Ex-Deutsche trader quits Brevan Howard as rivals hire from J.P. Morgan

Brevan Howard is having a hard time. Following reports of $1.4bn in redemption requests in April, it's said to be preparing for a scenario in which funds under management fall by up to 40%. Ben Melkman has indeed left to set up his own fund, and traders previously hired from banks have been dribbling out the door. According to the UKs Financial Conduct Authority Register, the latest to leave is Shawn Cooper, who was de-registered with the fund in the UK on 8 June.

Cooper only joined Brevan in May 2015, after a nine year career at Deutsche Bank, where he traded asset backed securities and CDOs. His tenure at Brevan Howard appears to have been woefully short. Brevan did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Not all London hedge funds are doing away with traders hired from banks though: some are adding them still. The FCA Register also indicates that Millennium Capital Partners hired Lindsey Casfikis, a former vice president in fixed income sales from J.P. Morgan. Elsewhere, Roy Aviner, the J.P. Morgan trader who left the bank in March, has just turned up at BlueCrest Capital Management as predicted.

With markets tough, hedge funds look like increasingly risky job moves for ex-bank traders. In any case, funds are increasingly partial to hiring from rivals rather than banks. BlueCrest, for example, also just hired Fawaz Chaudhry from Moore Capital. Meanwhile, Johan Levavasseur, the former SAC Capital Advisors portfolio manager who joined Millennium in October 2013, appears to have left again (possibly to join the ever-popular Point72 Asset Management).

Photo credit: DSC_2052.dxo by Spiros Vathis is licensed under CC BY 2.0.b