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The Gooch Life

How mickey gooch followed visions of sports cars and high living from humble roots to outrageous fortune as the premier middleman in wall street’s hottest market..

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In Friday, March 31, about 30 of the world’s biggest and most expensive sailing yachts gathered off the coast of Saint Barth’s, an island playground for the rich and famous in the southeastern Caribbean, to compete in the annual St. Barth’s Bucket Regatta. By the end of the three-day event, which featured a surprise appearance by News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch’s 184-foot Perini ketch and was taken in by such landlubbing luminaries as TV host David Letterman and actress Uma Thurman, first place had been taken by an owner virtually unknown to the A-list crowd: Mickey Gooch.

Mickey who?

The founder and chief executive of GFI Group, a New York fixed-income and derivatives brokerage, Michael Gooch became captivated by the race when he spent his 20th wedding anniversary in Saint Barth’s two years ago. In November 2005 he plunked down a reported $13 million for the Antara, a 151-foot Perini ketch that boasts a generous dining area and four staterooms. A few months later he was back in the island paradise, helping sail the giant vessel to victory.

“Our success was entirely down to the crew, the captain and to our strategist,” says Gooch modestly.

His unlikely ascent in the yachting world is nothing new. The 47-year-old has made a highly lucrative career as an outsider finding his way into other rarefied arenas — sophisticated financial markets. Since founding GFI with just four employees in 1987, Gooch has built the firm into the dominant interdealer broker of Wall Street’s hottest product: credit derivatives. These instruments allow investors to buy protection against the risk of corporations defaulting on bonds and loans. Today the notional value of outstanding credit derivatives is more than $17 trillion, up from virtually nothing in the late 1990s, according to the International Derivatives and Swaps Association. GFI executes trades between big securities dealers like Goldman Sachs Group and Deutsche Bank — which, because they are such fierce competitors, often prefer to trade with a neutral party like GFI, which does not pursue the same customers, rather than directly with one another.

GFI today has more than 1,200 employees who act as middlemen for 150 different products — ranging from government bonds and currency options to commodities and property derivatives — from offices in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney and Englewood, New Jersey. It competes primarily with rival interdealer brokers ICAP, TullettPrebon, Creditex Group, Tradition Financial Services and BGC Partners (formerly known as Cantor Fitzgerald) but also operates an equity division that brokers stock and equity derivatives transactions directly for hedge funds and other institutional investors. (There is no interdealer market for these products.)

But GFI’s biggest claim to fame — and fortune — is its leading position in credit derivatives. Gooch was early to carve out a niche as a broker of these instruments, and today his firm handles 40 percent of interdealer trades in the booming market, far outshining London-based ICAP, which has a 30 percent share, as well as smaller rivals Creditex and TullettPrebon. And as the market for credit derivatives has mushroomed, so too have GFI’s finances. During the six years through 2005, revenues grew at a rate of more than 80 percent per year, to $587 million. In January 2005 the firm went public on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Since then its market capitalization has doubled, to $1.5 billion.

Born to a family of modest means in the suburbs east of London, Gooch got a job out of high school at an accounting firm, determined to follow in the footsteps of two uncles by studying to be a chartered accountant. Then he made friends with some currency brokers at the local pub. Just 18, Gooch couldn’t help but notice on his way to work every morning that one of his new mates was parking a shiny E-Type Jaguar at the train station before heading into the City of London.

“The lifestyle appealed,” recalls Gooch. “Relative to accountants, brokers made more money.”

In 1978, Gooch applied to Tullett & Riley Co., a prominent foreign exchange broker and predecessor to modern-day GFI rival TullettPrebon. In just a few months, he advanced from trainee to head of his own desk and was dispatched to expand Tullett’s business in New York. Within a decade Gooch established himself as one of the industry’s most plugged-in currency brokers, one who constantly sought out new, inefficient markets in which to profit by matching up buyers and sellers.

Since then he has refused to sit still. Shortly after he founded GFI, the firm became the first American interdealer broker to trade options on U.S. government bonds and mortgage-backed securities. It expanded rapidly, first to London, then to the booming over-the-counter derivatives markets. Apart from being early into credit derivatives, Gooch has distinguished his firm from competitors by investing heavily in technology but not relying completely upon it. GFI was among the first to offer clients sophisticated, electronic analytics to help with trading strategies while making sure to recruit and retain the savviest brokers, who can help customers execute tricky trades in illiquid markets.

“Mickey is unique,” says Christopher Pike, a partner at Boston private equity firm Advent International Corp., which bought a minority stake in GFI in 2002. “Most entrepreneurs could not take a business as far as Mickey has taken GFI. He has real vision.”

Along the way, Gooch has become an extraordinarily rich man, even by Wall Street standards. In 2005 he earned a relatively modest $1.5 million in salary, bonus and restricted stock. But his 47 percent stake in GFI is valued at a whopping $700 million. (Since January he has sold shares worth $128 million.) In addition to the Antara, he has a fleet of sports cars — including a 1965 Shelby Cobra (he briefly owned a Jaguar XJ8) — and a sprawling estate on the Navesink River in tony Rumson, New Jersey. In 2004 he and wife Diane bought the local weekly newspaper, the Two River Times, from tabloid television personality Geraldo Rivera. Diane is the publisher. The conservative-leaning Gooch writes a weekly column, “Beside the Point,” in which he weighs in on local issues while sharing liberally the details of his day-to-day life. (One recent column announced that he had embarked on a fitness program after reaching his all-time high body weight; in another Gooch reveled in patriotism upon celebrating his first Independence Day after becoming a U.S. citizen in November; for excerpts, see opposite page.)

