy it was to make money there with just a little bit of forethought. “We couldn’t believe how the incumbent counterparties couldn’t see the enormous profits that existed in those markets. Even though these were very established markets . . . dominated by the large banks, or large incumbent parties, like insurance companies, et cetera. But they just looked at it fundamentally very different,” one trader said."