Clayton DeGiacinto

Clayton DeGiacinto
Axonic Capital

In 2007, Clayton DeGiacinto, 38, felt ready to strike out on his own after running the proprietary trading desks for adjustable-rate mortgages and residential credits at Goldman, Sachs & Co. for five years. As the global financial crisis mounted, however, two of his original backers for a hedge fund changed their minds, so DeGiacinto opted instead to join Tower Research Capital, a New York–based quantitative proprietary trading firm, as head of its new structured-products business.

After earning returns of 55 percent in 2009 and 26 percent in 2010 at Tower, DeGiacinto left to start his own firm, Axonic Capital. He launched the Axonic Credit Opportunities Fund with $110 million on January 1. Today it has more than $190 million. The West Point graduate was an airborne ranger in the U.S. Army before earning his MBA from Wharton.