But Gooch will need to stay focused on business to keep his spectacular run going. As the credit derivatives market grows, it is becoming more efficient and competitive, and in time, that could squeeze the profits of middlemen like GFI. Already the firm has slashed commissions for credit derivative index trades, which currently account for about 20 percent of the market and constitute its fastest-growing segment. It is also offering automated execution of index trades, but encountering stiff competition from both ICAP and New York–based Creditex, which last month strengthened its position globally by acquiring London rival CreditTrade. Another threat comes from derivatives exchanges, such as Frankfurt-based Eurex and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which boasts a $16 billion market capitalization — more than ten times that of GFI.

“The market has become more competitive,” says Citigroup equity analyst Donald Fandetti, “and it will continue in that direction.”

Gooch believes that demand for credit derivatives will keep growing among hedge funds and other money managers, fueling his customers’ trading activity for years to come. But he’s also preparing for a world in which more trades will be executed electronically. And he continues to extend GFI’s growth frontier by hiring brokers to arrange trades in still-more-esoteric and fast-growing trading markets, such as dry freight and carbon emissions.

Gooch has long been in a hurry to succeed. When he interviewed with Tullett & Riley in 1978, he noticed that firm founder Derek Tullett appeared most interested in the fact that he had attended Westcliff High School for Boys, which, unusually for a state school, has squash courts. A squash enthusiast, Tullett believed that the skills inherent in one-on-one competition prepared young men well for the cut and thrust of brokerage. Gooch faked his way through the squash talk and didn’t let on until he’d proved himself at the firm that he wasn’t much of a player.

“He had tremendous self-confidence and was also extremely charming,” recalls Tullett, now retired.

Gooch also benefited from good luck. As a trainee he was assigned to a desk that traded forward contracts on French francs, a sleepy backwater that saw little business; others in his class got seemingly plum assignments on the firm’s busiest desks. These young men spent their days recording trades on clipboards and fetching coffee and sandwiches for brokers. Gooch, on the other hand, had plenty of time to learn about the markets and how to serve customers.

“I got a really good grounding on how foreign exchange worked while the other poor guy was making the coffees,” he recalls.

In mock-brokerage sessions held for trainees after hours, Gooch quickly stood out. Within weeks he moved to the prestigious forward sterling desk alongside Tullett. After a few more months, Tullett sent him to New York to set up a Canadian currency desk. It was a good time to be a forex broker: In 1979 the Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve lifted restrictions on currency trading by banks, sending volume surging.

In 1981, Gooch decided to try his hand at foreign exchange trading, joining Citibank in Canada. He quickly discovered that his skills lay elsewhere — he was too inexperienced in the markets and lacked the macro views that trading demanded, he says. He decided to return to the brokerage business, but Tullett & Riley had a policy of not rehiring departed brokers, so in 1982 Gooch returned to New York with competing British brokerage Harlow Meyer Savage.

Constantly looking for the next hot market, Gooch bought a seat that year on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, which had just started trading in currency options. Harlow Meyer wouldn’t start an interdealer brokerage desk in the instruments, so Gooch left for a firm that would: Bierbaum Group. His desk took off, but the firm soon completed a tumultuous merger with competitor R.P. Martin. Frustrated by the internal turmoil, Gooch moved to Refco Group in New York, where he worked on a U.S. government bond option desk.

Even as he hopped from firm to firm, Gooch solidified his reputation with clients as a standout broker. In the 1980s interdealer brokerage was a rough-and-tumble business. Many brokers lacked college educations and won business by lavishing clients with sports tickets and expensive meals rather than market know-how. Gooch had an uncanny knack for the markets — for who owned what, how clients liked to trade and where prices were going.

“Mickey had charm, wit and intelligence,” says Geoffrey Kalish, who traded currencies and debt for Drexel Burnham Lambert at the time and is now a venture capitalist and a GFI director. “There was a difference with the guy.”

In 1986 two traders on Gooch’s desk suffered big losses on a $30 million deutsche mark position. Phillip Bennett, the ex-Refco CEO now awaiting trial on securities fraud charges (he has pleaded innocent), then oversaw the desk. He decided to close it down. Gooch, who had been considering starting his own firm for quite some time, decided to pull the trigger. Bennett not only gave Gooch his blessing, he also made him whole for his year-end bonus.

Just 28 and already a veteran of five firms, Gooch started GFI as a tiny interdealer broker of U.S. Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities. Almost immediately, he learned a lesson that would color his strategy for years to come: Offering clients computerized market data and analytics is critical, but controlling that data yourself is even more important.

In its early days GFI used the Telerate system to send bond prices to clients. But Telerate’s parent company, rival interdealer broker Cantor Fitzgerald, subsequently invoked its exclusive rights to distribute government bond data over the system, essentially kicking GFI off the network. Gooch hired a programmer and spent $2 million developing GFI’s own price-distribution platform. The investment was huge for a start-up, but it paid off. GFI soon began using the system to post prices for non-U.S. stocks and American depositary receipts and built a growing business in those markets. In 1988 it opened a London office and added U.K. bond option and repurchase agreement prices.

“In some respects Cantor hurt themselves by pushing us off Telerate,” says Gooch. “They forced us to invest in technology that actually helped us grow the business.”

During the next decade, as financial institutions and corporations began flocking to the over-the-counter derivatives market to manage interest rate and foreign exchange risks, GFI saw a huge opportunity. Instead of focusing on the biggest, most commoditized products, such as interest rate swaps, Gooch chose to steal a march on rivals such as Cantor and Tullett by plunging into more complex niches, including, most significantly, credit derivatives.

“Mickey was determined to get into a product at an early stage,” says Donald Fewer, GFI’s CEO of the Americas, who joined the firm from New York brokerage Garvin Guy Butler Corp. in 1996 to establish a credit derivatives desk.

