Alfonso Peccatiello might have joined a multistrategy hedge fund. The former head of investments at ING Deutschland, Peccatiello has built a name in the market with his social media posts and macro podcasts. Two and a half years after leaving ING, he’s getting back into the market – but not at a Citadel or Millennium. Peccatiello is going it alone. And the research he shares on social media has made all the difference.
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“After reading my research for years on various social media channels, investors were happy to commit about $100m for my upcoming macro hedge fund,” says Peccatiello. “It’s organic investment,” He adds. “These are people who’ve seen my content and who understand my research framework.”
It’s an interesting option at a time when skepticism about multistrategy funds is rising. Peccatiello runs the Macro Trading Floor with Brent Donnelly, the FX trader who’s long warned that multistrategy hedge fund jobs aren’t the get-rich-quick scheme they’re sometimes seen as being. Past interviewees include Ben Melkman, who joined Bridgewater in April as a peer to the deputy CIOs. Recent episodes have discussed everything from macro trading in the current low volume environment to the structural strength of the US dollar.
Peccatiello left ING in 2021. He has a track record. He managed $20bn as head of investments for ING Germany Germany. He’s spent the past few years running his own macro research firm. “My clients are the big hedge funds, pension funds, and the treasuries of large corporations,” he says. That helps – some have now invested in his nascent fund.
Even so, raising $100m on the back of a social media presence is something new. Peccatiello’s research firm employs three people, and he’s done most of the marketing himself. “They’re investing in the person – my framework and my process. The burden falls on me,” he reflects. That sounds more stressful than joining a multistrategy hedge fund, but maybe it’s not: by operating his own fund, Peccatiello says he will have more strategic freedom than at a multistrat. “When you join a multimanager, risk parameters are set centrally. There’s no flexibility for individual managers and that’s a shame.”
Peccatiello is hiring. He’s open to people working remotely – he plans to work on the Amalfi Coast for some of the time. Like Citadel’s Ken Griffin, he’s all about communication. “Effective communication is a superpower in financial markets,” says Peccatiello. “You can be the smartest guy out there, but if you can’t explain tricky stuff in 2 minutes it doesn’t matter.”
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