Kepos Capital

Mark Carhart and Giorgio De Santis founded Kepos Capital in 2010. Carhart is the academic researcher who co-authored the seminal 1997 paper 'On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance,' which introduced the momentum factor now known as the Carhart four-factor model. Both founders previously worked together at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where Carhart was a portfolio manager on the Global Alpha quantitative hedge fund, a pioneering systematic strategy that directly informs Kepos' current investment process.

Kepos Capital operates a systematic global macro strategy. The firm deploys quantitative models to harvest risk premia — principally momentum, carry, value, and volatility — across equities, fixed income, currencies, and commodity markets. The strategy trades exclusively in liquid, exchange-traded and over-the-counter instruments, allowing for daily liquidity terms typical of managed-futures and global-macro hedge fund structures.

Kepos is primarily systematic, with all trade ideas generated and sized by quantitative models. However, the firm retains discretionary override authority — senior portfolio managers, including Mark Carhart, can intervene to reduce risk or override model signals during extreme market conditions where historical statistical relationships break down. This human circuit-breaker function is a deliberate design choice carried forward from the Global Alpha experience.

Kepos operates as a single centralized portfolio, not a multi-pod platform. All risk-taking and capital allocation decisions flow through a unified investment committee led by Mark Carhart, rather than being distributed across dozens of independent trading teams. This architecture concentrates accountability and contrasts sharply with the multi-manager model, where many portfolio managers run semi-autonomous books under a centralized risk umbrella.

The firm's primary vehicle is Kepos Capital Partners LP, a Delaware limited partnership. The firm also operates a registered commodity pool, reflecting its heavy engagement with futures and foreign-exchange markets. Kepos has not publicly launched standalone long-only, private equity, or multi-family office vehicles, and the business remains focused exclusively on its systematic macro hedge fund mandate.