Banks first developed credit derivatives in the early 1990s to hedge their loan portfolios. The most common type is a credit default swap, or CDS, a contract that pays the buyer if a company defaults on its debt. By the late 1990s investors began using the swaps to hedge their own positions and to speculate. Hedge funds have been especially voracious in their appetites for the instruments. GFI reaped the benefits of being a pioneer in CDS brokerage, reaching $100 million in revenues by 1999.

Gooch was quick to invest in technology. In 1998, with the Telerate standoff still fresh in his mind, he directed GFI to create a real-time derivatives pricing platform. A year later he founded GFInet, a subsidiary that offered voice-assisted and electronic brokerage for foreign exchange, energy and telecommunications derivatives. In May 2000, just as the dot-com bubble was bursting, GFInet raised $27 million from venture capital firms, including Kalish’s Venturion Capital. But Gooch merged the money-losing venture into GFI in 2001 when it couldn’t attract more financing.

In June 2002, Gooch wanted to raise capital to expand into new markets and diversify his firm’s business. He sold 7.9 percent of GFI to buyout firm Advent for $34 million. In 2003, Gooch and Fewer decided to build an equities business, in part to diversify the firm’s revenues. Seeking an edge in a low-margin business dominated by a handful of giant brokers, the firm focused on the convergence between debt and equities, which banks and hedge funds were beginning to explore. A new breed of traders was making bets on pricing disparities between companies’ debt and equity securities, as well as derivatives based on both — a discipline called capital structure arbitrage. GFI hired brokers with experience in both markets and provided sophisticated analytical tools to these clients.

GFI last year pulled in $116 million — 22 percent of total revenues — from equity transactions. That was up from $69 million in 2003. But 41 percent of revenues still come from credit products. (The remainder is from interest rate swaps, currencies, commodities and other products.) Opportunities in that portion of the business have been plentiful: The credit derivatives market nearly quintupled in size between 2003 and 2005, fueled by a string of postbubble bankruptcies and defaults at companies such as Enron Corp. and WorldCom.

But as the market matures, trading is becoming more efficient and competition is sharper, with newcomers offering innovative technology that threatens to marginalize the role of traditional brokerage — or at least make it less profitable. Creditex, for example, operates an online quoting and execution platform, backed by voice brokers, for credit default swaps. In 2004, Creditex began executing big index-contract trades for just $500 per side, forcing GFI to cut its rates for similar trades from $2,500 per side. Creditex, the leader in electronic credit derivatives trading in Europe, has become a more formidable competitor by merging with CreditTrade, which has a small but strong presence in voice trading in New York.

“The merger positions us to have an effective hybrid strategy and to provide the best execution and processing services in the market,” says Mazy Dar, head of strategy and electronic platforms at Creditex.

ICAP, which briefly charged nothing for index trades on its BrokerTec platform in early 2005, also appears to be gaining ground, particularly in so-called structured credit default swaps, which are more complex than contracts that offer protection against a single company going belly-up. “There’s no question we are gaining market share in credit derivatives,” says ICAP executive director Steven McDermott, who estimates that his firm controls close to a quarter of the market for structured trades, up from zero one year ago (independent figures are unavailable).

Another innovator is IDX Capital, an interdealer brokerage founded in December by ex–J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. executive James Mirenda. IDX’s unique “aggressor-only” pricing model charges a commission only to the party that initiates the trade, a policy that it says halves transaction costs.

Though Gooch recognizes that once-esoteric products can become commoditized, he believes that GFI has critical advantages over these upstarts: Its extensive customer relationships mean it is far more likely to provide liquidity for clients, especially on the toughest trades, and it has invested heavily in analytics to support customers.

But he’s also hedging his bets with an electronic CDS trading platform called CreditMatch. Banks can use it to trade entirely on-screen but can also call brokers for assistance with big, complex trades. GFI charges a lower commission rate for electronic trades. But, notes Gooch, the volume of broker-assisted trades has continued to rise since GFI began rolling out the system in September 2004.

Another potential threat is from exchanges. The CME, which has seen its shares soar by 1,250 percent since its December 2002 IPO, thanks largely to an increase in electronic trading, has said it is interested in listing credit derivatives. So has Eurex, the derivatives arm of German exchange group Deutsche Börse. But the prospect of exchanges replacing interdealer brokers as a place for banks and Wall Street firms to lay off risk is more remote than the threat posed by other interdealer brokers. That’s because over-the-counter derivatives are highly customized, with many sets of variable terms that would be difficult for an exchange to standardize for the purpose of listing. (The CME did, however, buy electronic interest rate swap platform Swapstream, for $15 million, in July.)

“Even among the most standardized contracts there are many forms of customization,” says Harrell Smith, manager of research firm Celent’s securities and investments practice. Adds GFI North America chief Fewer, “What exchanges tend to undervalue in the OTC market is the flexibility of term structures and expiration periods.”

GFI must also worry about a potential meltdown in the CDS market. Wall Street and regulatory officials have grown worried over the past few years that trades are occurring too fast for firms to process, causing unconfirmed trades to pile up at an alarming rate. That could leave market participants exposed to changes in their trading partners’ creditworthiness that occur between the execution and confirmation of trades. A group of risk executives at major firms, led by Goldman managing director E. Gerald Corrigan, recommended last fall that the industry automate the processing of transactions. (In a report last month, the ISDA and a group of major brokerages said that the backlog of unconfirmed trades had since been reduced by 80 percent.) And the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., which clears all U.S. stock trades, is working on creating a single clearing mechanism for CDSs. That, incidentally, could also make it easier for exchanges to list the instruments.

Gooch dismisses talk of any impending crisis, noting that the vast majority of GFI’s transactions are executed as an agent for its customers, meaning that two sides are matched up without GFI putting its capital at risk. He also believes that if a clearing system is created and derivative trades are fully automated, it will ultimately be a major boost to GFI.

