| BlueCrest Capital Management | |
| Type: | Private |
| Industry: | Investment management |
| Founders: | Michael Platt William Reeves |
| Hq Location: | London, United Kingdom |
| Num Employees: | 600 |
BlueCrest Capital Management is a British-American investment firm which was founded by British billionaire Michael Platt and American William Reeves in 2000.[1] The firm has office locations in London, Jersey, Singapore and New York.
Bluecrest was founded in 2000 as a hedge fund by Michael Platt and William Reeves who were both previously senior proprietary traders at JPMorgan Chase.[2]
In 2014, Bluecrest spun off $8.2 billion worth of assets into a new company, Systematica Investments, run by Bluecrest employee, Leda Braga. CNBC has referred to Braga as "the most powerful woman in Hedge Funds", earning in excess of $50 million annually.[3] [4]
In 2015, Bluecrest returned all outside capital to investors and transitioned into a family office,[5] which is a private investment partnership that manages money for its partners and employees.[6] [7]
The fund generated returns of 50% in 2016, 54% in 2017,[8] 25% in 2018 when the average hedge fund lost money, and 50% in 2019.[9]
In March 2020, BlueCrest reduced the size of its relative-value trading book, which seeks to exploit anomalies in related securities. The company also cut risk across the firm by about $1 billion. BlueCrest suffered some losses after the sell-off, but the investment fund was up for the year through the close of trading on 11 March.[10]
On 8 December 2020, The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that BlueCrest had agreed to pay $170 million to settle charges arising from inadequate disclosures, material misstatements, and misleading omissions concerning its transfer of top traders from its flagship client fund, BlueCrest Capital International (BCI), to a proprietary fund, BSMA Limited, and replacement of those traders with an underperforming algorithm.[11]
The fund generated returns of 153% in 2022[12] and 20% in 2023.