Hedge fund Eisler Capital's new array of London exits
Eisler Capital, the hedge fund founded by ex-Goldman Sachs partner and macro trader Ed Eisler, which boasts another ex-Goldman Sachs partner and strat, Sam Wisnia, as deputy CIO, is still leaking people. It's hiring too, but as far as we can discern, the exits may exceed the entrances.
Eisler declined to comment for this article, but sources say at least 12 people have left the fund in London in the past six months. Most were in London.
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They include Amir Fais, the ex-head of EMEA emerging markets trading at Goldman, who left after three months and Brent Cook, the veteran macro trader, who left after 10 months.
But according to data from the FCA and internal sources there's also:
- Sylvain Lebre, Deutsche Bank's former head of credit derivatives trading, who left in April after 16 months
- Reece Lunstone, who joined from Credit Suisse and left in less than a year
- Woonki Jeon, who joined in Hong Kong from Millennium and left a year later in August
- Sid Sandilya, who joined in New York in March and left in August
- Elyes Bouachba, who joined from Goldman and left after 17 months in August
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Radu Baltean-Lugojan, who joined in August 2022 from crypto market maker B2C2 and left again a year later
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Andrew Taylor, who joined from DE Shaw in April 2022
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Carlo Maria Ramirez, who joined in London in 2021 from Seganti Capital in Hong Kong, and left in June
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Jérôme Etienne, who joined from Deutsche Bank in 2020 and left last week after nearly three years
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Pierre Bost, who joined from Qube in January 2023 and left in August
Two others are thought to have left within seven months too. And sources say there are other departures which are not currently shown on the FCA register.
Some of those leaving have new jobs elsewhere. Fais, for example, has gone to join a pod formed by a former colleague at Millennium. Cook has gone to Schonfeld. Bouachba has gone to Brevan Howard. Etienne is understood to be going back to banking. Sandilya is joining Jefferies in New York as an industrials trading strategist. Jeon is off to Verition.
The reason for the exits is unclear. It's not unusual for multistrategy hedge funds to churn staff who make losses. However, Eisler is also subject to gripes relating to the allegedly "marmite" personality of deputy-CIO Sam Wisnia, who is seemingly not to all portfolio managers' taste. Equally, though, Wisnia has his supporters who say he just does what any deputy-CIO would do when someone loses money.
While Eisler has been losing staff, it has also been hiring. Imran Ahmad joined as a macro portfolio manager in London in August; Romain Paternot also joined in August, from Millennium in Dubai; Trent Redman joined in Florida; Rahul Devgon joined from Tudor.
Traditionally a macro-focused fund, Eisler has transformed into a multistrategy fund. Working for a multistrategy fund is rarely easy. As Walleye Capital CEO Will England said in a recent podcast, the job is "psychologically toxic." - You're wrong as much as you're right, and if you hit drawdown and loss limits then (at Walleye at least) you are 'offboarded', a euphemism for termination.
This article has been corrected to reflect the fact that Sam Wisnia is deputy-CIO of Eisler, that Dan Tapson has not left and that Eisler became a multistrat before 2023.
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