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Quant Hedge Fund Solaise to Shutter After 11 Years of Trading

Quant Hedge Fund Solaise to Shutter After 11 Years of Trading

Quantitative investing firm Solaise Capital Management is closing down after 11 years following a decline in assets amid poor performance.

The London-based hedge fund firm’s Solaise Systematic Program was up 5.5% in 2021 and had lost 13% the year before, trailing peers over the period, according to an investor letter seen by Bloomberg. The fund was left with assets of just $51 million.

“It has been a tough environment for futures traders and our absolute returns have not been as we would have hoped,” Ali Nejjar, founding partner and chairman of the firm, said in the letter. “We have thus decided to call a halt.”

James Walker, a managing partner at the firm, confirmed the decision and said that while they continued to believe in the power of their trading system, asset levels were insufficient to support the business. The firm managed more than $400 million at its peak in 2015, he said.

Smaller funds are finding it increasingly difficult to remain in business as costs rise and investors migrate to bigger investment firms. More than 400 hedge funds shuttered during the first three quarters of last year, according to data compiled by Hedge Fund Research Inc.

Nejjar previously worked at quant investing firm Winton. 

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