French Resistance

Jean-Pierre Aguilar, CEO, Capital Fund Management, got his start in finance working for LeGrand & Cie, an asset manager, and later founded a Parisian software consulting firm, Ubitrade, which he sold. By 1995, he, Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, a finance professor who's now CFM's chairman, and Marc Potters, its research head, linked up to start what's now CFM. CFM relies exclusively on electronic and batch execution that enables trades to be done without human intervention. Stratus, a multi-strategy fund made up of in-house investment vehicles, receives new money and puts it into CFM's four sub funds. Successful quantitative investing is a delicate combination of skill and savvy that Aguilar likens to piloting a glider. Last summer, the strategy hit an air pocket in the credit crisis, with Stratus losing 3.76%. Last July, CFM reacted to the crisis by introducing new models that could actually profit from the quant funds' lemming-like selling. Stratus ended 2007 up 3.43%.