Ex-ExodusPoint traders regroup at new macro fund

2020 hasn't been a good year for macro hedge fund launches. This isn't preventing some former ExodusPoint people from breaking out on their own.

Alessandro Cipollini, a former macro trader at ExodusPoint Capital Management has launched his own fund, Ermitage Capital Management LLP according to his LinkedIn profile. Not to be confused with Bill Browder's Hermitage Capital Management, documents filed with Companies House show Ermitage was registered in May 2020.

Cipollini declined to comment for this article, but it's understood that the new fund will be a discretionary macro fund specialized in volatility trades. Cipollini is not the only partner: the company registration document reveals that Karim Olivier, a former ExodusPoint quant analyst has joined him at Ermitage too.

Cipollini and Karim left ExodusPoint over a year ago in May 2019 and have presumably been plotting their comeback since. Cipollini spent just over a year at the fund after joining from Hutchin Hill. Karim was there for a similarly short stay after joining from Mako Investment Managers.

2020 is a challenging year to be starting a macro hedge fund. Recent research from EurekaHedge shows there have only been five macro hedge fund launches this year, but 73 closures. However, macro funds in Europe have outperformed, with average returns of 4.3% compared to 2.04% for all hedge funds globally.

ExodusPoint was founded by Michael Gelband, a former star fixed income portfolio manager at Millennium Management, who left after allegedly being refused a stake in Izzy Englander's fund. Launched in 2018 with $8bn under management, ExodusPoint promptly set about hiring on both sides of the Atlantic. After raising more capital earlier this year, there are signs that it's begun hiring again.

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com in the first instance. Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram also available. Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)

Photo by Jeremy Cai on Unsplash