Hedge Fund Movers

Millennium hire ex-JPM equity derivatives trader as a senior PM

Millennium has reportedly hired Ziad Kerbage, a former equity derivatives trader at JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, for its London office. Kerbage is set to join as a senior portfolio manager and will be trading delta one products, suggesting he will likely establish his own pod at the firm according to eFinancialCareers. Kerbage previously spent five years at Maven Securities as a portfolio manager in London.

Senior portfolio managers at Millennium are known for their substantial compensation. In 2023, partners at Millennium Capital Partners LLP earned profit shares of ￡8.9 million ($12 million) each.

Three former portfolio managers from Brevan Howard’s systematic macro team depart

Three former portfolio managers from Brevan Howard’s systematic macro team, who departed from the $35 billion global macro hedge fund earlier this year, have now secured new positions, according to a report by eFinancialCareers.

Michael Krupin, previously a G10 FX trader at Barclays and a portfolio manager at Brevan Howard from May 2023 to May 2024, has joined First New York, a multi-strategy investment firm offering trading infrastructure for experienced managers.

Frank Flight, who left Brevan Howard voluntarily in May after a little over a year, joined the Soros Global Macro Fund in August. Prior to Brevan, Flight spent seven years as a rates trader at Goldman Sachs.

Meanwhile, Nikhil Gutha, who managed portfolios at Brevan Howard for four years, has resurfaced at Point72 Asset Management’s Miami office.

Alphadyne taps JPMorgan commodities head

Alphadyne Asset Management has become the latest hedge fund to aggressively recruit senior talent from major banks' commodity trading desks, appointing Thomas Byuen, JPMorgan’s Global Head of Commodity-Index Trading, as a portfolio manager. According to a new Hedgeweek, the $9 billion macro focused hedge fund continues to expand its commodities team despite facing a challenging year in that area.

Alphadyne is not alone in this trend. Balyasny Asset Management and Jain Global have also recently attracted top commodity traders from leading financial institutions.

While the commodities trading sector has seen a 4% decline this year, it remains highly attractive to funds due to its strong performance over the past five years. Research from hedge fund industry analyst PivotalPath shows that the strategy has delivered an annualized return of 13.9% over that period, making it the top-performing strategy in their database.

Balyasny hired Goldman Sachs' former Head of Commodity-Index Trading, Dan Deighton, in 2022, and LMR Partners brought on his successor, Mike Severo, earlier this year. Meanwhile, Jain Global, launched earlier in 2024, added Max Lee, Bank of America’s Head of Commodity and FX Systematic Strategy Trading, to its team.