Bank of America's ex-head of SSA trading is building a pod at Point72

When Bobby Previti resigned from his job as a managing director and head of SSA (Sovereign, Supranational, and Agency) and covered bond trading at Bank of America in London in September, we said he was joining a hedge fund, but we didn't know which one. 

We now understand that it's Point72.

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Previti didn't respond to a request to comment, but sources said he's joining Steve Cohen's fund as a macro portfolio manager in London and is building a pod there. 

Point72's macro team is run by Mohammed Grimeh, a former Lehman Brothers trader who joined in 2020 from Millennium.

Point72's other recent London hires include Gareth John, who was previously seen at Morgan Stanley two years ago and who trades credit. In Hong Kong, the fund also finally onboarded Koh Ushijima, a macro trader who left Symmetry a year ago and has presumably been on gardening leave. 

Business Insider says Point72 generated returns of 13.2% in the year to October. This was above the 7.6% generated by Millennium in the same period. However, Alex Erhhart (credit) and Alex Blanchard (macro) left Point72 for Millennium in the past two months. 

Nearly 60% of Bank of America's fixed income trading revenues came from macro trading in the first six months of this year, compared to around 50% in normal times. At last week's investor day, the US bank said it plans to "lead in rates and currencies" and indicated that it sees an opportunity to grow in Asia and EMEA. Previti isn't the only trader to have left, though: UBS recently hired Jérôme Etienne, a rates vol trader who left BofA in the summer.

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