“The credit derivatives market could be ten times the size it is today,” he says. Centralized clearing would make it easier for banks to handle greater volumes, while fostering the creation of new products that play off the differences between listed and unlisted derivatives, which a middleman could surely exploit.

Despite his optimism, Gooch continues to look for unexplored markets. He believes that derivatives on asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities will be ripe for interdealer brokerage as they continue to grow. Another candidate is collateralized debt obligations, essentially packages of bonds that are resold to investors, which are also expanding rapidly and close to breaching $1 trillion in outstanding value, according to J.P. Morgan researcher Christopher Flanagan. In the past year Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse have begun trading a derivative product that references leveraged loans, the cash market for which exceeds $500 billion, according to Loan Pricing Corp.

Then there are markets that have nothing to do with corporate capital. In September, GFI bought 30-person, Englewood, New Jersey–based oil broker Starsupply Petroleum for $15.1 million. In January the firm hired 50 former Refco staffers to open a Paris office that will offer financial futures, equity derivatives and cash equities brokerage. And in March, GFI brought on four brokers in London from ship broker Galbraith’s to start a dry-freight brokerage desk that will allow ship owners to manage future shipping costs. Since 2003, GFI has grown from 397 brokers and 668 employees to 808 brokers and 1,200 total staff.

“The value of having a highly qualified broker,” says the CEO, “cannot be overestimated.” Nor, some might say, can Mickey Gooch.

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GFI chief loses control of his destiny but ends up $285m richer

Mickey gooch set up gfi from scratch, article bookmarked.

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An Essex-born City trader has lost his battle to keep control of the broking giant he created in the swashbuckling 1980s, but he was able to console himself yesterday with a deal netting him and his family $285m (£185m).

Mickey Gooch set up GFI from scratch, building a firm trading foreign exchange, bonds and other assets in London and New York. Last year, the company arranged a sale to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Mr Gooch and his fellow executives agreed with the exchange that they would buy out the wholesale and telephone broking divisions, leaving the CME with GFI’s two successful electronic trading platforms.

However, his arch-rivals at another broking firm, BGC, swooped with a higher offer. Mr Gooch made an impassioned plea to his shareholders to reject it and accept the lower offer; he even cited the fact that his ex-wife – who had 15 million shares in the company – was backing him.

But Mr Gooch’s shareholders voted against the lower offer, and yesterday GFI agreed to accept the $778m bid from BGC.

As part of the deal, Mr Gooch’s business will retain its brand under the BGC umbrella, while he and his chief executive Colin Heffron are expected to stay on as directors of a GFI sub-board.

His ex-wife Diane’s shares are valued in the deal at over $90m – which is $10m more than she would have got from Mr Gooch’s preferred deal with the CME.

The new entity will combine two of the biggest inter-dealer brokers in London, where GFI alone had 530 staff, including 360 traders.

Mr Gooch first became interested in the sharp-elbowed foreign exchange trading world while chatting to a group of currency dealers in his local pub in the 1970s. Soon after, he left for New York to seek his fortune.

Turning down a job at Goldman Sachs back in London, he stayed in New York, eventually joining the commodities and futures broker Refco. While he was there, two colleagues on his trading desk managed to lose $30m on government bond options.

The firm shut down his desk, gave him a six-figure bonus and made him redundant – even though he had nothing to do with the losses.

That was in 1987. Unbowed, Mr Gooch decided to set up on his own with $150,000 of the Refco bonus, rapidly building up the first brokerage specialising in government bond options and promoting electronic broking in an industry dominated by personal contacts.

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Gooch takes Wall Street in his stride

As he walks into the tenth-floor board room, Mickey Gooch looks every part the US financier. Neatly dressed in a pin-striped suit, shirt open at the collar, he strides towards the window, with Wall Street below him on one side, and the East River below him on the other. As he poses for the camera, you could easily mistake him for an American, born and bred. Until he speaks.

When he does - to share an anecdote with the photographer - it is obvious he is far from his original home. For Gooch was born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, and, in spite of the occasional upward lilt at the end of certain words that is common among New Yorkers, sounds like he could still live there.

In spite of retaining his UK accent - and his citizenship since becoming a US citizen in November 2005 - Gooch is firmly ensconsed on Wall Street.

As founder, chairman, chief executive and major shareholder in GFI, he runs and controls one of the world's three largest inter-dealer brokers, and has a personal fortune estimated to be in excess of $1.1bn (£559m).

Inter-dealer brokers (IDBs) act as middle-men between banks and other institutions who want to trade in the capital markets without revealing their identities.

The business model is a relatively recent one - dating back to the early 1980s - but it is one that has proven to be successful for Gooch, and other Brits like him, notably ICAP's Michael Spencer and Tullett Prebon's Terry Smith . The similarity between the men - self-starters who have built up sizeable companies from scratch - is startling, suggesting it is something about the meritocratic nature of the industry that allows it to happen. He denies they are similar, pointing to Spencer's Oxford education and Smith's original role as a banking analyst at UBS. Gooch did neither. Having initially worked at an accountancy firm after leaving school, in 1978, aged 20, he applied for a job at Tullett & Riley, the predecessor to Smith's current firm, and moved up through the ranks swiftly.

The turning point came when he was dispatched to New York to expand Tullett's US business, from which he went on to work for three other firms, before joining Refco.

At Refco, his desk was managed by Phil Bennett, who recently pleaded guilty to 20 counts of conspiracy and fraud for his part in the brokerage's $430m collapse in 2005. Bennett in part provided Gooch with the impetus to go it alone - closing his desk down due to trade losses from Gooch's managers, while paying Gooch his bonus in full. "I had Phil Bennett's blessing in leaving Refco and starting GFI, which at the time was not a business model they were pursuing," he says. Bennett paid him his bonus in full and sent Gooch on his way.

