Parting Words from the Top of Goldman

Marty Chavez, the co-head of Goldman's securities division, is leaving the bank at the end of this year after decades on Wall Street. But before he moves to LA to kick it with Myron Scholes and Peter Thiel, he joined us for an exclusive interview ranging from the future of trading, technology and how to be different than everyone around you.

"It can be exhausting for diverse people," if they follow the strategy of working twice as hard for half as much success -- advice his mother once gave him -- or to have a paranoia that others will believe that you got a top job because you are a diverse person. But also per his mom's advice: "Que digan misa," or "Let them say mass." -- His translation of that? "It's a Spanish expression for, I don't care."

“I’m just going to do what I know is right, I’m going to do my thing, and trust that it’s going to work out.” Here's his full interview:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2019-09-20/marty-chavez-extinction-looms-for-traders-who-can-t-code-video Next stop for Chavez? Something he calls "programmable life."

More across Wall Street

Some are outliers in a hedge fund industry that's seeing more closures than startups. Sean Gallagher, who used to run a more than $40 billion portfolio at Goldman's asset manager and left late last year, is starting a fund with Goldman alumni. Here are the details of his team and his strategy. Others starting up, from our investing team:

• A duo from Diamondback Capital are starting a long-short hedge fund with $1 billion, according to Bloomberg's Kathy Burton and Hema Parmar. Rich Schimel and Lawrence Sapanski have already begun Cinctive Capital Management
• Crispin Odey is opening up his hottest hedge fund to new clients after it soared 32% through August since its inception just a little earlier this year
• Citadel alumni are all over the place. Of course we are watching Candlestick's Jack Woodruff and now also watching Suraj Chopra, who is starting Force Hill Capital Management and targeting an early 2020 launch, Bloomberg's Sridhar Natarajan broke this week
• The biggest startup of 2019 were ex-Citadel money managers Michael Rockefeller and Karl Kroeker, at Woodline Partners starting with $2 billion

And there's even more happening in private markets. Neuberger Berman is raising its biggest ever fund for a hot strategy that takes stakes in other asset managers -- Dyal Capital. Fund IV right now has raked in $8.1 billion, and may reach $8.5 billion by the end of October, people familiar with the matter said. What's crazier yet is that it has 75% of its capital committed -- even amid sky-high amounts of dry powder across the rest of the PE industry. It has struck 7 deals already for stakes in firms including Scott Kapnick's HPS and American Securities. It's in talks for four more transactions. (Terminal clients only)

For more in private markets: Join us every Tuesday at 1 p.m. for a show we've just started, "Money Undercover." Oaktree's Howard Marks joined Lisa Abramowicz this week. Find the full tape here online.

Silicon Valley

It's hard to ignore. Datadog -- after rebuffing a takeover attempt by Cisco -- joined the ranks of eye-popping IPO debuts this year, expanding its market value by $3 billion more than the $7 billion valuation it targeted after a first-day pop. Being worth more than $10 billion means that the software company's valuation could already rival WeWork, which delayed its IPO. One of the biggest winner's from the Datadog surge is Iconiq, Mark Zuckerberg's wealth adviser, which is reaping a 1,000% return, according to EquityZen.

We discuss Datadog here, and WeWork here, for BTV with Alix Steel. Catch us next week on Daybreak at 7:40 a.m. for Wall Street Beat to run through the biggest stories in finance.

Speaking of WeWork, Masa Son's own wealth is quite vulnerable to it. He has almost 40% of his SoftBank stock pledged as collateral for margin loans -- and the way that works is if the stock declines enough, the banks start itching for you to put up more collateral. (In the case of Adam Neumann, where JPMorgan, UBS and Credit Suisse have lent hundreds of millions against his equity, they're already seeking changes amid doubts about the value of his collateral). SoftBank slipped as much as 5% when the WeWork IPO was delayed but the stock is still up more than 25% on the year.

Blackstone's Steve Schwarzman (who is out with his new book by the way) reacted to WeWork at a lunch hosted by the Economic Club of New York this week with attendees including Henry Kissinger, John Paulson and Centerbridge's Mark Gallogly. Schwarzman said he found the office-sharing firm's valuation "puzzling," adding that when he heard the figures, "I sort of went, what? How do you get this? It doesn’t seem right to me."

Blackstone, by the way, is laying its own groundwork for a growth equity fund and hired earlier this year from General Atlantic to do it.

More to come! And have a great weekend in the meantime. Three months left of the year and as always, let me know where we should be heading.

-- Sonali