Morning Coffee: 48-year-old Citadel London trader who generated $2bn profit decides to take things easy. Money honey mystery

What does Chris Foster at Citadel do to relax? We cannot say for sure, but he can be seen here wearing lurid socks and reclining on a chair, so maybe there's a lot of that.

There could be more of this to come. The Financial Times is reporting that Foster, Citadel's star trader in London, is stepping down. His boss, Sebastian Barrack, who likes climbing mountains for fun, says he is "grateful" for Foster's leadership and for his "contributions" over a nearly 20 year period.

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The contributions Barrack highlights are building Citadel's European natural gas trading team. The contributions Barrack doesn't highlight are Foster's enormous contributions to profitability, particularly in 2022 when he and his London reportedly generated $2bn in profits following the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

Foster was 44-years-old when he made the $2bn. He is 48-years-old now. He joined Citadel from Merrill Lynch in 2008 and he made partner at Citadel in London in 2011, aged 33. The last time we looked, partners at Citadel in London were earning $21m each. After the 2022 $2bn, Citadel's partners were paid an average of $70m each. Foster could afford a lot of socks.

In fact, Foster gave £25m of his 2022 windfall to Mansfield College, the Oxford College which took him in to study maths after the more prestigious St. John's rejected him. Foster, who came from a state school in Wigan got a first class maths degree from Oxford and supports widening access to elite education. "If I could get a first class maths degree from Oxford, I could do anything," he told the college magazine after making his donation.  

Foster won't be retiring from Citadel entirely. He will still be an advisor to Barrack. Trading natural gas isn't easy as it used to be in these volatile times, but Foster seems to have planned his sock-wearing well. Last year, he appointed 42-year-old Stephen Carter and 39-year-old Adam Frame on his team as replacements, both of whom he reportedly hired. 

Foster is not the only Citadel natural gas trader to move on. Last year, Eike Schick left aged 37 to study a new degree in psychology. 

Separately, where is Maria Bartiromo?

Bartiromo, also known as the "Money Honey" has not been seen since August 9th, notes the Wall Street Journal. She has left Fox News, which is saying things like, "We wish her all the best on her next chapter." 

The implication is that Bartiromo, now aged 58, has something else going on. Bloomberg notes that she is a celebrity of financial journalism who has also appeared in films and inspired a punk song.

Meanwhile...

Rogo Technologies, which automates the work of junior bankers, is setting up in Singapore and wants to hire 150 to 200 people there by the end of next year. Nomura, Daiwa and Barclays are using it already. (Bloomberg) 

Citadel is up 12.1% year-to-date. Millennium is up 8.2%. Balyasny is only up 0.5%. (Business Insider) 

What is noticeable about Balyasny’s year is that it appears to be struggling across the board – equities, fixed income and commodities. (Rupak Ghose) 

Leon Black, formerly of Apollo, says the House Oversight Committee overstepped its authority in summoning him for a deposition on his links to Jeffrey Epstein and is suing the committee. “This is no longer about finding the truth about Epstein. It is about trying to destroy Mr. Black,” says his lawyer. Black denies any wrongdoing. (WSJ) 

“It defies belief that Epstein’s tax advice was worth the vast sums of money Black paid him. No one, and I mean no one, believes that Black’s usual world-class professional advisors needed Epstein’s help to execute routine tax planning structures,” Sen. Wyden said in an emailed statement. (Bloomberg) 

Maybe hedge funds won't need weather specialists after all. Google DeepMind has got a new product that forecasts how hard the wind blows at turbine height and how much sunlight reaches a solar farm. (Bloomberg) 

How to dress during your high profile hedge fund divorce. Laura Overdeck was wearing a gray-and-white striped jacket, white slacks and chunky blue heels. John Overdeck was clad in a navy-blue suit, light blue shirt and no tie. John was sipping organic green tea. (WSJ) 

John Overdeck said that while their three children were growing up, Laura had the help of a full-time nanny who doubled as a personal secretary, and a housekeeper who worked 15 hours a week. He also rarely worked weekends so that he could coach sports teams. (WSJ) 

The three French founders of Hugging Face, Clement "Clem" Delangue, Julien Chaumond, and Thomas Wolf are now worth after Nvidia agreed to buy Hugging Face. Initially it was supposed to be a chatbot for teenagers. (Bloomberg) 

Goldman Sachs hired ex-Nomura CTO Dinesh Keswani as CTO for its middle and back office functions. (The Stack) 

State Street has got a new infrared sauna at its London office. (Financial News) 

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