He founded GFI in 1987 and has not looked back. Today, GFI has a market value of $2.2bn, with annual revenues in 2007 of $970.5m and a pre-tax profit of $150.7m. His 47pc stake in the company has allowed him to live what is now a fairly charmed life - buying his local newspaper in New Jersey which wife Diane now runs, and competing against the likes of Uma Thurman and Rupert Murdoch in Caribbean regattas in his 151ft yacht which cost a reported $13m.

But such pleasures have not stopped him from focusing on the business - which has grown from its initial focus on US Treasuries to one which deals in everything from oil to complex weather derivatives, but has a core strength in credit derivatives.

Gooch argues that, in spite of the credit crunch, his business remains strong. "A strong IDB in credit like GFI has benefited from the volatility of the credit markets."

In spite of the heightened interest in the credit market, Gooch appears to be far more excited by the prospect of convergence in the dealer and exchange community, and where IDBs will fit into that.

"The more IDBs develop electronic trading platforms, and the more co-operation we have with exchanges for direct clearing of those transactions to exchanges, the greater the likelihood... that one or more of those IDBs might exchange some form of ownership interest with an exchange."

He is keeping a watchful eye on consolidation in the industry, noting that the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) has already taken a stake in a few small energy IDBs. For that to happen in financial products will, he believes, require a relaxation in the regulation of clearing.

Gooch predicts that over the next four to seven years, all the most significant exchanges and IDBs will "most likely consolidate into four global groups", which will provide execution and listing services in equities, financial products and energy/commodities, as well as data analytics and trading platforms.

Prior to the credit crunch, Gooch argues, some of the more powerful hedge funds were trying to push the exchanges to create environments where they could take business away from the market-makers and dealers.

Since last summer, that has died down, he goes on, as hedgies focus more on the basics, such as getting credit and trade execution.

However, Gooch believes that the hedge funds' game is part of a wider phenomenon, where the "dealer community is determined to erode the strength of the exchanges, and the exchanges seem determined to erode the strength of the dealers".

"IDBs are somewhere in the middle," Gooch points out, smiling as he says GFI will naturally align itself with whoever wins.

Part of this phenomenon has been the increasing importance of buy-side brokerages, which hedge funds increasingly use to bypass the major banks and dealers.

But the golden rule of the IDB world is that IDBs do not trade with their clients' clients - as they are purely the middle-men.

Why then has Gooch set up a little-known buy-side brokerage, Christopher Street Capital (CSC), within the confines of GFI?

"We're just in the middle, ready to embrace whatever the outcome is," Gooch says. He does however, admit, he is hedging his bets, should the tide change: "If the dealer community starts embracing buy-side to buy-side platforms and we don't adapt, we are destined to die on the vine, so we need to be at least prepared to change our business model."

Somehow, whatever happens, Gooch, who has spent his entire career making and executing the best trades, is unlikely to die on the vine.

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Michael Gooch

Michael "Mickey" Gooch is executive chairman of the board at interdealer broker GFI Group Inc , [1] the firm he founded in 1987. He also served as CEO until February 14, 2013, when the board named GFI president Colin Heffron as Gooch's successor. After the transition, Gooch stayed on as executive chairman, where he remains active in setting the strategic direction of the business. [2]

Background [ edit ]

Before founding GFI, Gooch worked for Citibank , Refco Group , Bierbaum Martin , Harlow Meyer Savage and Tullet & Tokyo Forex . He is a former member of the board of trustees of Monmouth University in New Jersey and of the board of the Count Basie Theatre Foundation, also in New Jersey. [3]

In 2004, Gooch and his wife, Diane, purchased the Two Rivers Times, a New Jersey community newspaper from journalist Geraldo Rivera . [4]

Education [ edit ]

Gooch holds a B.SC. from the City of London Polytechnic.ref> Mickey Gooch . LinkedIn.</ref>

References [ edit ]

• ↑ Mickey Gooch . LinkedIn.
• ↑ GFI Group Inc. Appoints Colin Heffron as CEO and Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2012 Results . HeraldOnline.
• ↑ GFI Structure and Management . GFI.
• ↑ Movers & Shakers: Mickey Gooch goes for brokerage . Crain's New York Business.
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Publisher buys oceanfront estate in Jupiter Inlet Colony for $15M

Double lot includes main house, guest house, garage and pool

• Kate Hinsche

Newspaper publisher and one-time GOP congressional candidate Diane Gooch bought a double lot oceanfront estate in Jupiter Inlet Colony for $15 million.

Records show Gooch bought the house at 3 Ocean Drive from the Elana J. Bolling Trust, with Armand Bolling, Vincent Bolling, and Anthony Rizzo signing as trustees. Gooch financed the purchase with a $4 million mortgage from First Republic Bank.

John Tracy of the Real Estate Consulting Group had the listing.

Gooch is the owner and publisher of Two River Times, a local newspaper in Red Bank, New Jersey. In 2010, she campaigned as a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in New Jersey, and bowed out after losing the primary, Politico reported. 

She is the ex-wife of Mickey Gooch Sr., the British-born founder of GFI, a New York City-based brokerage for credit derivatives. Rival firm BGC Partners bought GFI for $778 million in 2015, netting Mickey Gooch Sr. $285 million and Diane Gooch more than $90 million, the Independent reported.  

Elana Bolling is the widow of Vincent Bolling Jr., who headed his family’s Ohio-based coal business, Airco Coal, for many years. Under his leadership, Airco grew to become a major coal distributor and included Ford, General Motors and Florida Power & Light among its clients, according to his obituary.

Armand Bolling is an art dealer in Jupiter.

