French equity derivative traders are more popular then ever. Not just with banks

At the risk of racially profiling people, some financial services careers tend to attract particular nationalities above others. Italians are often to be found in sales. The Chinese are often quants. The French are often both quants, and quants who apply themselves to equity derivatives structuring. This kind of French quant is having a moment.

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Earlier this month, Financial News reported that Arnaud Heckenroth, the (French) global head of equities exotics structuring at Barclays had left for electronic trading firm Optiver, where he will help develop a “scalable global exotics platform.” Heckenroth’s arrival at Optiver follows that of Bertrand Marchal, another French guy who was the former head of index exotics for EMEA at JPMorgan. Coincidentally (or not) the two men both studied at Télécom Paris, a French grande école in the early 2000s. Now, they will be building a global team together, starting in London. French traders might want to apply.

It’s not just Optiver that’s chasing French equity derivatives talent, though. Banks and rival market makers are doing it too Market sources say there’s suddenly increased interesting in hiring exotic traders and structurers, many of whom happen to be French.

In the US, for example, Barclays appointed Khalid Aboulfouioud (another Télécom Paris graduate) to work on Heckenroth’s team back in March. In Europe, there are unconfirmed rumours that Enzo Scavetta, a SocGen associate, has gone to Goldman Sachs. BofA is rumoured to have made a major from BNP Paribas. 

Market making firms have been hiring too. As we reported in February, Citadel Securities hired Clementin Florentin, a former regional head of equity structuring at Nomura, and made him its head of global structured solutions. Florentin was educated in Switzerland and London as well as Paris, but he has French pedigree.

As electronic market making firms like Citadel Securities and Optiver move into the exotics market, French quants are likely to continue to be hunted down. Speaking to Bloomberg earlier this year, Van Audenaerde, Optiver’s head of index and rates options, said the firm’s new exotics business will provide a way for banks to recycle risk from their own structured products desks. This is needed, said  Audenaerde. Citadel Securities has presumably reached the same conclusion. 

Market insiders say the French are best at exotic equities trading and structuring because they are more technical than Americans. “In the early 2000s places like SocGen and BNP were the best places for structuring and a great training ground,” says one senior trader. SocGen, for example, invented exotic OTC “mountain range options,” which offer payouts on the basis of multiple underlying assets, in the late 1990s.   

The senior trader suggests it’s like football. “You have places that are good training grounds, and then everyone wants to hire from there. – When you combine that with excellent degrees in financial mathematics and engineering, you get a generation of brilliant French people.” 2026 may be their year.

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