Sameer Goel & team Deutsche Bank
The buy side says: “Goel knows how to connect currency movements to economic developments.”
Sameer Goel and his Deutsche Bank crew take the top spot in this new sector. The six-member Singapore- and Hong Kong–based group garners praise from one admiring money manager for its “strong knowledge” of Asia’s many types of money. Goel, who also leads a runner-up team in Fixed-Income Strategy, sees 2012 as “a tough year for Asian currencies, which will struggle against the backdrop of higher oil prices, moderating current accounts, a more modest — and possibly backloaded — appreciation path for the renminbi and a volatile risk appetite in the global markets.” His team is counseling clients to trade tactically, seeking value in intra-Asian crosses and splitting funding for long Asian foreign exchange positions among the dollar, euro and yen. “I also think the risk premium built into the belly of Asian interest rate curves should normalize, causing a steepening in curves even as central banks stay on hold,” he adds. Goel, 37, joined Deutsche Bank in April 2005 from Bank of America in Singapore. He earned two master’s degrees, one in economics from Cambridge University and the other in development from the London School of Economics and Political Science. — Carolyn Koo
