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Ex Millennium and LMR Partners Portfolio Manager launches R Squared Global fund

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Gordian Capital has launched the R Squared Global Fund, managed by William Warner and Justin Leow. 

Gordian Capital has launched the R Squared Global fund, managed by William Warner and Justin Leow. 

The Fund invests in liquid derivative instruments, using quantitative models to arbitrage systematic and structural inefficiencies in the market with strategies not commonly implemented by hedge funds. The offering is scalable to USD1 billion given the highly liquid nature of the underlying portfolio.  
 
With its unique strategies, the Fund is expected to target a high Sharpe ratio, low volatility and low correlation to the broader equity markets and other funds, based on Warner’s prior trading experience.  
 
Warner, the Fund’s founder and Chief Investment Officer was most recently a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager with Millennium Management in Tokyo before joining Gordian Capital Japan in 2021. He began his career as an equity derivatives trader at JP Morgan in Tokyo (2008 to 2012) where his team became one of the largest revenue generators for the company in the region. It was also during this time where he met and worked for Peter Lindsey, a market veteran, who recently joined R Squared Global as a Portfolio Manager.  
 
Warner then moved to Credit Suisse as a proprietary trader in 2012 where he expanded his strategies globally. Prior to joining Millennium, Warner worked as a Portfolio Manager managing a global portfolio at LMR Partners in Hong Kong from 2016 to 2019. He holds a BSc in Engineering from Cornell.  

Justin Leow, the Fund’s co-founder and Chief Risk Officer was most recently the Head of Business Operations as part of the founding team at Coins.ph, a mobile wallet fintech startup and crypto exchange in the Philippines. He built the company’s crypto exchange including its automated crypto trading and risk management infrastructure.  
 
Coins.ph grew to over 10 million customers, becoming one of the largest mobile wallets and cryptocurrency exchanges in the Philippines and was acquired in 2019, by Gojek, a major regional financial technology company valued at over USD10 billion. Prior to Coins.ph, Leow was a high frequency trader in Chicago, notably spending four years at IMC Financial Markets developing ultra-low latency market making and arbitrage strategies for the US equity derivatives markets. Leow joined Gordian Capital Singapore in 2021. He holds a BSc in Engineering from Cornell and is a CFA charterholder.  
 
Warner comments: “Our Fund focuses on market neutral, high Sharpe Ratio arbitrage strategies globally and we intend to source risk premia in non-crowded trades. Stable returns with capital preservation are of the utmost importance, whilst aiming for low correlation with both the market and other hedge funds.” The Fund, a Cayman-domiciled corporate vehicle, is open to US investors.  
 
Warner adds: “Recent market events have shown that many funds claiming to be market-neutral are actually taking on large risks because they rely on certain correlation assumptions which may not necessarily hold up in stress scenarios. Our approach is to avoid these crowded trades and instead focus on delivering sustainable alpha from areas in the market that are overlooked.”  
Justin Leow notes: “We wouldn’t have considered bringing the Fund to the market if we didn’t have high conviction that our strategies were substantially differentiated and allowed our investors to gain exposure to a return profile that was unlike other offerings in the market. Our focus on niche uncorrelated absolute-return strategies, combined with strict risk and drawdown controls, allows us to present a Fund offering that we believe is truly unique.”  
 
Despite the various travel restrictions during Covid-19, R Squared Global has managed to successfully raise assets in a short time from a wide investor base ranging from high-calibre institutions in Europe and the US to a myriad of family offices and high net-worth individuals in Asia, with the Fund targeting assets to surpass USD200 million in its first year. As part of the Fund’s launch, R Squared Global will be leveraging Gordian Capital’s Fund Platform and 16 years of expertise to provide operational, regulatory, and compliance support for the Fund. Established in 2004 by capital markets professionals and alternatives industry veterans active in Asia since the 1980s, Gordian Capital is Asia’s leading institutional quality, independent fund platform specialist, currently managing USD6 billion.  
 
Initially launching its first operating subsidiary in Singapore in 2005, the group now has a regulated presence in Singapore, Japan and Australia and its Singapore and Tokyo operations are both registered with the US SEC as Registered Investment Advisers.  
 
“We are delighted to onboard William and Justin, in our Tokyo and Singapore offices respectively, and look forward to supporting both them and their fund’s growth,” says Mark Voumard, CEO of Gordian Capital Singapore. “William brings a wealth of experience having worked at both large investment banks in prop trading and a number of large hedge funds.”  
 
Alvaro Tamura, CEO of Gordian Capital Japan, a fully regulated Discretionary Investment Management license holder and registered SEC investment advisor adds: “We are pleased to provide a unique cross-border platform solution for the Portfolio Managers, who are based in two different key Asian financial centers and are trading a global set of products, to be able to work together on the Fund.”  

 

 

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