J. David Rogers, a former Goldman Sachs equity derivatives star, has started a hedge fund firm called JD Capital Management and is looking to hire a staff of about 22, most of whom will be traders and researchers. The Greenwich, Conn.-based firm plans to launch the multi-strategy hedge fund in February and hopes to raise USD350-400 million, Rogers said. He declined to detail the fund's current size of assets.
Rogers was largely responsible for building Goldman's equity group, according to an industry headhunter, and rivals also attested to his prowess at Goldman.
The multi-strategy vehicle, named the Tempo Fund, will incorporate relative-value and arbitrage strategies, Rogers said. "We're definitely going to be using credit derivatives as a way to hedge away credit risk in our convertible portfolio," he noted. The fund will also use equity derivatives to trade volatility positions. He declined to comment on likely counterparties.
Rogers, who began his career with Goldman 19 years ago, was selected to be a member of a six-strong oversight committee that worked on the re-capitalization and unwinding of Greenwich, Conn.-based Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM). He has hired a professional from LTCM to work at JD Capital, Rogers continued, declining to name the individual.
Rogers left Goldman in June to start putting together the hedge fund. Since his departure, Eric Mindich, co-coo of the equities division at Goldman in New York, has been handling Rogers' duties, according to Rogers. Mindich did not return calls.
