Hedge fund Samlyn liquidates all stocks except financials, cuts senior analysts.

BlockBeats news, November 6 - Rob Pohly's Samlyn Capital is cutting senior analysts; the firm has previously liquidated exposure in almost all sectors, retaining only global financial stocks and shifting its investment focus to this area.

According to people familiar with the matter, this $7 billion equity hedge fund sold off stocks in multiple sectors including industrials, technology, and retail weeks ago, earlier than the recent wave of market sell-offs. The recent decline has severely hit the entire hedge fund industry. One of the people said that as of October, the fund was down about 5% year-to-date. Going forward, Samlyn will primarily trade global financial stocks, an area Pohly has focused on for decades.

Samlyn has retained analysts specializing in the financial industry. Rather than returning capital to investors, Samlyn has reinvested cash from selling other holdings into financial stocks, or temporarily held cash awaiting future deployment.