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Squarepoint Capital
Company typePrivate
IndustryFinancial services
PredecessornQuant
FoundedDecember 16, 2014; 9 years ago (2014-12-16)
Founders
  • Olivier Durantel
  • Gregoire Schneider
  • Antoine Fillet
  • Maxime Fortin
Headquarters250 West 55th Street, New York City, New York, U.S.
ProductsInvestment Management
AUMUS$75.7 billion (2022)
Number of employees
725 (2022)
Websitewww.squarepoint-capital.com
Footnotes / references
[1]

Squarepoint Capital ("Squarepoint") is a global investment management firm headquartered in New York City with additional offices in Europe and Asia. The firm is known for its quantitative finance approach to investing.

Background

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The origins of Squarepoint can be traced to nQuant, a proprietary trading unit founded within Lehman Brothers in 2000.[2][3][4][5] Its founders were Olivier Durantel and Gregoire Schneider.[2][3][4][5] Antoine Fillet and Maxime Fortin joined the team in 2003 and 2004 respectively.[2] All four of them were alumni of École polytechnique, a French engineering school.[3] nQuant was sold to Barclays in 2008 after it acquired Lehman Brothers North American operations.[2][3][4][5]

In May 2014, Barclays announced it planned to cut jobs and businesses that were not considered part of its core business.[2] nQuant, was considered a non-core business and the Volcker Rule meant it could no longer perform proprietary trading activities under a commercial bank.[2][5] In August 2014, it was reported that nQuant was going to be spun off as an independent firm with 60 employees leaving.[2][3][4][5]

On December 15, 2014, nQuant was spun off as an independent firm and was renamed to Squarepoint.[3][4][5][6] On January 2, 2015, Squarepoint received approval from the Financial Conduct Authority to manage investments on behalf of third parties.[4][5][6] Within two years of its launch, Squarepoint doubled its staff headcount.[4]

According the firm's filing in 2020, 80% of its investors are non-U.S.[3]

In October 2021, Squarepoint entered a strategic partnership with Arini Capital, a European hedge fund.[7][8] Squarepoint would provide support to the fund.[7][8]

In March 2022, it was reported Squarepoint has been trading bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange but has been hesitant on crypto trading.[9]

Lawsuits

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Footnoted.com

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Footnoted.com was a financial news and research website founded by Michelle Leder.[3] Leder launched a lawsuit against Squarepoint alleging it had stolen 16,000 pages worth of information without paying.[3]

Vojislav Sesum

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In April 2018, Squarepoint launched a lawsuit against a former employee, Vojislav Sesum, who it claimed had developed a trading strategy while at Squarepoint and subsequently offered it to Millennium Management.[3] The arbitrator initially directed Sesum to pay Squarepoint $188,137 in damages plus $919,053 disgorged profits he received from Millennium although the final order issued in 2020 was partially reduced.[3]

References

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  1. ^ "Form ADV" (PDF). SEC. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Barclays Trading Unit Said to Take 60 Employees in Spinout". Bloomberg.com. August 12, 2014. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "A Corporate Sleuth Claims Squarepoint Capital Took Her Content. The Hedge Fund Is Threatening Action. What Actually Happened?". Institutional Investor. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "Hot quant fund run by ex-Barclays traders has been doing some big hiring". eFinancialCareers. October 5, 2017. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "The 2016 Hedge Fund Rising Stars: Pierre-Adrien Nicolas". Institutional Investor. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  6. ^ a b Cave, Tim. "Barclays' prop desk spin-out takes shape". www.fnlondon.com. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  7. ^ a b "Hamza Lemssouguer's Arini Expands With Hires From QIA, Centerbridge, and BNP Paribas". Institutional Investor. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  8. ^ a b "Ex-Credit Suisse Trader's Hedge Fund Arini Slumps Amid Market Turmoil". Bloomberg.com. November 2, 2022. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  9. ^ Zuckerman, Gregory. "Mainstream Hedge Funds Pour Billions of Dollars Into Crypto". WSJ. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
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