(Bloomberg) — Eisler Capital’s portfolio manager Barry Piafsky and his team have been stopped out from trading after they lost millions of dollars during the ongoing market selloff.
Piafsky’s pod accumulated losses of about $30 million amid the volatility, erasing all of its year-to-date gains, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
While his trading book has been stopped out, Piafsky, who has a background in rates trading, is staying at the firm to recoup losses, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
A representative for London-based Eisler Capital declined to comment. Piafsky did not respond to a call and email seeking comment.
Multistrategy hedge funds like Eisler, which rely on teams of traders investing across multiple asset classes, run with tight risk limits to earn steady returns. They often stop traders from changing their positions and cut their assets once losses reach a certain threshold. In extreme cases, their books are liquidated and traders fired.
A raft of traders and hedge fund strategies — from bond basis trades, macro and equities — have faced challenging conditions and lost money. US President Donald Trump’s expansive tariff war has plunged global markets into chaos, sparking volatility across asset classes and even stoking fears in normally safe Treasuries.
Tudor Investment Corp. trader Alexander Phillips lost about $140 million in April through earlier this week, erasing his pre-April gains for 2025, Bloomberg has reported.
Piafsky, a former Moore Capital Management money manager, specializes in relative value trading. He was once offered the role of running the fixed income business for Eisler, but he opted to continue trading, one of the people added.
Eisler’s multistrategy hedge fund gained about 1% during the first quarter.
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