Weekly update

Balyasny loses senior engineers to Jane Street and Point72

Balyasny has recently seen the departure of two senior engineers. Connecticut-based Mark Franklin, specialising in execution technology, has joined Steve Cohen’s Point72, while London based macro quant researcher Luke Pebody has moved to Jane Street according to reports.

Franklin left after a year at Balyasny, following a 16-year tenure at UBS, as reported by eFinancial Careers. Pebody, who previously held positions at DE Shaw and Rokos Capital Management, was with Balyasny for just under two years.

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Sells $1.05bn Stake

Pershing Square Holdings announced that its investment manager, Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P. (PSCM), has sold a 10% common equity interest in Pershing Square for $1.05 billion to strategic investors according to The Financial Times.

As part of this transaction, PSCM is undergoing an internal reorganisation that will result in the voting securities of Pershing Square being indirectly owned by a limited liability company (the LLC), controlled by senior management, including Bill Ackman, the largest shareholder. Despite the reorganisation, PSCM will continue as the Company's investment manager and maintain its role under the Investment Management Agreement (IMA).

Hedge Funds Sell Software Stocks as AI Splits Tech, Goldman Says

Hedge funds are offloading software stocks amid growing concerns over who will be left behind in the artificial intelligence boom. Last week, funds sold information technology shares at the highest rate in 11 weeks, with software making up more than 60% of these sales, according to a report by Goldman Sachs. Hedge funds net exposure to software is now at its lowest point in over five years, per Goldman.

Hedge funds are reducing their general exposure to megacap technology stocks while betting on firms poised to benefit from the AI expansion. Semiconductors and semiconductor equipment were the only net bought tech subsectors last week, according to Goldman, giving the funds their highest single-stock exposure to this group in over five years. Despite the S&P 500 Information Technology Index rising 17% this year, there's a significant divergence at the sector level. The S&P Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment index has surged 57% this year, whereas the S&P Software and Services index has only gained 2.2%.

Hedge fund Jain Global hires a 27-year Credit Suisse front office veteran

Ian Harris has joined Jain as head of credit risk in the fund's London office, after serving as the chief trading risk officer of Credit Suisse International. A nearly three-decade veteran of Credit Suisse according to eFinancial.

Harris isn't the only recent addition to Jain's risk team. Mark Thatcher, previously a Goldman Sachs MD and head of prime risk services for Asia, has become Jain's head of APAC risk, based in Hong Kong. Regarding its relatively small portfolio management (PM) team, Jain has been focusing on the US. Herb Petry, former head of natural gas trading at Merrill Lynch, joined in May as a commodities PM. Dominic Magnabosco, former co-head of US power trading at Citi, also joined that month. Magnabosco had left Citi in August 2022 and appears to have been inactive until now.