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Elana Bolling and her late husband bought the oceanfront estate for $735,000 in 1986, records show. The property includes a main house built in 1960, a guest house, a separate garage and a pool, the listing shows. The main house spans 3,300 square feet, with four bedrooms, four bathrooms, and one half-bathroom, records show. 

Tracy confirmed that the family combined 3 Ocean Drive and 4 Ocean Drive to form a 1-acre double lot with 175 feet of oceanfront. Records do not reflect when the lots were joined.

The Bolling family initially listed the compound for $22 million in June, Redfin shows.

“The property does need some updating,” the listing said. Tracy confirmed the buyer is looking to either renovate the existing home or tear it down and rebuild.

Jupiter Inlet Colony is a tony coastal enclave adjacent to Jupiter. High profile residents have purchased homes over the years, including the late Olivia Newton-John, who owned a mansion there. 

A CEO and part-owner of the Seattle Kraken National Hockey League team sold his oceanfront mansion in Jupiter Inlet Colony for $5.2 million in 2020. 

In nearby Jupiter, Mets’ star pitcher Max Scherzer bought a waterfront teardown for $14.9 million earlier this month. 

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Revisit Rebel Wilson and Mickey Gooch Jr.’s Relationship After Virginity Revelation

• Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

Long before Rebel Wilson found The One with Ramona Agruma , she hit a relationship milestone with Mickey Gooch Jr .

Wilson and Gooch Jr. were first linked in May 2015 after they attended a New York Rangers game together. Later that month, Us Weekly confirmed that Wilson and Gooch Jr. were introduced while they worked on the movie How to Be Single .

“They get along really well, they respect each other’s work,” a source exclusively told Us at the time. “She’s been too busy to date for a while, they’ve been texting often and they’ve been spending some time together in L.A. and New York.”

In July 2015, the duo made their red carpet debut as a couple at the premiere of Gooch Jr.’s movie Ur In Analysis in West Hollywood.

‘Pitch Perfect’ Cast’s Dating Histories: Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson and More

Following the screening, the comedian and the actress jetted off to Ibiza. Wilson shared a series of snaps of her and Gooch Jr.

"Fun & Sun in Ibiza right now!!” Wilson wrote via Instagram alongside a selfie of her and Gooch Jr. “Thanks Hard Rock Hotel @hrhibiza #hrhibiza #ThisisHardRock."

A second source told Us at the time that the twosome were very cozy during their romantic getaway.

"They were just really cute [and] having fun," the insider shared. "Mickey would pinch her cheek and face and then sat down next to her where they were whispering and dancing in their seats."

A few months after their trip, things fizzled out for Wilson and Gooch Jr. Us confirmed in September 2015, that they called it quits after four months of dating but still remained cordial.

"It’s been hard for him," a third source exclusively told Us of how Gooch Jr. was handling the breakup.

Wilson and Gooch Jr. have remained friendly over the years. In October 2021, Gooch Jr. shared a sweet throwback pic of him and Wilson.

“Throwback Thursday… cheers to the most beautiful girl I know!” he wrote via Instagram . “Inside and out. 🙌🙌 ‘The Full Package.’”

‘Pitch Perfect’ Cast: Where Are They Now? Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin and More

Nearly three years later, Wilson opened up about her relationship with Gooch Jr. in her 2024 memoir, Rebel Rising , revealing that she lost her virginity to Gooch at age 35.

“Micks, I know this might be news to you if you are reading this, but yes I lost my virginity to you,” she penned.

Wilson later confirmed to The New York Times in April 2024 that Gooch Jr. was the “first person” to read her book “so he knows now.”

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‘the surfer’ review: nicolas cage battles board-stealing aussie beach bums – cannes film festival, ‘witch hunt’: elle callahan’s supernatural border thriller casts four.

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Writer-director Elle Callahan’s next film will be Witch Hunt , a supernatural thriller about an America where fugitive witches try to evade callous authorities. Production will get underway this summer in Los Angeles. Paradigm and UTA Independent Film Group are handling sales for the film.

Callahan’s follow-up effort to Head Count (which was released June 14 through Samuel Goldwyn) will star Gideon Adlon (Blockers) , Abigail Cowen (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) , Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost) , and Christian Camargo (The Hurt Locker).

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Witch Hunt has a title that evokes the era of McCarthyism but its themes speak to turbulent  contemporary American topics with a story that straddles the southern border shared with Mexico. Callahan says the social messages are part of a valued tradition in the fantasy, sci-f, and horror sector.

“I’ve always been a fan of genre films for their ability to get people to think differently and with new perspectives,” Callahan said. “For me, Witch Hunt is an opportunity to turn the camera back on ourselves and show what’s possible in a society where irrational fears take favor over common decency.”

Eric B. Fleischman’s Defiant Studios is producing alongside Maurice Fadida of Kodiak Pictures. Mickey Gooch Jr. and Diane Gooch of Kodiak will serve as executive producers alongside Andre Druskeit of Telepool.

This will be the fourth film under the Telepool/Kodiak banner with Defiant.

Callahan is represented by Paradigm, Grandview and Marios Rush. Adlon is represented by UTA, Main Title Entertainment and McKuin Frankel Whitehead. Cowen and Mitchell are each represented by Paradigm and Link Entertainment. Camargo is represented by Innovative Artists.

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Mickey Gooch Jr.

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Michael “Mickey” Gooch owns 43 percent of one of the most successful brokers – GFI Group, which specializes in setting up trades of credit derivatives among titans like Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs.

The 48-year-old Gooch’s well-honed relationships on the Street have helped GFI grow from four employees in ’87 into ’07’s 1,500-employee powerhouse.

With the 59 percent rise in GFI shares this year, the native Brit’s stake in the company has soared to $1.25 billion. Not too shabby for a guy who got his first finance job out of high school.

