Hedge fund giant Citadel has appointed John Fawcett as its new Head of Equities Engineering, marking another senior hire as the firm continues to expand its equities technology capabilities, according to a report by eFinancial Careers.
Fawcett joins from Robinhood, where he spent four years overseeing engineering efforts. However, he is perhaps best known for founding Quantopian, the ambitious quant community platform that sought to crowdsource trading strategies from independent quants worldwide.
Founded in 2013, Quantopian provided a collaborative space for quants — many outside the traditional finance industry — to develop and test algorithmic trading strategies. The platform attracted significant attention, raising funding from firms, including Point72. However, by 2020, Fawcett conceded that “crowdsourcing alpha was a moonshot” and shut down the platform, much to the disappointment of its users.
At Citadel, Fawcett will lead engineering efforts within the firm’s equities division, which has been actively hiring in both London and the US.
Citadel’s push to bolster its equities technology team has seen several key hires in recent months. Last year, the firm brought in William Pan from Balyasny Asset Management as an equities engineering lead. However, there have also been notable departures, including Juan Leon, Citadel’s former Director of Equities Engineering, who left in June and is now self-employed.
