NEW YORK (Reuters) - Adam Fisher, a portfolio manager at Soros Fund Management, is returning to running his own firm less than two years after joining the approximately $25 billion investment firm.
Fisher exited the New York-based family office, which invests the fortune of famed trader and philanthropist George Soros and his family, earlier this month, two people familiar with his move told Reuters.
He is now working on launching a macro-oriented hedge fund and expects to oversee some money for Soros through a managed account, one of the people said.
Soros Fund Management officials did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Fisher’s departure coincides with the firm’s decision to pull back some money from so-called macro investing - the types of big wagers on currencies, bonds and stocks that turned Soros’ former hedge fund firm into one of Wall Street’s most lucrative and revered shops nearly three decades ago.
Dawn Fitzpatrick, Soros’ chief investment officer, over the last year has made adjustments to the portfolio as she felt the opportunities to make money have shifted. Fitzpatrick joined Soros in 2017, and while the firm does not invest money for outsiders, its moves are still closely watched on Wall Street because the portfolio is large and influential.
Fisher’s team lost money at Soros last year, but the firm earned roughly 1.5 percent, one of the sources said.
Fisher joined Soros in 2017 after his hedge fund firm, Commonwealth Opportunity Capital, invested money for Soros as well as public pensions and other external clients. He had run Commonwealth since 2008 and the firm oversaw roughly $2.2 billion two years ago. Reuters previously reported that the fund produced average annual returns of nearly 10 percent.
Now he and his team are planning on going back to what they did before, managing money for outside clients, including Soros. Fisher could not be reached for comment and it was not immediately clear how much money Soros would invest with Fisher. Other details about Fisher’s new firm could also not be immediately learned.
Investing in global macro strategies has become less popular over the last months as performance sagged. Data from Hedge Fund Research show that the average macro-oriented fund lost 3.6 percent last year and that investors pulled out $6.6 billion in assets in the fourth quarter alone.
Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Lawrence Delevingne; Editing by Leslie Adler
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