Ex-Goldman trader Qin Xiao starts Singapore hedge fund, gets US$1 billion allocation from Millennium

[LONDON] Qin Xiao, the former co-head of Goldman Sachs’ global commodities trading team, has won an allocation from Millennium Management for his hedge fund startup.

Singapore-based Nexus Commodities Capital Management plans to start trading later this year with about US$1 billion from Millennium and additional cash from other investors, according to sources familiar with the matter. Qin will run a separately managed account for Millennium on a non-exclusive basis, the sources said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.

Known to colleagues as QX, Qin joins a growing cohort of big-name traders winning allocations from multi-strategy hedge funds looking for ways to deploy their soaring assets. Millennium is among the most aggressive with recent external allocations to people, including Ravi Naresh, who previously managed money for Marshall Wace, and Thomas Wong’s hedge fund firm Optimas Capital Management.

Nexus Commodities’ kick-off is a rare win in Asia’s hedge funds startup scene this year, as fledgling managers are struggling to attract North American institutional investors amid geopolitical tensions.

A graduate of China’s prestigious Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore, Qin oversaw some of Goldman Sachs’ most profitable commodity trading businesses after the pandemic, as the firm capitalised on increased volatility. He was at the bank for more than two decades before departing.

Qin and Nitin Jindal were named co-heads of Goldman Sachs’s commodities trading business when its former leader Ed Emerson stepped down in late 2023.

Qin had previously helmed commodities trading in Asia and in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He and Anthony Dewell positioned their desks with foresight ahead of the Covid-19 era oil price collapse, securing substantial gains for the firm. Dewell is now global head of commodities at Millennium.

The investment team Qin has assembled for his own firm includes Mark Ma, a former head of Asia bulk commodity trading at Goldman Sachs, according to two of the sources. Wang Yang, previously a Shanghai-based commodities trader at the Wall Street bank, is also poised to join, one of the sources added.

Ma and a representative for Millennium declined to comment. Qin and Wang did not reply to requests for comment. BLOOMBERG