Morning Coffee: The 31-year-old ex-Morgan Stanley analyst and the $50m hedge fund package. HSBC's hardest job is hard to fill

We've been here before with Kevin Liu. He's the ex-Morgan Stanley equity research analyst who moved to hedge fund Marshall Wace after two years, who stayed there for eight years and who was then subject to a bidding frenzy involving various other hedge funds that wanted to hire him. Point72 paid $50m for him in February '25.

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The Wall Street Journal has some further information on how this came about. Last January, it says Liu suddenly became the hottest person in finance through a phenomenon of hedge fund fear of missing out (FOMO). One fund wanted him. Then they all did. 

It's not clear who lit the flame. - Whether Liu - who we estimate to be 31 and whom the WSJ says is in his "early-30s," let it be known that he wanted to leave Marshall Wace, or whether he accepted an offer from one major hedge fund and the rest followed. But, once it became apparent that Liu was on the market, the WSJ says Citadel, Millennium Management, Balyasny Asset Management and Point72 all jumped.

They came with money. They came with perks. Point72's winning $50m five year offer to Liu was reportedly accompanied by a dinner with Steve Cohen and an offer from Cohen to personally mentor him. Dmitry Balyasny has reportedly also been known to woo candidates with games of pickleball and mountain biking, although it's not clear whether he was deployed for Liu.

Hedge fund herding aside, what made Liu so desirable? The WSJ noted last month that Marshall Wace only employs 750 people but returned 7.1% through to April, implying its people are doing something right. Liu traded tech stocks there and reportedly made "big gains."

It's not just Liu, and it's not just 31-year-olds. The WSJ notes that Millennium also went all-out for Stephen Schurr, a 54-year-old ex-reporter and editor at the WSJ and FT whose special power is reading overlooked reports like podcast transcripts, and who hires unorthodox analysts who've been known to write novels involving Hollywood Memorabilia. Millennium was said to have paid $100m for Schurr and his team. Schurr generated $250m in profits at Balyasny in 2024 and $150m in 2023. 

Generating $400m in profits for a hedge fund over two years is not easy. Hedge funds touch lips with a lot of frogs before throwing money at people like Liu and Schurr. The WSJ says Millennium interviews 3,000 people a year. Last year, regulatory filings say its investment headcount increased by 232 people. That's not as hard as getting an internship at Goldman Sachs, but most people will have been rejected by Millennium long before interview stage.

Separately, HSBC is parting company with equity researchers, bankers and FX professionals, but it's also hiring a new chairman. 

Bloomberg reports that HSBC's chairman appointment is becoming critical now that outgoing chairman Mark Tucker is off to become a non-executive at AIA soon. There's talk of "overly compressed timetables" and surprise at Tucker's imminent exit. 

There's not even a shortlist of desired candidates yet. Names floating around the hat include Richard Gnodde and Kevin Sneader from Goldman Sachs, James Forese from Citi, or ex-HSBC executives like Stuart Gulliver and Clive Bannister. 

HSBC's new chairman needs a rare array of qualities, including knowledge of Asia, knowledge of banking and knowledge of wealth management. If this might be you, HSBC would probably like you to get in touch soon. It's tasked executive search firm MWM consulting to fill the role.

Meanwhile...

What's the difference between Citadel, Millennium, Hudson River Trading and Balyasny in the words of Giuseppe Paleologo, who's worked for them all? It's all about the founders: Citadel is extremely driven like Ken Griffin and is highly centralised; Millennium is decentralized and run by Izzy Englander who is humble with great risk instincts; HRT is fundamentally a technology company; Balyasny is run by Dmitry Balyasny, a humble trader with great instincts. (Financial Times) 

Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman is upsetting people on the Wiltshire-Hampshire border with his new manor house and its vast lake. It's suspected that he's got a borehole and is draining aquifers. “I’ve built lakes in the past during my time in agriculture and I can tell you it takes a hell of a lot of water to fill one that size.” (Airmail) 

Ian Wace of Marshall Wace has got a remote Scottish island called Tanera Mòr where he's regenerating the land and creating a retreat for those in need. He likes to paint. (Financial Times) 

Morgan Stanley is relocating compliance roles from London to Glasgow. (Financial News) 

Barclays hired Jean-Francois Mastrangelo from SocGen to run its APAC markets business. (Bloomberg) 

Meet the French stars of quant finance: Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, Olivier Durantel, Gregoire Schneider, Antoine Fillet, Maxime Fortin, Pierre-Yves Morlat, and Laurent Laizet. They run Capital Fund Management (CFM), Squarepoint, and Qube Research and Technologies (QRT). (Rupak Ghose) 

Jane Street is opening an office in Hong Kong. (FT) 

Yves Blechner, a former portfolio manager at Man Group, is setting up a credit hedge fund, 44 Hill Capital Management. (Bloomberg) 

Female students dialled down open displays of career ambition if they thought they were being watched by their male counterparts — and potential future partners — rather than by other women. (Financial Times) 

It's a hard time to be applying for graduate jobs in finance. “[We’re] seeing 5,000-plus applications on any junior roles we work on....Why hire 100 grads when a $300k licence can do the same work?” (FT) 

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