Ex-Morgan Stanley algo trader reappears at hedge fund Caxton Associates

Selim Adyel, a former associate on Morgan Stanley's algorithmic trading desk, has joined Caxton Associates after a sabbatical during which he studied artificial intelligence and crytpocurrencies.

A graduate of the elite École Centrale Paris and the equally elite École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (where Einstein studied), Adyel was the first student to be selected for a dual degree from both institutions. He ranks in the top 2% globally on coding website Hackerrank, for both Python and Java problems, and he has completed Stanford University's online machine learning programme with a 98% pass score. 

In apparent recognition of Adyel's ability, Morgan Stanley promoted him to associate just one year after he joined as a graduate recruit. At Caxton, he will be a quantitative analyst supporting the fund's global macro investments.

Caxton has a reputation for paying exceptionally well. In 2016, for example, average pay for all employees at the fund was $892k, while average partner pay was nearly $5m and the highest paid employee earned £58m ($75m). In 2017, however, Caxton's profits plummeted 92% and the employee with the best compensation took home 'just' £4.3m.

Adyel isn't Caxton's only 2018 hire. The fund also hired David Caplan from Blackrock as an assistant portfolio manager and Abhishek Reddy from Barclays as a macro trader, both in June and Mehmet Adil Tezgul, as a portfolio manager from Millennium in April.

Adyel's exit follows that of Jas Sandhu, Morgan Stanley's top equities algo strat, who left for RBC Capital Markets last month.

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