BlueCrest likes hiring traders from banks. Sometimes they quickly leave again

If you want to become partner in a hedge fund before the age of 30, you might want to join BlueCrest, the former hedge fund which has become the family office of macro trading legend Mike Platt. 

BlueCrest employs two partner level portfolio managers in London aged under 30 years old: Benjamin Turner, aged 25, who joined from Barclays in May, and Luke Ryan, aged 27, who joined from DRW in June. 

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Other funds also hire young traders from banks. Balyasny, for example, hired 28 year-old Wajih Ahmed from Goldman Sachs last November. And 29 year-old Paulo Costa went from Goldman to Millennium in March. To our knowledge, though, Ahmed and Costa are not partners. 

As a rule, headhunters say it's often easiest to go from a bank to BlueCrest than to a multistrategy hedge fund. "BlueCrest stands out as the one single fund that is still very open to taking from the sell-side," says one hedge fund-focused headhunter, speaking off the record. "Other firms here have been quite vocal with us about their preference for avoiding sell-side guys. The barrier to entry to top funds is now higher than ever and there's usually a requirement for buy-side track records." 

The biggest multistrategy funds now want people who can manage $2bn with a Sharpe above 1.5. "A portfolio manager with a buy-side track record will always command higher interest than an untested sell-side trader," says the headhunter. "Big funds see sell-side guys as "bets", but fewer and fewer make the mark." 

At BlueCrest, by comparison, recent hires include Akash Garg, an emerging markets trader from JPMorgan, and Coco Hands, a former CEEMEA rates trader from BNP Paribas. It's thought that the fund is comparatively willing to hire traders from banks and to start them on smaller pools of capital. However, BlueCrest has also made a large number of recent PM recruits from the buy-side globally. 

Working for BlueCrest can be very lucrative. Platt is reputed to pay successful PMs there 30% of profits versus a standard 20% elsewhere. However, pay is thought to be deferred over three years. There are unconfirmed suggestions that any subsequent negative drawdowns at the fund are netted off against these deferrals.

Joining BlueCrest is one thing. But as at many large hedge funds, staying there can be another. BlueCrest didn't respond to a request to comment for this article, but some people have come and swiftly gone.

Earlier this year, Ankur Aneja, a top trader at Barclays, left after less than six months for reasons that are unclear, but which may have been related to the start of the war in the Middle East. Aneja didn't respond to a request to comment for this article. It's not clear whether he was involved in a drawdown or not.

In February, Alex Watson, a senior natural gas trader who'd joined BlueCrest in October 2023 (from EDF, not a bank) was let go along with a team of analysts. Bloomberg reported that whipsawing gas prices had dented his profitability. Watson didn't respond to our query.

Previous swift exits, include Artur Tarczynski, the ex-EMEA head of interest rate options trading at Deutsche Bank. Tarczynski briefly joined BlueCrest in November 2021 before leaving in June 2022. He is now co-head of non-linear rates trading at Bank of America. It's not clear why Tarczynski left BlueCrest so soon.

Decisions to cut risk at BlueCrest are thought to be made predominantly by Platt. A recent court case based on historic working practices at BlueCrest heard that the fund was managed by a five person executive committee, but that "Essentially we have one client." - Michael Platt.

Platt didn't respond to a request to comment for this article. When BlueCrest does part company with people, there are suggestions that it might shorten non-competes to help them on their way. Speaking off the record, one former trader who worked for the fund for a brief period after joining from a bank, told us he'd been able to negotiate an agreement offering him more lenient terms for his departure. Another headhunter said he's seen this happen a few times recently as people have left BlueCrest. 

Reduced non-competes could mitigate the risk of leaving a banking seat for BlueCrest. It's also worth noting that a lot of traders at BlueCrest do endure: there are 19 partners with over five years tenure at BlueCrest LLP in London, many of whom came from banks. 

For the moment, though, the swift coming and going of Aneja is fresh in people's minds. One London macro trader told us he had been considering going to BlueCrest, but is now feeling a little wary as a result. 

Another headhunter said BlueCrest is simply like most hedge funds. “There are no favourites on the buyside. You make money or you’re gone. It's still a meritocracy, unlike banks," he reflected. 

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