Traders from Moore Capital Are Spinning Out $3 Billion Hedge Fund to Wager on Inflation

A group of Moore Capital Management traders led by Joeri Jacobs are spinning out to start their own hedge fund with backing from billionaire Louis Bacon’s investment firm.

(Bloomberg) — A group of Moore Capital Management traders led by Joeri Jacobs are spinning out to start their own hedge fund with backing from billionaire Louis Bacon’s investment firm.

Jacobs is starting to trade for the fund this month with more than $3 billion, including $1 billion from Moore Capital, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Jacobs and his team will run an inflation-oriented trading strategy, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private.

The money manager previously ran an inflation and fixed-income portfolio at Moore, which returned outside investors’ money in three of its main funds when Bacon stepped back from trading in 2019. Now, he’s set up JJJ Capital Management in London with colleagues Roshan Patel, Lucca Norton and Haroon Sana.   

The firm raised capital from between 15 and 20 investors and will not take additional cash for the next 12 months, one of the people added. 

Jacobs declined to comment.

Inflation trading, a once-obscure business that deals in bonds and derivatives linked to consumer prices, is now a source of fertile trading opportunities as central banks fight to bring soaring inflation under control. Lenders including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. made about $3.9 billion last year from inflation trading — almost double what the firms made in 2021.

JJJ breaks into a very small group of new independent hedge fund firms, going against a wave of traders joining bigger, multi-manager platforms that offer stable capital, high-tech trading infrastructure and lucrative payouts. More hedge funds have closed than opened in recent years. 

The firm is one of the largest new entrants this year, joining former Citadel traders Jonas Diedrich and Dave Sutton’s $1.85 billion initial raise for their London-based Ilex Capital Partners and Mala Gaonkar’s SurgoCap Partners that launched in January with $1.8 billion, Bloomberg has reported.

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