Schonfeld has built a 45-pod macro business—and replaced nearly its entire first cast

Schonfeld’s discretionary macro unit now has nearly 150 investment staff and 45 trading pods, more than twice last year’s headcount, according to reporting published Monday. It added 15 portfolio managers during 2026 and accounts for close to one-fifth of the $23 billion firm’s daily market activity. “Market activity” leaves capital, risk and profit contribution unspecified—an important gap in a leveraged multi-asset business. Business Insider, September 14

The growth has come with an almost complete change of personnel. Of the portfolio managers present when the unit started trading in early 2022, former Goldman managing director Francesco Cafagna is the sole reported survivor. Recent departures include former risk head Marwan Moubachir and PM Manas Baveja, both headed to Dymon Asia, and recruiter Ryan McCort, who moved to Brevan Howard. Schonfeld says firmwide PM turnover is only 2% annually, which makes the concentration of departures in this young unit more notable.

The reported results are strong but incomplete: the macro business is said to have made money in 84% of its trading months with a Sharpe above 3. Its returns are not disclosed separately from the flagship Partners fund, which gained 0.2% in August and 6.8% year to date. Those figures are press-reported; vehicle, share class and net/gross basis were not established.

For a multi-manager platform, 45 pods can provide genuine breadth across rates, FX, commodities and regional policy cycles. It can also produce many differently named versions of the same inflation, curve or dollar trade. The operating achievement is the ability to replace departures without interrupting the franchise. The investment question is whether the apparent diversification persists after exposures are decomposed by macro factor, liquidity horizon and crowded exit. A 150-person unit gives Schonfeld more shots; it also makes aggregation quality part of the product.