Several weeks ago we learned that 2011's vaporizer extraordinaire Jon Corzine is contemplating starting his own hedge fund [7]: presumably one that invests all its capital in Italian 2 year bonds, charges 2 and 20, and then disappears when all LP capital blows up in an AUM supernova. Today, we learn that the stigma freeze associated with all other former MF Global trading whizkids has officially melted, as the former head of equity derivatives of MF Global has just launched a new hedge fund. From Bloomberg: "Daniel Bystrom, former head of equity derivatives trading at MF Global Inc., and Neil Boyarsky plan to start Hawksfield Capital LLC, a New York-based equity volatility hedge fund, by the end of this month. Hawksfield Capital will start with $10 million to $20 million of Bystrom and Boyarsky’s own money, as well as capital from friends and family, Bystrom said in a telephone interview. “The fund will deliver returns that are uncorrelated and often negatively correlated to the returns of the typical hedge- fund strategy,” Bystrom said. “The opportunity set expands dramatically in times of higher volatility, when most other asset classes are not performing well.” Such as the stock of MF Global perhaps?
More:
Boyarsky, 40, has served as executive vice president of Improved Funding Techniques Inc., an actuarial and benefits consulting firm, for 12 years. He will be Hawksfield’s chief executive officer and Bystrom will be chief investment officer.
Bystrom and Boyarsky first discussed starting a hedge fund five years ago. After MF Global filed the eighth-biggest U.S. bankruptcy under Chapter 11 on Oct. 31, Bystrom knew the time was right to act on the plan, he said.
“It was an ongoing dialog and it was something I knew I would always do at some point,” Bystrom said. “When MF did go bankrupt, it presented me with the right opportunity to do it.”
Bystrom said it was “disappointing and frustrating” to be part of an organization brought down by “external forces” separate from his team. MF Global, run at the time by former New Jersey Governor and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Co-Chairman Jon Corzine, filed for bankruptcy after a wrong-way $6.3 billion trade on its own behalf on bonds of some of Europe’s most indebted nations.
Hawksfield’s prime broker is Goldman Sachs.
Hmm, not JP Morgan?
We have nothing to add to this. We are sad, however, that the Onion has now completely and officially missed its IPO window.