BlueCrest is hiring commodities traders, but people keep leaving
BlueCrest, the family office that was formerly a hedge fund, is adding to its 170 pods this year. Owner Mike Platt is diversifying into areas like commodities, but while Platt brings new commodities portfolio managers in through his front door, others are exiting out the back.
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Recent exits include Fouad Ramadan, a former Citi metals trader, who joined BlueCrest in London in June 2022, only to leave again on July 1st 2024. Bruce Kish, a former Trafigura trader who joined from Millennium in 2022 has also recently disappeared. Alex Hogg, a London-based cross commodities trader has just gone to LevMet, a Monaco based commodities house, after a similarly short stint with Platt. Jason Greenberg, another former Millennium trader, left in June for Jain Global.
Headhunters caution against reading too much into the flurry of exits. BlueCrest's commodities team is "going from strength," declares one US-based commodities recruiter. "Really good traders" are arriving, he adds. These arrivals are thought to include Chase Allen, the former head of North American trading at Trailstone Group in Texas.
BlueCrest didn't respond to a request to comment for this article, but as we've noted before, working in commodities for a hedge fund isn't always easy and working for Mike Platt in particular requires a particular kind of person. One former BlueCrest commodities trader tells us that Platt is a "genius" but says he doesn't entirely understand commodities: "Commodities is a volatile low sharpe, high return business and BlueCrest struggles with that," he claims. BlueCrest may not be alone seeing traders come and go - Balyasny also recently said goodbye to Mike Grigsby, a senior oil trader it hired in 2021.
BlueCrest's DNA is in macro trading. Sources from the firm say it doesn't help that the commodities business is being run by Joseph Walkrush, a former Goldman Sachs managing director and head of rates trading at the fund. "You need a commodities guy running the commodities business," says the trader, pointing to Anthony Dewell at Millennium and Sebastian Barrack at Citadel. "You can't just hire a bunch of commodities PMs and expect them to go trade."
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