Senior quant Issam Bazzi is leaving Cubist

Issam Bazzi is leaving Point72's quantitative unit, Cubist, after nearly three years. He helped lead the buildout of a centralized trading team at the firm.

Bazzi's team struggled for months, posting trading losses in the tens of millions and falling as much as $70 million this year. His exit follows a leadership shake-up at Cubist last year, when president Denis Dancanet departed and former WorldQuant executive Geoffrey Lauprete took the role.

Cubist spent tens of millions recruiting top talent, and Bazzi joined from Citadel Securities after overlapping with Dancanet at PDT. In October he and founder Steve Cohen negotiated a deal for him to remain at the firm.

Cubist, which had about 60 investing teams in addition to the central team, is not a stand-alone fund and its results feed into Point72's overall returns. Point72 returned 4.5% through February and began March with losses amid turmoil from the Iran War; the unit's 2026 performance is not clear.

issam bazzi, cubist, point72, trading losses, 70 million, denis dancanet, geoffrey lauprete, steve cohen, citadel securities, centralized trading