Wall Street will make more risky bets after rule change, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley leading the way

Goldman Sachs traders lost $180 million last year on bad bets in natural gas markets, helping cause the worst commodities trading performance in the bank's history as a public company. The bank, a powerhouse in commodities trading for decades, had positioned itself to profit from volatility in natural gas prices that never materialized, according to people with knowledge of the situation. At rival firm Morgan Stanley, power and gas traders led by rising star Jay Rubenstein generated almost $400 million in revenue for the bank last year.  The big narrative out of Wall Street after the financial crisis was that thanks to regulations and the rise of computerized trading, newly chastened human traders were no longer able to place big bets, capping their status and compensation. This is mostly true. But pockets of big risk-taking have persisted within the banks and that could jump with last week's proposed changes to the Volcker Rule.