Gooch, who pilots his own 151-foot yacht, is just as successful outside of GFI. As Rudy Giuliani’s New Jersey finance chairman, Gooch has helped the Republican front-runner raise more money than Hillary Clinton, the only blue state organization that can make such a boast.

Gooch talked with The Post to about Rudy, his firm and the credit meltdown.

Q: You and your firm are a powerhouse on Wall Street but have not gotten caught up in the credit meltdown. How is that?

Gooch: Because we are a strictly an independent intermediary, we do not have any principal trading positions, or any inventory – and that means when you have meltdowns in the credit market we are not there holding a bunch of paper that needs to be marked down because nothing stays in inventory at GFI. Once we match the buyer and seller we are no longer involved in the trade. All we do is collect fees.

Q: Why did the Merrills and other big Wall Street firms not protect themselves with credit derivatives also?

A: The mistake they made was to keep pumping this stuff out and “inventorying” it – even after the point had been reached where the underlying security was deteriorating.

I think one of the problems is a dislocation between the incentives for the bankers and the brokers who were producing this stuff and pumping it out – and the other groups that may be involved in risk management and investment banking.

Q: Do you support the mortgage foreclosure bailout plan hammered out by the White House?

A: It will be a stay of execution for two to three years on a number of foreclosures. But it is not going to completely stop the foreclosure process in the broader market.

Q: Issuance in the CMOs and CDOs has shut down with the credit crisis. How has this played with your business?

A: It is shut right now. No new issuance. But there is a lot of paper out there that needs to be bought and sold; and so there is an opportunity for a company like GFI that acts as an inter mediary to help those buyers and sellers find the other side of the trade. In terms of new is suance, there won’t be new issuance for a long time. Even though there are no new issuance, there are still trades to be made. In fact, the cheaper it gets, the bigger the deals get so we poten tially start to earn more commissions.

Q: New Jersey has raised a lot of money for Rudy?

A: Rudy has raised more money in the state of New Jersey than any other candidate including the Democrats, and the only other state where he has achieved that is Texas.

Q: Your $1 billion stake in GFI is the larger than any other brokerage CEO on Wall Street. Is that satisfying?

A: Well, when I formed GFI in 1987 – and I scribbled the first business plan on some green paper – I did say my goal was to build the world’s preeminent inter-dealer derivatives company.

Today, we are the leader in credit derivatives. To some extent I did have this goal, but I didn’t necessarily have the valuation personal net worth goal in that regard. I don’t think 20 years ago – when I was 28-years-old – I was necessarily thinking in that regard. I probably would have thought back then that $50 million would have been quite a lot of money. In fact, my wife re minds me that I said when we were first married that if I made $50 million I would retire.

Q: Do you think Rudy has been play ing up his 9/11 record too much?

A: I haven’t heard him bring it up recently. Seems to be not the main topic these days. I tell a joke – when people talk about Iraq – that if Rudy becomes President the first thing he will do is get rid of the Baghdad squeegee boys.

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Revisit Rebel Wilson and Mickey Gooch Jr.'s Romance After Virginity Reveal

Long before Rebel Wilson found The One with Ramona Agruma , she hit a relationship milestone with Mickey Gooch Jr .

Wilson and Gooch Jr. were first linked in May 2015 after they attended a New York Rangers game together. Later that month, Us Weekly confirmed that Wilson and Gooch Jr. were introduced while they worked on the movie How to Be Single .

“They get along really well, they respect each other’s work,” a source exclusively told Us at the time. “She’s been too busy to date for a while, they’ve been texting often and they’ve been spending some time together in L.A. and New York.”

In July 2015, the duo made their red carpet debut as a couple at the premiere of Gooch Jr.’s movie Ur In Analysis in West Hollywood.

'Pitch Perfect' Cast's Dating Histories: Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson, More

Following the screening, the comedian and the actress jetted off to Ibiza. Wilson shared a series of snaps of her and Gooch Jr.

“Fun & Sun in Ibiza right now!!” Wilson wrote via Instagram alongside a selfie of her and Gooch Jr. “Thanks Hard Rock Hotel @hrhibiza #hrhibiza #ThisisHardRock.”

A second source told Us at the time that the twosome were very cozy during their romantic getaway.

“They were just really cute [and] having fun,” the insider shared. “Mickey would pinch her cheek and face and then sat down next to her where they were whispering and dancing in their seats.”

A few months after their trip, things fizzled out for Wilson and Gooch Jr. Us confirmed in September 2015, that they called it quits after four months of dating but still remained cordial.

“It’s been hard for him,” a third source exclusively told Us of how Gooch Jr. was handling the breakup.

Wilson and Gooch Jr. have remained friendly over the years. In October 2021, Gooch Jr. shared a sweet throwback pic of him and Wilson.

“Throwback Thursday… cheers to the most beautiful girl I know!” he wrote via Instagram . “Inside and out.

‘The Full Package.’”

‘Pitch Perfect’ Cast: Where Are They Now?

Nearly three years later, Wilson opened up about her relationship with Gooch Jr. in her 2024 memoir, Rebel Rising , revealing that she lost her virginity to Gooch at age 35.

“Micks, I know this might be news to you if you are reading this, but yes I lost my virginity to you,” she penned.

Wilson later confirmed to The New York Times in April 2024 that Gooch Jr. was the “first person” to read her book “so he knows now.”

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5 Things to Know About Rebel Wilson's Rumored New Boyfriend, Mickey Gooch, Jr.

Get to know the guy who has allegedly stolen Wilson's heart

We know he’s rooting for the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup playoffs and he’s been rumored to be the new boyfriend of Pitch Perfect 2 ‘s Rebel Wilson but who is Mickey Gooch, Jr.?

While the couple has yet to confirm if they are dating , we’re still intrigued by Wilson’s new pal. Here are five things you need to know about Wilson’s fellow Rangers cheerleader.

