Ben Melkman, a former partner at Brevan Howard Asset Management and the founder of the now-shuttered Light Sky Macro fund, has become the latest ‘star’ trader to make a multi-strat move this year, ditching plans for a solo fund to join the team of macro specialists at Schonfeld Strategic Advisors.
The report cites Colin Lancaster, who runs Schonfeld’s Discretionary Macro & Fixed Income business with Mitesh Parikh, as confirming that Melkman signed a contract to join the New York-based hedge fund firm on Monday after months of negotiations. He will be a senior portfolio manager in the unit and is expected to start trading within weeks.
Melkman is the latest in a string of money managers – including Lancaster and Parikh – who have dropped plans to build out their own investments firms in favour of joining Schonfeld.
As part of his agreement with the firm, Melkman, who has previously run more than $3 billion in peak assets, will be running his own strategy and building his own team of macro specialists.
Having made a name for himself at Brevan Howard with profitable bets on Argentina, Melkman launched Light Sky in 2017 with backing from billionaire hedge fund managers Steve Cohen and Dan Loeb. He dissolved the fund and returned capital to investors last year, but was reportedly planning a new fund before Schonfeld came calling.
