- Citadel hired Citigroup’s Dan Baranovsky as a portfolio manager in equity volatility.
- Baranovsky previously ran North American equity derivatives and cash trading at Citigroup.
- Citi has lost a string of equity derivatives traders recently, including MD Seok Yoon Jeong.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Citadel has poached the head of equity derivatives trading in North America from Citigroup, the latest in a string of buy-side defections from Citi’s derivatives unit.
Dan Baranovsky, who ran North American equity derivatives and cash trading at Citi, has resigned to join Citadel as a portfolio manager, according to sources familiar with the matter.
A Citadel spokesperson confirmed the hire. A Citi spokesperson declined to comment.
Baranovsky joins a division at the $35 billion hedge fund that has grown rapidly over the past year and a half. Pablo Salame joined Citadel from Goldman Sachs in October 2019 as global head of credit, and one of his first hires was David Casner, a former Goldman partner who was the head of US equity volatility trading and global co-head of equity flow derivatives trading at the bank.
Casner started last June, tasked by Salame with running the fund’s convertible arbitrage strategy as well as building out an equity derivatives strategy.
Baranovsky is the second portfolio manager Casner has poached from a big bank for the strategy this month. David Kim, the head of equity client solutions at Bank of America and the firm’s most senior derivatives trader, has also joined Citadel, Bloomberg previously reported.
Salame has more than tripled the number of portfolio managers in the credit division since joining.
For Citi, Baranovsky’s exit adds to a growing list of departures from its equity derivatives desk, one of the hottest corners in Wall Street trading. Seok Yoon Jeong, a managing director in flow volatility trading, resigned and is said to be joining Brevan Howard, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Jeong joined Citi from JPMorgan in 2018 as head of flow volatility trading in the Americas and was promoted to MD later that year. He was layered last year when Mark Chen was hired back from Deutsche Bank to lead flow derivatives trading for the bank.
Benjamin Texier, a director in equity derivatives trading, joined Millennium Management, according to sources familiar with the matter, while a junior equity index options trader name Dake Zhang left for Citadel in December.
Representatives for Brevan Howard and Millennium each declined to comment.
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