Hedge fund Moore Capital Management is rehoming top talent from rivals

Moore Capital Management, the New York-based hedge fund founded by Louis Bacon in the prehistoric days of 1989, is rehoming top portfolio managers leaving multistrategy funds behind.

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Moore has hired both Barry Piafsky, who was most recently at Eisler Capital in New York, and Neil Smith, who was most recently at ExodusPoint in London.

Piafsky left Eisler in May after his pod there allegedly lost $30m during the volatility caused by the initial imposition of Donald Trump's tariffs. Smith left ExodusPoint in February and appears to have been sitting out on a non-compete until recently. 

Moore Capital declined to comment. Originally a global macro-focused fund, it's now a multistrategy private investment office with around 50 portfolio managers. 

Both Piafsky and Smith have a history of generating significant profits. Both specialize in relative value trading, or arbitraging price discrepancies between historically correlated securities. Smith is understood to have been of ExodusPoint's top profit generators. Piafsky once occupied a similar position at Eisler, which reportedly offered to make him its head of fixed income, a role he declined.   

This is not the first time Piafsky has worked for Moore: he spent eight years at the fund before leaving for Eisler in 2023. There are suggestions that Moore has been attempting to hire him back ever since. 

Moore Capital still manages outside money, but is also increasingly focused on managing the personal fortunes of its founder. Eisler Capital manages outside money but has been suffering from poor performance and exits. It now asks its traders to repay their bonuses if they leave. 

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