A brief guide to getting a job at Greg Coffey's new hedge fund

Greg Coffey is definitely back. He of the smouldering looks and shoulder length hair has achieved returns of 4.6% in the seven weeks since his new macro emerging markets fund, 'Kirkoswald Capital', started trading according to the Financial Times.. Accordingly, the FT says Coffey's former protégé and ex-employer Louis Bacon of Moore Capital, will be doubling his investment in Kirkoswald, which initially received commitments of $2bn from all its investors.

With more money, Kirkoswald may yet need more staff. If you want to work with Coffey, however, it will help if you have one special attribute: you will either have worked with him before, or been employed by one of his former employers.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority Register reveals that Kirkoswald currently employs six registered people in addition to Coffey. All but one of them have worked where the man himself worked before he took early retirement to spend more time with his family in 2012.

Coffey's new colleagues include: investor relations professional Patricia Martin, who was with Coffey at GLG Partners and Moore Europe before joining Kirkoswald in February 2018; head of execution, James Saltisi, also formerly of GLG and seemingly an old friend of Coffey's; COO Bob Price (ex-GLG), portfolio manager Stuart Atkinson (ex-Moore); head of business development Richard Blake (ex-Moore); and head of operations Robert Price (ex-GLG).

The only FCA-listed Kirkoswald employee not have an ex-employer in common with Coffey is Jeremy Power, an ex-Citi associate who switched into hedge funds in 2006 and has since worked for Jabre Capital, Aviate Global and Abbeville Partners.

The prevalence of Coffey's former colleagues is not entirely the result of individual hiring decisions. Martin, Saltisi, Price and Power all came from Abbeville Partners, an equities fund set up by Saltisi in 2013 and backed by Coffey during his time in retirement. Abbeville changed its name to Kirkoswald in January 2018.  Even non-Abbeville recruits come from Coffey's former employers though: if you haven't worked for GLG, it helps to have worked for Moore.

Coffey worked for GLG from 2003 to 2008, and then for Moore from 2008 to 2012. He decided to throw it all in aged 41 and to spend more time with his wife and three children in London, Australia, and on the Scottish island of Jura (population 190), where he owns a 12,000 acre estate and golf course.

While a job at Kirkoswald may involve team trips to Jura, it's also likely to come at a price. Before his retirement, Coffey was known for taking multiple trading screens on family holidays and for churning his portfolio. - In 2008 he was rumoured to have turned over his $5bn portfolio over an average of 2.8 times a day. After six years out of the market, Coffey's trading habits may have changed. But with fears of another debt crisis in emerging markets, this may yet prove wishful thinking.

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