Schonfeld Strategic Advisors

Schonfeld Strategic Advisors (also known as Schonfeld and SSA) is an American hedge fund based in New York City. Formed in 2015, Schonfeld continues the business that Steve Schonfeld established in 1988 – a family office pioneering in short-term, systematic and algorithmic trading.

Schonfeld registered as an investment advisor with the SEC in January 2016. As of 2021, Ryan Tolkin served as CEO and CIO.

History
Steven Schonfeld founded Schonfeld as a proprietary trading firm in 1988 with $400,000 that he earned working as a stockbroker.

The firm made $200 million in 2000 at the peak of the Dot-com bubble but made losses following the Stock market downturn of 2002.

By 2004, Schonfeld employed 1,200 traders with 700 on the proprietary side In 2005, the firm noted that the proprietary traders contribution to the firm's overall revenue declined from 98% five years ago to 60%. Schonfeld Securities, the trading arm of Schonfeld's capital saw a decline in assets from $2.5 billion in 2000 to $670 million four years later.

In 2006, Schonfeld moved into algorithmic trading as it saw computer driven strategies were going to be faster than traditional trading.

Schonfeld made $200 million off volatility during the 2007–2008 financial crisis.

In 2009, Schonfeld switched from being a proprietary trading firm into a family office that would manage the assets of Steven Schonfeld. In the same year, Schonfeld helped fund the establishment of Quantbot Technologies to manage its assets. Quantbot Technologies is a quantitative firm founded by employees who were previously part of the statistical arbitrage proprietary trading group (QSA) of Merrill Lynch & Co.

Regulatory issues
According to The Wall Street Journal, between 1996 and 2009, financial regulators had taken action against Schonfeld 16 times.

In December 1999, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) fined Schonfeld and one of its officers $1.5 million for day trading violations.

It was reported by Forbes that Schonfeld has been fined at least twice during 2000 to 2005, by the National Association of Securities Dealers for violation of rules on the Nasdaq Small-order execution system.

In 2009, NYSE fined Schonfeld $1.1 million for performing Round-tripping trades to hide capital shortfalls in 2005.

Schonfeld Strategic Advisors (2015–present)
In 2015, Schonfeld announced that it would accept capital from investors outside the firm and changed its structure to a Multi-strategy hedge fund.

In January 2016, Schonfeld began to manage third-party assets alongside its family office.

In 2018, Schonfeld acquired Folger Hill Asset Management, a hedge fund founded by Sol Kumin. One of the reasons for the acquisition was to help Schonfeld expand in Asia.

In 2019, according to Bloomberg News, Schonfeld achieved an average return of roughly 20% in the previous six years which was almost double that of the S&P 500 Index.

In January 2021, Ryan Tolkin assumed the additional role of CEO.

In August 2021, Schonfeld launched its second headquarters in Miami, Florida.

In January 2022, Schonfeld established its Discretionary Macro & Fixed Income business.

In October 2023, it was reported that Schonfeld and Millennium Management were in talks to establish a partnership where Millennium would invest in Schonfeld. However in November, the two ended talks of a partnership. Schonfeld then proceeded cut 150 staff which was 15% of its workforce.