8 ~ntelligence Hutchin Hill opens I Bellman Wa,lter shuts I Fees stay h1gh

Throughout2008the fund benefited from its focus on remaining hedged and having ex­tremely low exposure and low correlation to the markets.

Chriss first met Simons on the board of Math for America, a New York foundation that promotes math education in New York City schools.

Chriss learned computer pro­gramming when he was 11 years old.

He earned a Ph.D. in math­ematics from the University of Chicago and in 1998 joined Goldman Sachs's quantitative strategies group, where he became a portfolio manager and ran a volatility arbitrage book for the firm's Global Alpha fund.

erated strong returns and at its peak ran two- thirds of the SAC Multi-Strategy fund's as­sets. Chriss left in early 2007 to form Hutchin Hill, before the quant crisis hit in August 2007. "I saw it all coming, of course, so I decided to take the year off;' Chriss joked at the 2007 Absolute Return Symposium.

Neil Chriss finally opens Hutchin Hill to outside ca:pital

"I don't think there's anyone out there dose with both Stevie Cohen and Jim Simons;' said an indi­vidual close to Chriss. "They're both geniuses but with different styles. Neil is the bridge between those two styles:'

Chriss left Goldman in 2000 to found iCor Brokerage, a derivatives trading fum that was later sold to Reuters.

In 2003 Cohen hired Chriss to build a quantitative trading desk at SAC. The division gen-

II The former SAC Capital Advisors quant chief has opened to outside capital after produc­ing two years of impressive returns II

While tens of billions of dollars flowed into quants, volatility appeared low, which led quant managers to increase leverage. This in turn led to an overlap of names held by quant managers.

"People talk about the dom­ino effect, and it's ironic that Domino's Pizza has an actual stock, and it was something that was in the 13Fs of a lot of quant funds;' Chriss joked.

The quant meltdown of 2007 was reminiscent of Long Term Capital Management's implosion in 1998, which revealed a surprising correla­tion between merger arb and emerging market debt.

•.::··:

After db~ting strong returns in 2008 and 2009, Hutchin Hill Capital, founded by former SAC Capital Advisors quant chief Neil Chriss in late 2007, is marketing to outside investors for the first time.

The fund, Hutchin Multi­Strategy, launched in July 2008 with $300 million from the Meritage Fund and Renais­sance Technologies founder Jim Simons' $7 billion family office, which manages money for sev­eral Renaissance partners.

Once he launched the firm, Chriss immediately closed Hutchin Hill to outside inves­tors. The firm manages $400 million and is hoping to reach $1 billion, according to a source close to the firm.

Hutchin Multi-Strategy invests in all liquid markets, including equities, credit and currencies. The fund gained 13% in 2008 after launching that July and rose 17% in 2009.

Chriss is one of the world's most seasoned quants. He is one of 25 quantitative professionals profiled in the 2007 book "How I Became a Quant;' which revealed that - Suzy Kenly

SAC vets dissolve Bellman Walter -7A fonner star trader for Steve Cohen's SAC Capital has found less success with his post -SAC venture. Bellman \Val­ter Capital, the long/short equity shop co-founded in 2008 by former SAC Capital Advisors short -term trading star Rich Walter and another SAC veteran, energy trader Jeff Bellman, has closed shop. Calls to the firm's San Francisco headquar­ters are now met with a recording saying that the firm has been closed since December 31. The firm also had an office in London, which ceased to be authorized by the Financial Ser­vices Authority on February 10. Bellman Walter launched with about $650 million, but according to its latest filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the firm's equity portfo· lio was already empty as of December 31. Robert Murray

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