When you are the most respected bank remaining in the United States, you tend to shy away from words like “egregious” when talking about your business. Actually, everyone who has made a mistake tends to shy away from the word. JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon did not falter from using it in describing their mistake as:
…one we put in the egregious category and I understand fully why you or anybody else will question us generally.
The firm is describing the losses as $2B that have occurred in the last 6 weeks. They are also comically calling the rogue program a “hedge“. The interesting part will be what happens going forward:
There is going to be a lot of volatility here and it could easily get worse this quarter – or better, but could easily get worse – and the next quarter we also think we have a lot of volatility.
This is blood in the water (street) and there will surely be sharks circling and trying to make the most of the predicament. Jamie Dimon profited from the explosion of amaranth and many others, maybe Ken Griffin will profit from Jamie Dimon’s stalwart JP Morgan.