Last quarter, Morgan Stanley's average trading VAR rose about 30 percent from a year earlier to $81 million. This is not out of whack compared with other firms' VARs. But it does indicate that Morgan Stanley is more than willing to go the route that Goldman Sachs has so finely blazed [1]. One sign is Morgan Stanley's desire to get back into the private equity game. It is said to be in all-out hiring mode for private equity professionals, according to Financial Week, and it is about to start a fund-raising effort for a new fund. Alan Jones, the former head of the financial sponsors group, and Stephen Trevor, who came from Goldman Sachs, are building out the new unit, which will employ about 40 professionals. Recall that Morgan Stanley exited the business back in 2004, when Phil Purcell was running the show. Its glory days were about twenty years ago, when it was mentioned in the same breath as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

For more:
- here's the article [2] from Financial Week