A quant PM that left Eisler Capital with nine others is back
In 2023, London hedge fund Eisler Capital more than doubled the size of its investment team. One of the 97 employees hired in that period was Bernd Kuhlenschmidt, a quantitative portfolio manager who just resurfaced at an electronic trading firm after leaving months ago.
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Kuhlenschmidt has joined Don Wilson's trading firm, DRW, as a portfolio manager in its London office. He held the same role at Eisler for less than a year before leaving in September, alongside nine other money managers.
Of those ten departures, just two other traders appear to have found a new job. William Bartlett, who joined Eisler as a PM from CIBC, resurfaced at Morgan Stanley earlier this month, according to the FCA register. Matthew Haigh, an ex-Citi MD and Bluecrest PM, joined Squarepoint Capital in January. The group is thought to include both voluntary and involuntary departures, though it is not clear which camp each trader was in.
Prior to Eisler, Kuhlenschmidt spent three years as a quantitative trader at Squarepoint himself, and six years at Systematica Investments, a spinout of Bluecrest. Kuhlenschmidt is also a PhD mathematician from Cambridge, whose thesis was on sequential Monte Carlo methods.
Eisler's deputy CIO Sam Wisnia said the fund does not have a culture of "just hiring PMs and leaving them alone." While he says that's a reason why some people don't fit in there, Kuhlenschmidt's new destination is thought to be somewhat similar. Insiders have called DRW "Don's shop" and the FT reported last year that the fund acts more like a family office than a traditional prop trading firm.
At one point in the quarter after Kuhlenschmidt et al left, Eisler returns were thought to be flat. The fund was able to regroup by the end of the year, however, posting 3% returns.
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