Dimon Says JPMorgan Trading Revenue on Pace for 20% Decline

(Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s trading revenue is on pace to drop about 20 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said.

Last year’s third quarter was “particularly good,” Dimon said Tuesday at an investor conference hosted by Barclays Plc in New York. Back then, the firm posted $5.7 billion of markets revenue, a 33 percent increase driven by fixed-income desks. The projected decline would be JPMorgan’s worst for the July-through-September period since 2011, and is bigger than the 15 percent drop Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. have forecast.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. co-President Harvey Schwartz didn’t put a number on his firm’s third-quarter trading performance. “It’s a pretty challenging environment for us” in fixed income and the period “felt a lot like the first and second quarter,” he said.

Dimon drew laughter from the conference audience by saying that he “couldn’t exactly understand what Goldman said” about its trading results. The CEO also said he’s considering putting an end to his quarterly guidance on trading revenue because he’s tired of the focus on short-term results.

“What happens this quarter isn’t related to the business you’re running,” he said. “So you try and have a good trade, make sure you’re on the right side of the market.”