He’s a filmmaker

Gooch is the head of Skit Bags Entertainment , which recently produced The Head Thieves , a film about three brothers who go on a wild adventure to recover stolen cash. (Gooch also had a role in the film.)

He will soon be on the big screen with Wilson

According to IMDB , Gooch will appear How To Be Single alongside Wilson and Dakota Johnson Details about his role are unknown but he has been cast as “Big Boy.” The project is set to be released in February 2016.

He is a big sports fan

Not only did he snap fun Instagram pics with Wilson at the Rangers game, Gooch even struck a pose in the locker room of the Dallas Mavericks a couple months ago.

Related Video: Brittany Snow Promises Pitch Perfect 2 Will Be ‘Bigger and Badder’

He’s friends with Andy Dick

Gooch has shared multiple photos with the actor on social media and they even celebrated Easter together . Dick also appeared in The Head Thieves alongside Gooch.

He’s a dog lover

Gooch often posts photos of his French bulldog on his Twitter and Instagram accounts, with captions like “love my #dog”. This is good news for Wilson whose mother was a professional dog handler.

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• Kinorium : 5.5
• Critics: 82%

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• Critics: 30%

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Adventure, Comedy, 1 hr 24 min (in credits: Mickey Gooch) United States • Mike Hermosa

Drama, Family, Romance, 1 hr 30 min United States • Danny Buday

Thriller, Comedy, Horror, 1 hr 29 min United States • Chris von Hoffmann

• Kinorium : 5.2
• Critics: 77%

Comedy United States • Ernie Bustamante

Action, Comedy, Horror, 1 hr 32 min United States • Lin Oeding

• Kinorium : 5.3

Comedy, Drama, 1 hr 29 min United States • Dito Montiel

• Kinorium : 5.9
• Critics: 19%

Crime, 1 hr 42 min United States • Noah Scott

Short, Drama, Mystery, 16 min United States • Marianna Palka

Short, Comedy, 19 min United States • Mike Hermosa

Comedy, Drama, Romance, 1 hr 50 min United States • Christian Ditter

• Kinorium : 6.2
• Critics: 46%

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Short, Drama, 1 min United States • Clint Riffo...

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• Critics: 63%

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Sci-Fi, Horror, Drama, 1 hr 23 min United States • Mickey Keating

• Kinorium : 4.6
• Critics: 67%

Crime, Thriller, 1 hr 33 min United States • Jimmy Giannopoulos

• Kinorium : 4.2
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• Critics: 36%

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• Critics: 18%

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• Critics: 0%

Drama, Mystery, Thriller, 1 hr 47 min United Kingdom • Kristoffer Nyholm

• Kinorium : 6.0
• Critics: 85%

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Action, Crime, Thriller, 1 hr 28 min United States • Alex Merkin

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Who is Mickey Gooch Jr? - His relationship with Rebel Wilson explored

Rebel Wilson continues to drop bombshells with her eye-opening new book and her latest  revealed who she lost her virginity to at the age of 35.

The Senior Year  actress, 44, casually gave a nod to Mickey Gooch Jr. in her memoir, Rebel Rising, Rebel Wilson , when she wrote:   "Micks, I know this might be news to you if you are reading this, but yes, I lost my virginity to you." 

But who is Mickey Gooch Jr. and what is his relationship with Rebel?

Where have we seen him before?

Mickey is an American actor born and raised in New Jersey but now lives in Los Angeles. 

He doesn't have a lengthy list of movies to his name but he is known for How to be Single, in which he starred with Rebel during their real life romance. 

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Mickey also featured in The Clapper in 2017, Madness in the Method two years later and then Deported  in 2020.

How did Rebel meet Mickey?

The pair were introduced by Rebel's Pitch Perfect  co-star, Hana Mae Lee, who set them up when she was in Los Angeles. 

Rebel said he pursued her and after dating for a month he went to New York to stay with her.

Mickey is 'rich' 

While he has his own career in the entertainment industry and is a partner in Skitbags Entertainment and Kodiak Pictures, Mickey also comes from money. 

He is the son of multimillionaire banker, Michael Gooch , who is the founder of the $700 million GFI Group. 

Rebel referenced his wealth in her memoir when speaking about finally having sex.

"I actually have a boyfriend," she wrote. "And he's handsome and rich to boot."

Mickey's addictions split them up

A self-confessed addict, Mickey has been to rehab  17 times and had a "life-threatening addiction to alcohol and a frightening variety of hard-core drugs". 

When Rebel discovered this after six months of dating, she walked away from their relationship.

She says she gave him a year to stay sober, but they never did rekindle their romance. 

Mickey and Rebel's relationship today

They may not have reconnected romantically, but Rebel and Mickey have remained friends. 

He called her "the most beautiful girl I know, insider and out. The full package" in a social media post dedicated to her in 2021. 

While discussing her memoir with The New York Times, Rebel revealed that Mickey was among the first to read her book, and he was therefore aware of her public acknowledgment of their intimacy. 

She also told People: "People can wait till they're ready or wait till they're a bit more mature. And I think that could be a positive message. You obviously don't have to wait until you're in your thirties like me, but you shouldn't feel pressure as a young person."

Get the lowdown on the biggest, hottest celebrity news, features and profiles coming out of the U.S.  Sign up to our HELLO! Hollywood newsletter and get them delivered straight to your inbox. 

Mickey Gooch Jr.

• Mickey was born and raised in New Jersey and currently resides in Malibu, CA. He is a partner in Skitbags Entertainment and Kodiak Pictures which is currently producing a film with Cross Creek Pictures. As an actor, he is known for How to Be Single (2016) , The Clapper (2017) Deported (2020) and most recently Madness in the Method (2019) . - IMDb Mini Biography By: Skitbags Entertainment

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