Hedge fund Millennium hires portfolio manager from Steve Cohen's firm

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON(Reuters) - Millennium Management, one of the industry's biggest hedge funds, has hired a portfolio manager from billionaire stock picker Steven A. Cohen's investment company, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Ariel Masafy specializes in consumer stocks and had worked for Cohen, who invests roughly $11 billion, since 2011. Masafy could not be reached for comment and a spokesman for Cohen's firm, Point72 Asset Management, declined to comment.

Moves by portfolio managers between fund firms are closely watched on Wall Street especially now that many firms posted lackluster 2016 returns which could signal an uptick in moves.

Millennium, led by billionaire Israel Englander, employs a large number of trading teams that invest some $34 billion in assets. The firm's flagship fund ended 2016 with a 3.3 percent gain, far below the double-digit gains it earned in past years.

In 2013 SAC plead guilty to insider trading charges and was forced by the government to stop managing outsiders' capital. Cohen was never charged. A year later, the firm turned into a family office that invests Cohen personal fortune and changed its name to Point72. At that time, a number of Cohen's fund managers left to set up their own firms.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by David Gregorio)

---

Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!

---

You May Also Be Interested In

• Judge dismisses lawsuit by Elon Musk's X challenging New York hate speech law
• US judge again blocks Texas law targeting drag acts as unconstitutional
• Trump signs order banning some foreign equipment from US energy grid