The most important transition in my career was one I did not want to make. I was a bond trader in London and the only American on the dollar side, which meant that when anyone wanted to hear about the US bond market, I got the call. The bank was not doing as much bond business with the Middle East as it wanted. So they sent me to the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority and told me to put together an hour on US interest rates and the dollar. The logic was simple. The Gulf sold its oil in dollars, so the dollar was their market.
That was the first formal presentation I had ever given. The trip was a strange experience for me at the time. I was picked up at the airport, taken to the hotel, told not to leave the hotel, driven by car to the central bank, then back to the hotel and back to the airport. I gave the same talk in Kuwait, Bahrain and Dubai.
When I got back, the bond business at the bank started going up. They asked me to do those trips regularly and give up my job as a bond trader. I said no. I liked making markets in London, I liked being in London, and I liked the P&L. Running a book teaches you things that no note about markets ever will, and it made me a better bond investor. So they sent me down to the Middle East and Europe a few more times, and then they told me I was getting a promotion and becoming a strategist. I did not want that either.
What changed my mind was a small thing. They told me I could pick the guy who took my seat. That struck me as a good trade, so I picked him, and we have stayed friends ever since. That was the segue out of sell-side market making and into strategy, and it turned out to be the most important move I ever made.
