TRADER OF THE YEAR
They are far less visible than their counterparts in corporate finance or in the capital markets, but traders play a crucial role in many organisations.
For this year’s selection we have chosen two traders for big banks, one hedge fund founder and one hedge fund trader. And then there’s a man from Glencore.
Don’t miss the City event of the year – book your table for the City A.M. Awards on 21 September 2011 at Grange St Paul’s Hotel, London EC4. www.CityAMAwards.com
STEVEN ROTH
MAN GROUP
GLG’s Steven Roth is the man responsible for the GLG Market Neutral Fund, which generated returns of 33.7 per cent last year. This year returns have been more modest but are still said to be around nine per cent.
Roth joined Man-owned GLG in 2005 to co-manage the GLG Market Neutral and GLG Global Convertible Funds. Earlier this year he wrote about a paper explaining why he is a convertible bonds fan.
He previously spent seven years at Deutsche Bank, where he was a managing director and head of the number one ranked European convertible business. Away from the screens, Roth enjoys wine tasting and collecting and watching movies. He also is reported to play a mean game of table football.
ALEX BEARD
GLENCORE
Alex Beard is Glencore’s global head of oil, whose stake in the firm became worth around £1.7bn when it was floated earlier this year.
He joined Glencore in 1995. He was appointed director of the oil commodity department in February 2007, overseeing all of Glencore’s crude oil and oil products.
Now he runs the group’s oil trading division from offices in Mayfair, and he is also a director of Chemoil and various other Glencore Group companies.
Beard holds an MA degree in biochemistry from Oxford. Before Glencore, he worked for BP.
Beard is the top man for Glencore in the UK, and is already a fully fledged member of the Sunday Times rich list.
MICHAEL HINTZE
CQS
Michael Hintze, the Australian founder of hedge fund CQS, is short-listed this year mainly for his decision to donate £2m of his personal wealth to the National Gallery in January.
Hintze, who founded CQS in 1999, is a regular giver to the arts, supporting institutions including the Old Vic, the V&A and Wandsworth Museum.
Hintze, who is also a donor to the Conservative party, said at the time of his gift: “We have always sought to give back to those institutions that have enriched and given so much to our lives.” He was formerly head of equity trading at Goldman.
CQS took a massive short position on Bradford & Bingley at the time of the financial crisis.
RICHARD EVANS
MORGAN STANLEY
Morgan Stanley’s Richard Evans is a rising star in the electronic equity trading world.
He currently runs Delta-1 strategists, which is focused on creating better toolkits to help manage Morgan Stanley’s execution business and ensure that the firm is positioned appropriately for the future trading environment.
He joined Morgan Stanley in September 2009 in a well reported move from Citigroup, where he was responsible for a range of electronic execution services, including its agency programme trading, transaction cost analysis, market data monetisation and the Lava e-trading product lines.
Evans was also a founding board member of the investment bank-backed Turquoise trading platform from April 2007 to December 2008.
Outside work, Evans is a keen runner who, having run three marathons, has most recently turned his hand to triathlons.
DAVID HITCHENS
UNICREDIT
At the age of 29, David Hitchens was made one of the youngest ever managing directors when he became global head of FX derivatives trading at Bank of America.
Since then he has successfully managed the FX options businesses at Calyon, TD Securities and latterly Unicredit, Italy’s biggest bank, where he is managing director and global head of vanilla forex trading.
Now 36, Hitchens has been one of the foremost FX options traders in recent years demonstrating consistent success.
Following the credit crisis, he has been quick to respond to changing market conditions, leading TD to be the first bank to stream live options prices into the CME, the world’s biggest derivatives exchange.
Hitchens has also been highly involved in the application of artificial intelligence to the algorithmic trading of both FX spot and options.