2 veterans at $5 billion quant hedge fund PDT Partners have left

Courtesy of Pete Muller

PDT Partners was founded by Pete Muller, a quirky math whiz known for his love of music

Two long-standing staffers at $5 billion quant hedge fund PDT Partners have left, according to people familiar with the matter. They are:

• Daniel Pugh, who headed trading operations and worked at PDT for ten years, and;
• Michael Shpigelmacher, a senior investment researcher who worked at the fund for six years. According to his LinkedIn page, Shpigelmacher "created and managed proprietary investment strategies for a multi-billion equity portfolio, combining cutting edge AI research with innovative economic and financial models."

Their destinations are not known. A spokesman for PDT Partners declined to comment.

PDT was founded by Pete Muller, a quirky math whiz known for his love of music.

After a long sting at Morgan Stanley in the 1990s, where he created the PDT unit, he needed a break and went on sabbatical, traveling the world and playing music in the New York subway, he previously told Business Insider. Music has played a major role in balancing his career ever since.

He eventually went back to PDT and spun out the unit in 2012.

We covered a fundraising concert in 2016 during which Muller sang about a divorced hedge fund billionaire named Ken. He also went on a music tour last year.