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Morgan Stanley May Shed Quantitative Trading Unit (NYT)

For nearly two decades, the mathematical whiz Peter Muller and his secretive band of traders have helped power Morgan Stanley to bigger profits. But now Morgan Stanley and Mr.Muller are in advanced talks about splitting up. Under the plan being discussed, Morgan Stanley would spin off Mr. Muller’s unit, called Process Driven Trading, and keep a minority stake. The Process Driven Trading unit generated an estimated $4 billion in profits in the 10 years through 2006, according to Scott Patterson’s book, “The Quants.” [Since 1992] Mr.Muller stocked the group with Ph.D.’s and housed them on their own floor, away from the hurly-burly excitement of Morgan Stanley’s mammoth stock trading floor. To stimulate productivity and cerebral thinking, he had ceiling lights installed that changed color every 15 seconds.

Even though he and his unit were minting money, Mr.Muller quit working full-time for Morgan Stanley in 2001, saying, according to a short biography on his Web site,

that he realized he “can no longer find happiness in the corporate world.”

Over the next several years, he traveled to Bhutan, New Zealand and Hawaii, hiking and kayaking, with his five-pound keyboard in tow.

 He took up yoga and began writing crossword puzzles, many of which appeared in The New York Times and other newspapers. 

He indulged his love of music, writing songs, releasing two albums under his own label and playing his guitar on the streets of Barcelona and in New York City subways.

He also pursued his passion for poker, a favorite pastime of quantitative traders. He played in a few tournaments on the World Poker Tour. In his first tournament he came in fourth and took home nearly $100,000.

In late 2006, Muller returned full time to Morgan Stanley.