The Trend is your Friend: Leda Braga’s Journey through Academia, Quantitative Finance, and Hedge Funds

Explore how systematic investing drives discipline, diversification, and resilience across market cycles.

In this episode of the FEG Insight Bridge, Greg Dowling speaks with Leda Braga, CEO of Systematica Investments, about her journey from academia to leading a global quantitative investment firm. She explores how systematic investing has evolved, the role of discipline and diversification across market cycles, and how advances in data and AI are shaping quant strategies. Leda also reflects on lessons from decades in finance and what it takes to build resilient, process-driven portfolios.

Key Takeaways:

Systematic investing replaces intuition with disciplined, repeatable processes—helping drive consistency across market environments.
Diversification and low correlation are core strengths, allowing systematic strategies to behave differently when markets are under stress.
The space has evolved well beyond traditional CTAs, expanding into broader, multi-asset quant strategies with deeper data inputs.
Advances in data and AI are accelerating research and reshaping how signals are identified, tested, and scaled.

SPEAKERS

Host

Greg Dowling, CFA, CAIA

Chief Investment Officer, Head of Research, FEG

Greg Dowling is Chief Investment Officer and Head of Research at FEG. Greg joined FEG in 2004 and focuses on managing the day-to-day activities of the research department. Greg chairs the firm’s Investment Committee, which approves all manager recommendations and provides oversight on strategic asset allocations and capital market assumptions. He is also a member of the firm’s Leadership Team and Risk Committee.

Leda Braga

CEO, Systematica Investments

Leda acts as CEO of Systematica Investments, an institutional hedge fund manager with approximately $13 billion in assets under management and offices in London, Geneva, New York, Singapore, Shanghai and Jersey. Systematica was formed in January 2015 as a spin-off of BlueCrest Capital, where Leda was President and Head of Systematic Trading for 14 years from 2001.

Her past experience includes modelling of interest rate exotics, FX/interest rate hybrid instruments and equity derivatives. She holds a PhD in Engineering from Imperial College London, where she worked as a lecturer and led research projects for over three years prior to joining J.P. Morgan.

DISCLOSURES
This was prepared by FEG (also known as Fund Evaluation Group, LLC), a federally registered investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended, providing non-discretionary and discretionary investment advice to its clients on an individual basis. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. The oral and written communications of an adviser provide you with information about which you determine to hire or retain an adviser. Fund Evaluation Group, LLC, Form ADV Part 2A & 2B can be obtained by written request directly to: Fund Evaluation Group, LLC, 201 East Fifth Street, Suite 1600, Cincinnati, OH 45202, Attention: Compliance Department. Neither the information nor any opinion expressed constitutes an offer, or an invitation to make an offer, to buy or sell any securities. The information herein was obtained from various sources. FEG does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of such information provided by third parties. The information is given as of the date indicated and believed to be reliable. FEG assumes no obligation to update this information, or to advise on further developments relating to it. Past performance is not an indicator or guarantee of future results. Diversification or Asset Allocation does not assure or guarantee better performance and cannot eliminate the risk of investment loss. The views or opinions expressed by guest speakers are solely their own and do not represent the views or opinions of Fund Evaluation Group, LLC.