About Lawrence McDonald

Founder of The Bear Traps Report

Lawrence McDonald is risk consultant to hedge funds, family offices, asset managers and investors across twenty-three countries. One of Wall Street’s most respected financial experts, McDonald has made more than 1,400 media appearances. 

Previously, he was a vice president of distressed debt and convertible securities trading at Lehman Brothers. He is also the creator of The Bear Traps Report, a weekly independent Macro Research Platform focusing on global political and systemic risk with actionable trade ideas.

In 2016, Larry McDonald joined ACG Analytics in Washington D.C., one of today’s leading political policy risk consultants and strategists. From 2011 – 2016, he was Managing Director and Head of U.S. Macro Strategy at Société Générale.

In late 2006, as Vice President at Lehman Brothers, he led his team into betting against the subprime mortgage market, profiting the firm over $2 billion before its demise. In 2009, he wrote the international bestseller A Colossal Failure of Common Sense, The Inside Story of The Collapse of Lehman Brothers - translated into 12 languages, selling over 400,000 copies.