There was a time when Man Group was at the cutting edge of investment strategies, a pioneer in the city of London.

So look, back in the 90s, Man Group were essentially these cool nerds that were using mathematical models, lots of data, to make bets that were decided by these models and computers,

not by individuals.

That's the FT's hedge fund correspondent, Kostas Morcellus.

A lot of people are still thinking about trading in more old-fashioned terms, like a street

smart trader calling up their broker to buy a stock or shouting buy and sell orders on the floor

of a physical exchange.

Man was doing things differently.

What Costas is referring to is quant trading, an investment strategy that uses mathematical

and statistical models executed by computers to make trading decisions.

And that was very untested territory, and it fast became the hottest area of finance.

But some 30 years on, Man Group is in a very different place.

I think the big tension is this desire to become a broader asset manager,

you know, expanding into areas such as long-only, private credit, real estate,

but also trying to be a hedge fund at the cutting edge of finance,

developing the most sophisticated trading strategies and making huge profits in the market.

The hedge fund unit where Man Group built its reputation in quant trading

has been facing a few years of difficulty.

Key strategies have been in the red and wealthy individuals have pulled their money out.

Things have improved a bit from Mann's Quint Unit recently, as some strategies have

performed much more strongly over the past two months. But if they don't turn the bus around,

they could certainly see more people pull their

...