A VIX trader has resigned from Millennium after only a few months to join JPMorgan’s equity derivatives team

• VIX trader Benjamin Texier is leaving Millennium to join JPMorgan, sources told Insider.
• Texier only joined Millennium this May from Citigroup.
• A slew of volatility traders have switched seats this year amid scorching demand.

A Citigroup VIX trader left this spring for $53 billion hedge fund Millennium Management amid scorching demand for volatility traders. Now, he’s back on the sell-side, joining JPMorgan’s equity derivatives group.

Benjamin Texier has resigned from Millennium and is joining JPMorgan to trade the CBOE Volatility Index, according to sources familiar with the matter.

A JPMorgan spokeswoman and a Millennium spokesman declined to comment.

A deluge of sell-side volatility traders have been poached this year following record performance in 2020, which attracted the attention of hedge funds like Citadel, Balyasny, and Millennium. More than 60 US equity derivatives traders have departed the sell-side seats they started the year in, according figures compiled by Insider and industry executive recruiters.

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Texier in May left Citigroup, where he was a director in index volatility trading, along with several other Citi equity derivatives traders. Before joining Citi in 2016, he spent nearly eight years at BNP Paribas.

Texier’s arrival at JPMorgan will help fill some gaps after the bank suffered departures of its own in July.

The firm parted ways with Ishan Malik, an executive director who traded the VIX, amid scrutiny over a series of tweets. Borzu Masoudi, a star volatility trader who ran the equity macro derivatives, was poached by Millennium a few weeks later.