Capula Investment Management is a quantitative hedge fund founded by Chinese mathematician Hao Yan. Headquartered in London, Capula is well-known for its outstanding performance and advanced trading technologies. This article will analyze Capula’s investment strategies, performance records, founders’ background and the fund’s influence on the industry.
Capula’s legendary fund performance
According to public information, Capula’s flagship fund Secura has achieved an annualized return of around 20% since its inception in 2005. The fund managed to generate positive returns every year despite various market turmoil.
In 2008 during the global financial crisis, Secura returned 29% while most funds suffered huge losses. The fund continued its hot streak in 2020, gaining 66% when COVID-19 crashed the markets. Such resilient performance even in extreme events demonstrated the effectiveness of Capula’s quantitative models and risk management expertise.
Unique trend-following strategies
Instead of predicting market directions, Capula adopts trend-following strategies to capture upside momentum while limiting downside risks. The fund trades various liquid instruments like futures, options, swaps across asset classes and geographies.
Advanced machine learning algorithms are utilized to detect price trends and quantitative signals. Timely entries and exits are executed based on models’ outputs. By objectively following market trends, the fund avoids biases and consistently generates uncorrelated returns.
All-star team of Chinese quant talents
Capula was founded by Hao Yan, a Chinese mathematician graduated from Fudan University. Yan worked at various banks before starting his own fund. Capula’s team consists of many Chinese talents with Ph.D. degrees in math, physics and computer science from top universities.
Besides Yan, other notable partners include former Deutsche Bank exec Bo Wang and ex-Citadel trader Qing Li. The stellar team of quant researchers and developers has been a key driver of Capula’s continued success.
In summary, Capula Investment has built an impressive track record as a top quantitative hedge fund. Its strengths lie in trend-following strategies, advanced algorithms and a team of Chinese quant all-stars.