Hedge Funds Are Luring Away Banks’ Top Commodity Index Traders
Hedge funds and energy trading shops are scooping up index traders from banks, looking to capitalize on investors’ increasing interest in materials and the sector’s rising potential for outsized returns.
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Top index traders who have left banks for hedge funds recently include Will Scott, who stepped down as global head of commodities index trade at Morgan Stanley to join Verition Fund Management LLC in November. Dan Deighton, the former global head of commodity index and agricultural products trading at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., jumped ship to Balyasny Asset Management a month earlier.
Hedge funds previously focused on hiring personnel who specialized in specific commodities, but firms are now seeking out traders who can work across markets and use approaches including trend models and quantitative strategies to reap greater returns.
Hiring in commodity markets more broadly has surged over the past year as heightened volatility and wild swings in prices create opportunities to make record profits for those who can stomach the volatility. Hedge funds in particular have lured traders with big signing bonuses and larger paychecks, while banks have pulled back.
Read the full article here by Devika Krishna Kumar, Advisor Perspectives.
