I've been on Wall Street now for nearly 24 years and I recently noticed that the common denominator amongst the most spectacular Wall Street crises and failures is the fact that the CEOs at the time these firms nearly collapsed or actually did collapse were traders or salesmen by training with no risk management on their resumes.

Specifically, (i) Allan Wheat (derivatives trader) at Credit Suisse; (ii) Jimmy Cayne (municipal bond sales) at Bear Stearns; (iii) Stanley O'Neal (equity capital markets/private client group) Merrill Lynch; (iv) Jeffrey Peek (asset management sales & Board Member of Freddie Mac) at CIT; (v) John Gutfreund (bond trader) at Salomon Brothers; (vi) John Mack (bond sales) at both Credit Suisse and then Morgan Stanley; (vii) Bob Rubin (stock trader-merger arbitrage & formerly of Goldman Sachs) at Citigroup; (viii) Robert Steel (co-head equity trading & sales & formerly of Goldman Sachs) at Wachovia Corp.; (ix) Vikram Pandit (head of institutional securities & formerly of Morgan Stanley) at Citigroup; (x) Lloyd Blankfein (gold trader) at Goldman Sachs; and (xi) John Corzine (U.S. Treasuries trader & formerly of Goldman Sachs) at MF Global.

While I don't know these men, I know people who know them and all of them claim that they are all "great guys".

The aforementioned "great guys" comment notwithstanding and based on the aforementioned track record, it's time that the boards of major financial institutions start re-evaluating the domain expertise required of their CEOs to successfully run a global banking or securities firm.

Given how frail the global economy and financial system remain in the wake of the 2008 crisis, we should thank our lucky stars that MF Global was "too small to matter" in the grand scheme of the financial universe. The aforementioned is cold comfort to the thousands of MF Global employees who will be losing their jobs as we approach the holidays.

Finally, a word of advice to Jon Corzine: Please retire and don't try to stage a comeback. The U.S. government, state governments and global financial system can't afford it.

Eoin Treacy's view Type-A personalities are often found at the head of financial institutions and are admired for their self assurance and ability to make decisions. However, while all of these attributes are valuable, a healthy respect for shareholder value is also essential. Shareholders have been some of the greatest victims of poor management at financial firms. Senior executives have walked away with golden handshakes after taking incalculable risks with other people's money. Shareholders got short shrift as various firms have gone bankrupt or been nationalised. This issue is not limited to the USA. Regulators can rightfully be questioned about their roll is allowing excessive leverage. Unfortunately, governance starts at the top and shareholders depend on other executives to publicise excessive risk taking which happens all too infrequently.

Steve Czech points out that companies such as Jefferies Group and Raymond James could come under closer scrutiny following MF Global's demise. This may already be in the price since they have both pulled back sharply over the last year. However, this is where the similarity ends.

Jefferies Group is testing its 2009 lows and bounced from the $10 area last week. It needs to hold above $15 in order to suggest demand is returning to dominance beyond the short term.

Raymond James is substantially stronger. It hit a new all time high in February and pulled back to test the 2010 low by August. It has rallied impressively since early October and provided it can hold the majority of its recent advance, the medium-term upside can continue to be given the benefit of the doubt.