Andrew Friedwald, a top trader of mortgage-backed securities for Nomura Securities International, resigned Wednesday following a dispute over strategy, traders said.
They said Mr. Friedwald wanted to build Nomura's position in fixed- income securities when spreads widened recently to their widest levels of the decade, but the firm would not give him the authority.
The firm had been reducing fixed-income holdings for the last year, the traders said.
Mr. Friedwald, who ran the mortgage-backed derivatives trading desk, joined the firm in June 1995, the company said in announcing the resignation.