Top quant trader leaves Credit Suisse in NYC after 13 months

A senior trader in Credit Suisse's New York City systematic strategies unit is leaving the bank not very long after he arrived.

Photios Harmantzis, a director in Credit Suisse's NYC Systematic Strategies Group, left the bank this month. He only joined from Bank of America Merrill Lynch in January 2016.

Harmantzis' exit comes as Credit Suisse makes a push into systematic trading with its systematic market making group, run by Nick Branca in NYC and Pierre-Yves Morlat in Paris. In October, Bloomberg reported that SSM was launching two new funds: Qube and QT, with QT based in NYC and expected to start trading at the start of this year. Credit Suisse has just appointed Ross Zeifman, former COO of systematic market making in the Americas, as QT's COO.

Harmantzis looked like a good candidate for QT. A senior quant trader with experience in academia, hedge funds and algorithmic trading in banking, he's worked across FX, equities, G10 rates and treasuries. It's not clear where Harmantzis is off to next.

Credit Suisse continues to cut costs in its investment bank. As we reported this week, it plans to cut another CHF800m ($800m) from global markets in the next few years. A bigger emphasis on systematic trading is likely to be one way of facilitating this.

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com

Photo credit: Credit Suisse by eflon is licensed under CC BY 2.0.