(Bloomberg) — Chris Rokos booked profits of more than $4 billion during his decade as a trader at Brevan Howard Asset Management. After a three-year hiatus his new fund is about to test whether hes retained the Midas touch.
The 44-year-old, who specializes in trading on general economic themes, has been converting his family office into a fully-fledged hedge fund since January. Thats when he and Brevan Howard settled a lawsuit Rokos had filed against the firm in 2014, which sought to void an agreement that restricted him from managing clients money until 2018.
Hes certainly one of the top performers in the industry, said Jacob Schmidt, chief executive officer of London-based investment advisory firm Schmidt Research Partners Ltd. His reputation precedes him.
Rokos Capital Management, which should start trading later this year, will probably be one of the biggest new funds in Europe since the financial crisis, even though Rokos doesnt necessarily need outside investors. His past trading prowess has seen him accrue an estimated $1 billion fortune already, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Rokos trades, which were making about $3 million a day in 2011, according to the court filings, helped the Brevan Howard Master Fund produce average annual investment gains of about 12 percent at Brevan Howard before he left in 2012. The trading profits Rokos accumulated in that period represented about 17 percent of the Master Funds total $23 billion return.
Personal Take
Hes never appeared as a billionaire on any international wealth ranking. Alan Kilkenny, a London-based spokesman for Rokos, declined to comment on the traders net worth.
Rokos made the majority of his fortune during his decade at Brevan Howard, which he started with Alan Howard and three other traders from Credit Suisse Group AG in 2002. His personal take in this time was about $900 million, according to the court filings.
Including compensation from his stints at Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the after-tax proceeds would be worth about $825 million if he invested the money in a blend of stocks, bonds, hedge funds, commodities and cash, assuming a weighted average annual return of 6 percent over the past two decades, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Other assets, including property, are valued at $190 million.
With sluggish returns haunting the industry, investors will be hoping Rokos can replicate the performance he showed in 2011 rather than the $383 million loss he recorded in the eight months he spent at Brevan Howard in 2012, the same year the Master Fund recorded a $1.9 billion profit.
–With assistance from Marine Strauss in Brussels.
