Another elusive quant trading firm is expanding into London
The prop trading ecosystem is a lot larger than Jane Street and Susquehanna. There are a plethora of niche, growing firms in the US, many of which are looking to expand to Europe. Firms are choosing to build new teams in either Amsterdam or London, and New York's Ansatz Captial has gone with the latter.
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Ansatz describes itself as a "lean and technical quantitative trading startup." The firm, which operates in the equities and futures markets, was founded in 2013 by alums of top hedge funds and trading firms. They include Albert Shieh, an ex-scientific associate at D.E. Shaw Research and Shiyang Cao, an algorithmic trader from Jump Trading. Earlier this year, in January, it incorporated a UK subsidiary, 'Ansatz Capital UK Ltd,' with a registered office in The Minister Building near Fenchurch Street.
Ansatz has employed a small number of people in the UK for some time. Quant developer Roman Rubanenko joined the firm from Hudson River Trading in December 2023, while Eugene Nemchenko joined as a software developer from WorldQuant last July. It's not clear whether they were working remotely prior to the establishment of the UK entity. Ansatz's most recent London hire is Gabriele Abbati. He joined in December as a quant researcher after three and a half years in the same role at Man AHL.
Other small US firms have been hiring in London recently. Radix Trading was recently spotted hiring ex-Winton quant researcher Rachel Dowdall, but it does not appear to have a UK entity, and does not say whether it has a London office.
A London-based quant headhunter, speaking anonymously, told us that Amsterdam is the fastest rising city for quant firms in Europe and has "grown considerably, more so on the HFT side." Another secretive New York trading firm, Five Rings, is in the process of building out an office in that region, according to its job listings.
Ansatz is pretty niche, even among niche quant firms with a headcount somewhere in the low tens. One ex-employee on Quora, said in 2021 that the "entire company was made up of a handful of people in their early thirties and making millions annually." With the incorporation of its new UK entity, it may be hiring a handful more in the future.
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