It isn't easy to shine in a 3,000-billion-industry with 10,000 competitors. In an industry known for macho bravado and misunderstood masculinity. Leda Braga (pictured), a 48-year old based in Geneva, did it: the «Hedge Fund Journal» presented her as one of the «most powerful hedge fund manager» in the world, for a second year after 2013.

The appraisal comes as little surprise: first-class education, first-class career, first-class looks – everything fits together with the Brazil-born financial expert. A little surprising is her choice of domicile. Switzerland isn't the financial market with the most advanced asset management.

Systematica Investments

Braga in January founded her own company, Systematica Investments. Headquartered in Geneva, Braga manages with her team of 100 bankers Bluetrend, a hedge fund based on a quant-strategy worth $8,7 billion. She was detached to Geneva in 2001 by billionaire Michael Platt.

The star manager doesn't have to beg for attention in Switzerland either. Schroders, the U.K. fund manager, approached Braga in a bid to forge a cooperation with Systematica. The partners recently presented their first product at a roadshow.

She may be a star, but doesn't need the attention that comes with it. That much became clear at the roadshow, which finews.ch attended. The tall blonde engaged with the expert public and gracefully answered every question with patience.

Beating the Trend

The team at Systematica knew everything much better than her, Braga jested: «They know technologies I couldn't even dream of.» She was head of Systematica only because the others «basically let me».

Of course: Braga is known as a genius. She made her name in 2008, when the financial system collapsed and almost every investment instrument plunged. Not so the Bluetrend fund of the Brazil expert: She achieved a performance of a whopping 43 percent in the year of the crisis.

Now she's told her story of how this all came about.

«The flow of bad news quickened and everybody around us seemed to panic», Braga said. Some of her experts wanted to reduce the risk level in the investment process as a consequence. «I countered them by questioning what actual facts they had which contradicted our long-term investment roadmap – which hypotheses had actually been violated. We checked the facts and data – and found very little.»

The only thing that was changed at Bluetrend was the holiday schedule. «The only thing I asked from my team in 2008 was to postpone their holidays, so we could all be on deck», she said. It was a stressful time, Braga admits with hindsight.

Lessons Learnt

The team won and learnt its lesson. «We learnt that we had better interfere as seldom as possible with our algorithms», Braga said. Systematica has stuck to that lesson. The firm makes four changes at the most in any one year.

The patience applied is worth it. The fund achieves an average annual performance of 11 percent. In 2015, another difficult year, the performance so far has been 6 percent.

Braga believes that the system applied by her company will become an industry benchmark. «Most investment managers will function this way in ten years' time.»

Systematica is structured like a fintech startup. The technology group is an independently managed business unit within the company with lean hierarchies. Even younger employees can take on responsibility, according to Braga, who herself was raised at J.P. Morgan.

Systematica employs around 50 people in Switzerland.