A Morgan Stanley MD disappeared five years after joining a London hedge fund
People move from trading at a bank to a hedge fund pretty often. Sometimes people even move back, or find their place at another hedge fund. But what do they do after that?
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Robert Gilraine has left Symmetry Investments, the Hong Kong hedge fund. According to the UK financial conduct authority’s (FCA) register, he retired from the firm on the 1st of July. Tellingly perhaps, he was not considered a “Material Risk Taker” (a regulatory distinction indicating high operative importance and/or pay) by the FCA since 2022 – indicating that his responsibilities were not portfolio manager-level for a while.
Before leaving for Symmetry in 2019, Gilraine was Morgan Stanley’s head of emerging markets foreign exchange trading. He joined Morgan Stanley in 2014 to head up its local currency and FX trading desk.
He joined Morgan Stanley from hedge fund Whard Steward, where he was tempted to by former boss Mike Stewart, JPMorgan’s former co-head of emerging markets trading.
By our count, Gilraine should be 47 years old. He may well be retiring. Symmetry declined to comment.
Retiring from a hedge fund in your 40s is a good time to do so. Many people in that age cohort told Professor Kathleen Riach of the University of Glasgow that they felt out of touch with their juniors, under enormous pressure physically, and rapidly becoming obsolete in a world of algorithms and engineering.
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