Former Point72 president Doug Haynes is looking to revive a strategy he previously ran for billionaire Steve Cohen for his new fund launch.
The quantamental strategy — which blends fundamental stockpicking and algorithm-based number crunching — was internally known at Point72 as Idea Lab while under Haynes and then eventually became Latitude before shuttering in 2020. Latitude's former head Chris Coward is also working as a consultant for the new firm.
It's an alpha capture-type strategy in which 12 West Palm Beach-based analysts will come up with investment ideas, and a systematic algorithm will create a portfolio based on the ideas and analytical tools that focus on position sizing and risk management. The firm — which hopes to raise $1 billion — has "substantial investor interest," according to a spokesman for the firm, and is set to launch on April 1.
A selling point for potential investors in the new venture is the fact Norias Research will not have a pass-through fee, according to sources familiar with the fund's pitch. This is unlike many multi-managers who rely on a blank check from LPs to recruit top talent. The fund will charge a 2% management fee and 20% performance fee and won't require a multi-year lock-up, sources told Business Insider, and should be able to keep personnel costs low due to the structure of the firm.
The structure is not as reliant on manpower as the typical multi-manager, and the explosion of assets and new entrants has created a frenzy for portfolio managers and quant researchers in the industry. Last year, billionaire Millennium founder Izzy Englander described it as a "talent bubble" while speaking at the Robin Hood conference.
Business Insider previously reported that Haynes had hired people such as D1 Capital's former director of research Michael Lean to be a part of the new venture.
This is the first foray back into the industry for Haynes, a longtime McKinsey consultant before working for Cohen, since he was named in a sexual discrimination lawsuit while in his role at Point72. He resigned in 2018 after the lawsuit became public.
The suit, which was brought by former head of talent analytics Lauren Bonner, was settled in 2020. It named both Haynes and Cohen, along with the firm, but there were "no adverse findings" against the billionaire or Point72, according to a statement following the settlement.
An arbitrator cleared Haynes of a specific claim in the lawsuit — that he wrote the word "pussy" on a whiteboard and left it there for other employees to see. Haynes later sued Bonner for defamation. That suit was dismissed.
