Balyasny Taps Ex-Deutsche Bank Basis Trader Mansell

Mint

3 days ago

(Bloomberg) -- Balyasny Asset Management has hired Jamie Mansell, who was co-head of European government bond trading at Deutsche Bank AG until recently, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mansell, who specializes in the highly leveraged bond basis trade, made over €200 million ($228 million) for Germany's biggest bank in recent years, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing non-public information. He was previously with Morgan Stanley. He will join Balyasny's macro business as an associate portfolio manager later this year, one of the people said.
Mansell and representatives for Balyasny and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
Some of the largest hedge funds employ the so-called basis trade, betting on price differences between cash Treasuries and futures. In order to profit from the tiny gap, traders typically borrow heavily, often 50 to 100 times the capital invested. The highly popular trade has ballooned, with recent estimates putting the amount staked on such bets at about $1 trillion — about double the amount five years ago.
Deutsche Bank's fixed income and currency trading unit increased revenues by 17% in the first quarter, outperforming most peers, buoyed mainly by a strong rates business. The unit benefited from high demand for European government bonds as investors shifted money from the US to Europe, as well as from the revival of its rates business in the US.
Dmitry Balyasny's multistrategy hedge fund, which manages about $25 billion, has been beefing up its trading desks by hiring several investment managers, with some of them being offered potential payouts of as much as $50 million. In April, the fund delivered gains of about 1% during the volatility around US President Donald Trump's tariff announcements.
(Corrects Mansell's title in headline and first paragraph.)
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