Hedge fund cut top French quant who really wanted to work there
The last time we wrote about Damien Couture, it was 2023 and he really wanted to work for hedge fund Verition. This intention was proving problematic for him because Couture, a quant trader, had just spent nearly seven years at Jump Trading and Jump Trading had a two year non-compete. Couture was challenging the non-compete in court.
That was November 2023. In May 2023, Couture joined had Verition in London. Now it's July 2026, and he's gone again.
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Couture didn't respond to a request to comment for this article. However, the FCA Register shows that his registration at Verition in London ended on July 6th. Sources say he was stopped out by the fund after hitting his drawdown limit.
Couture has been a quant since 2007 but Verition was his first stint at being a portfolio manager at a multistrategy hedge fund. He previously worked for electronic trading firms G-Research and Jump Trading. Couture is a mathematics graduate of the prestigious École polytechnique.
Verition has a reputation as a comparatively pleasant sort of hedge fund to work for. However, all hedge funds have strict risk limits and are prone to cutting people whose losses exceed a specified maximum. It's been a difficult time for quant funds. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that funds have had their worst performance since 2023 as a result of wild swings in momentum trades.
Verition has made various portfolio manager hires this year, including Jerome Brochard, an MD from Nomura's quantitative investment solutions team; Bruno Baisch, a systematic PM from ExodusPoint; and Praveen Visesh, a macro PM from ExodusPoint.
It's thought that Couture will remain at Verition for two months and will move on after September. It's not clear where he will go next. Nor is it clear what will become of his team. Presumably they won't be bound by another non-compete.
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