Eisler Capital paid up to keep star traders — the pay bill sank the $3.2B fund

Edward Eisler, a former Goldman Sachs partner, founded Eisler Capital in London in 2015 as a macro-focused hedge fund. In 2021 the firm converted into a multi-strategy platform, the pod-shop model that pays traders guaranteed compensation for their books regardless of overall fund performance. Assets grew to roughly $4 billion at their peak, and the multi-strategy fund posted strong early returns: up 15.1% in 2022 and 9.8% in 2023.

Multi-strategy platforms compete for the same small pool of proven portfolio managers, and Eisler bid to keep and attract them, building a headcount of about 250 people. That compensation and infrastructure runs as a fixed cost charged to investors as a pass-through expense, whether or not the underlying books make money. Through 2025 several experienced portfolio managers left the firm, leaving gaps that were expensive to refill in a tight talent market, and assets slipped to about $3.2 billion.

By the end of August 2025 the flagship fund was down 1.7% for the year. On September 29, 2025, Eisler told investors the fund would return capital and wind down its portfolio by year-end rather than keep carrying its cost base through a fourth consecutive drawdown. December alone brought a 7.35% loss as positions were unwound, leaving the fund down 14.3% for 2025 — a year in which most large multi-strategy platforms posted double-digit gains. Eisler estimated wind-down expenses at 10-15% of net asset value as of September 30, on top of the trading loss.

The closure triggered an immediate scramble for the firm's roughly 250 staff, with recruiters cold-calling before severance was even settled and no non-compete in force during the wind-down. Since inception the fund had still compounded at about 7% net annually with a Sharpe ratio of 1.7, underscoring that the final year, not the whole record, is what ended the firm.