JPMorgan’s Sippel Exits for Rokos, Thakur Made Markets Chief

(Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s global markets co-head Jason Sippel is leaving for hedge fund Rokos Capital Management, with Pranav Thakur taking over as sole head of Wall Street’s biggest trading desk.

Sippel, who spent more than two decades at JPMorgan and helped build the firm’s equities business, will become deputy chief investment officer and global head of markets at Chris Rokos’s macro hedge fund. Rich Tang, who joined Rokos in 2020 and had served as its head of markets, will become a senior adviser. The moves were announced in internal memos sent by both firms and seen by Bloomberg News.

“I cannot think of a more experienced, insightful and inspiring leader to be joining us and I look forward to his contribution to the firm,” Rokos said in a statement. Sippel will also join the firm’s partnership board, pending regulatory approval, according to the statement.

Rokos, which has $19 billion in assets under management, is coming off a stellar year with a 31% return for 2024, according to figures through Dec. 27 of last year. Rokos co-founded Brevan Howard Asset Management in 2002 before leaving to start his own firm, which is now one of the world’s biggest macro hedge funds. His net worth is an estimated $1.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

At JPMorgan, Thakur will take on his expanded role immediately, according to the bank’s memo from commercial and investment bank co-heads Troy Rohrbaugh and Doug Petno.

“Jason has been instrumental in shaping our markets business,” Rohrbaugh and Petno wrote. “Jason’s efforts over the years have consistently led to revenue growth and share gains, establishing JPMorgan as a leading equities franchise.”

JPMorgan promoted Sippel and Thakur to run the trading unit last year when Rohrbaugh was elevated to co-lead the entire commercial and investment bank. The firm went on to notch a record $30 billion in trading revenue for 2024. Thakur, who joined JPMorgan in 2007, earlier ran global macro markets after rising through fixed-income trading.

Sippel advanced through the stock-trading unit to lead prime brokerage and then global equities. In the second quarter of 2022, the firm finally beat out rivals Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley to take the top equities spot for the first time since at least 2006.