Structurally sound

Charles Pardue was present at the creation of the credit derivatives market and worked on the first groundbreaking synthetic collateralised debt obligations. What’s now drawn him over to the buy side?

Charles Pardue – who is currently setting up a new London-based structured finance investment manager called Prytania – cut his teeth in the derivatives market in JP Morgan’s ambitious but ill-fated last-minute attempt to avert the 1994 meltdown of US municipality Orange County’s investment pool.

It was the end of 1994, and Pardue – a trading floor rookie who had spent most of his time at the bank in its credit group – found himself playing a pivotal role. In advance of JP Morgan’s bid for the