The ex-Barclays head of quantitative analytics quietly left Rokos Capital Management

One of London's top quants is on the move. Vladimir Piterbarg, the former head of quantitative analytics at Barclays, who joined the Rokos family office in 2015, has left again according to insiders. His destination is unclear.

Piterbarg didn't respond to a request to comment on his plans, but a Rokos employee confirmed his exit. Piterbarg is understood to have left around a month ago, despite still being registered as employed by Rokos on the London Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Register.   

Piterbarg's exit comes as both banks and hedge funds are hiring quantitative talent. Goldman Sachs, for example, is continuing to build out its "strats" team this year, and funds like Citadel have been focusing on quant hires and building machine learning expertise. 

Piterbarg spent around three years and three months at Rokos after spending over 10 years at Barclays. He previously worked for Bank of America, where he was an MD and co-head of quantitative research. Piterbarg has a PhD in mathematics from the University of Southern California.

While Piterbarg is leaving Rokos, others have been arriving - particularly juniors. Owen Powell, a former junior fixed income sales trader at Berenberg, joined as a trading assistant in June. Dusan Milijancevic, a former Goldman Sachs oil trader, joined as a junior portfolio manager in May.

Founded in 2013 by Chris Rokos, the co-founder of hedge fund Brevan Howard, the Rokos Family Office was intended to manage Rokos' own fortune. In January 2017, Rokos opened the fund to outside money and Rokos Capital Management was born. It's not clear whether Piterbarg worked for the family office or the hedge fund (or both): he's registered as working for Rokos Capital Management with the FCA, but says he works for the family office in LinkedIn. Both of these seem set to change soon.

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