Key Takeaways
- • Walleye Capital, a $17 billion multi-strategy hedge fund, cut its head of equity long/short, Anil Gondi, and a substantial portion of its internal long/short investment teams, according to a letter to investors seen by Business Insider.
- • The decision follows a 5.9% loss in October 2026, the firm's worst month since March 2020.
- • CEO and chief investment officer Will England said the firm is "simplifying our internal equity long/short business" because prior efforts "did not produce the results we expected."
- • Internal stock-picking teams will now report to England, while Walleye will continue trading stocks and expand external stock-picking allocations and internal PM hiring.
- • This is the second significant departure from Walleye's stock-picking unit this year, following the September exit of COO Matt Giannini, who returned to Citadel.
Summary
Walleye Capital, a $17 billion hedge fund, has cut its head of equity long/short, Anil Gondi, and a substantial portion of its internal long/short investment teams, according to a letter to investors seen by Business Insider. The move follows a 5.9% loss in October, the firm's worst month since March 2020. The firm declined to comment, and Gondi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the letter, CEO and chief investment officer Will England said the firm is taking a hard look at "every aspect" of its business and is "simplifying our internal equity long/short business." He wrote that the efforts of recent years, including bringing in new leadership, "did not produce the results we expected," and that the opportunity cost and resources consumed were "too high relative to the return."
Gondi joined Walleye in July 2025 after a long stock-picking career at Balyasny Asset Management and after founding his own firm, 6elm Capital, according to his LinkedIn profile. His exit is the second significant personnel departure this year from Walleye's stock-picking unit, after COO Matt Giannini left in September to return to Citadel.
Walleye says it will continue trading stocks. Internal teams will report to England, and the firm intends to keep investing in externally run stock-picking funds and hiring internal portfolio managers. It recently hired Anna Dev, formerly of Millennium business development, to identify external opportunities. Business Insider has previously reported that Walleye is one of several multi-strategy platforms that have allocated to funds run by former Citadel traders, including Tommaso Trento's Benchstone Capital and Fifthdelta, run by Niall O'Keeffe and Tio Charbaghi.
October was a difficult month for hedge funds broadly, and equity-focused managers were not spared. Point72 Asset Management and Schonfeld Strategic Partners both lost money for the month. Sell-offs in big-tech names such as Meta and Intel contributed to a volatile period in which the S&P 500 fell roughly 1%, and short-selling activity rose close to five-year highs, according to Goldman Sachs data.
In the letter, CEO and chief investment officer Will England said the firm is taking a hard look at "every aspect" of its business and is "simplifying our internal equity long/short business." He wrote that the efforts of recent years, including bringing in new leadership, "did not produce the results we expected," and that the opportunity cost and resources consumed were "too high relative to the return."
Gondi joined Walleye in July 2025 after a long stock-picking career at Balyasny Asset Management and after founding his own firm, 6elm Capital, according to his LinkedIn profile. His exit is the second significant personnel departure this year from Walleye's stock-picking unit, after COO Matt Giannini left in September to return to Citadel.
Walleye says it will continue trading stocks. Internal teams will report to England, and the firm intends to keep investing in externally run stock-picking funds and hiring internal portfolio managers. It recently hired Anna Dev, formerly of Millennium business development, to identify external opportunities. Business Insider has previously reported that Walleye is one of several multi-strategy platforms that have allocated to funds run by former Citadel traders, including Tommaso Trento's Benchstone Capital and Fifthdelta, run by Niall O'Keeffe and Tio Charbaghi.
October was a difficult month for hedge funds broadly, and equity-focused managers were not spared. Point72 Asset Management and Schonfeld Strategic Partners both lost money for the month. Sell-offs in big-tech names such as Meta and Intel contributed to a volatile period in which the S&P 500 fell roughly 1%, and short-selling activity rose close to five-year highs, according to Goldman Sachs data.
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