Steve Cohen Takes Ken Griffin’s Advice, Quant

Last year, Steve Cohen was complaining about just how hard it is to get some decent help around here. Rather than offering a sympathetic shoulder to cry on, Ken Griffin pointedly noted he wasn’t having any trouble, possibly because Preet Bharara hadn’t dragged his name through the mud. Why, look, he’d just hired Steve Cohen’s brother-in-law to run a new stock-picking unit.

One can imagine the profanity and raised voices this occasioned at 72 Cummings Point Road. Also, the revenge-plotting. The Big Guy, of course, has also been planning his triumphant return from the wilderness. The opportunity was ripe. So Ken: You say I just have to go out and steal other people’s talent? Well, I’ll do just that. And not just any talent, but the kind of talent that you and I and everyone else are scrambling for.

Jerrell Watts, the former head of algorithmic execution and order routing at Citadel, who has worked across both its hedge fund and securities business, joined Steve Cohen’s firm as head of algorithmic trading earlier this month….

He worked at Citadel in New York for nearly eight years, before departing in April 2016. Like many hedge funds, Citadel often imposes one-year non-compete clauses on senior staff, which may explain the gap between jobs.

Point72 has just hired a new head of algo trading from Citadel [eFinancialCareers]