BEN MELKMAN

Melkman is an Australian trader who graduated with honours from the London School of Economics. He started at Morgan Stanley on the foreign exchange desk, rising to executive director.

He then joined Brevan Howard, one of the world's largest macro hedge funds, where he became a partner. In 2016 and 2017 he struck out on his own, founding Light Sky Macro with backing from billionaire managers Steve Cohen and Dan Loeb.

Light Sky was among the biggest hedge fund launches of 2017, starting with about $2 billion under management. His fund gained about 18% in 2019, trouncing most macro peers.

In 2022 he chose to return outside capital and later joined Schonfeld Strategic Advisors as a senior portfolio manager on its macro team.

Light Sky Macro, Brevan Howard (former), Schonfeld Strategic Advisors

Melkman runs a thematic, concentrated global macro book. Rather than spreading dozens of small trades, he builds larger positions around a few big-picture views on economies, currencies, and central banks.

His trades tend to play out over months or longer, not days. After the pandemic he argued for a world of permanently low rates, huge deficits, and resurgent inflation, and positioned accordingly.

The long time horizon of his ideas is exactly why he found the pressure of monthly and quarterly performance so uncomfortable.

Light Sky's standout year was 2019, when the fund surged about 18% and beat most macro rivals by a wide margin. Launching with roughly $2 billion and the backing of Steve Cohen and Dan Loeb, and then delivering that kind of return, validated the bet on Melkman.

It marked him as one of the more respected macro traders of his generation before he decided to change course.

The honest verdict is that Melkman's biggest miss may have been the business, not the trades. He built a large, well-regarded fund and then wound it down in 2022, returning capital because the open-ended structure did not suit his long-term style.

Critics could argue he should have designed the fund that way from the start. Handing back a billion-dollar franchise is a costly lesson in matching your fund structure to your actual trading horizon.

Melkman believes the best macro trades take time to work, which shaped his whole career decision-making. He wanted to share ideas openly with investors, hosting roundtables and conferences to trade views rather than hide them.

He grew frustrated that running an open-ended fund forced him to manage toward short-term numbers instead of the multi-year themes he preferred. His post-pandemic thesis centered on low rates, big deficits, and rising inflation.

Ultimately he decided the structure of the fund mattered as much as the trades inside it.

Melkman keeps his personal and family life private. He is Australian by background and built his career in London and New York, but he does not discuss his private life publicly.

Melkman graduated with honours from the London School of Economics and Political Science, one of the world's top schools for economics and finance. That training led straight into his first job on the Morgan Stanley foreign exchange desk and a career in global macro.