Hedge fund Schonfeld said to be hiring in Miami after ex-Citadel hire

It's not just Millennium, Citadel, Point72, Elliott, Balyasny and others - hedge fund Schonfeld is also expanding in Miami.

Following various rumors last week, the Financial Times reported today that Schonfeld has recruited Colin Lancaster, a former head of macro strategies from Citadel. At Schonfeld, Lancaster will run a team split between New York, London and Miami.

Lancaster is reportedly joining Schonfeld with a team of 11 people from his most recent employer Matador Investment Management. We understand that he's also expected to hire externally.

Schonfeld opened an office in London in January 2019. It's also had an office in Coral Gables Miami since 2018, but is understood to be looking at expanding that. Schonfeld recently posted a job advert for a director of recruiting in Miami, which was subsequently taken down, seemingly in the absence of an official announcement.

Earlier this year, Ryan Tolkin, CEO of Schonfeld, purchased a $13.8m house on Miami's North Bay Road. Schonfeld founder Steven Schonfeld, bought a waterfront estate in Palm Beach in late 2019 for over $100m. 

Presumably Lancaster is also equipped with property in the vicinity. He only joined Matador in January 2021 and was on gardening leave from Citadel for a year before that. As we reported earlier this month, Lancaster spent his gardening leave penning a novel about the life of a macro hedge fund manager. In this novel, his fictional protagonist moves to Miami and lives in a flat in a condo on Sunny Isles Beach. "They call it Billionaires Beach," says Lancaster's portfolio manager (PM). "There’s a Zuma, Hakkasan, and Nobu nearby, so I feel at home. Well, at least I will once they open..."

With Schonfeld one in a long line of hedge funds expanding Miami offices, people are pointing to the "huge presence" of hedge funds and related staff in Florida. Most funds are understood to be starting their local offices with technologists, meaning it's not just analysts and PMs who are in demand in Florida now.

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 Tessa Wilson on Unsplash