A team of seasoned U.S. journalists are launching a trading firm called Hunterbrook, which will utilize their own investigative reporting to determine which trading moves to make, reports an article in the Financial Times. The firm has accumulated $10 million in seed money and is aiming to raise $100 million for the trading fund arm of the firm. Meanwhile, Hunterbrook’s other arm will be comprised of analysts and journalists who will create articles based on public information, and then place trades based on that information before the articles are published.
Several well-known names in the industry are behind the venture, which was founded by the journalist Sam Koppelman and investor Nathaniel Brooks Horwitz. Emerson Collective’s venture capital division, run by Laurene Powell Jobs of The Atlantic, is an investor in Hunterbrook, as is former Wall Street Journal editor-in-cheif Matt Murray, who is also an advisor on the start-up. Other seed investors include David Fialkow of General Catalyst, Marc Lasry of Avenue Capital, and former JPMorgan CIO Matt Cherwin, among other quantitative traders from well-regarded funds, according sources close to the venture who are cited in the article.
Horowitz told investors early on that Hunterbrook’s reporting team would have “unique access” to news articles and information before the general public, and be able to time trades based on that information. Journalists from such publications as The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and the BBC will make up the team, and will work with “intel analysts” to put out investigative pieces that could influence the market—all without a subscription paywall or advertisements. The trading fund entity will trade stocks, options, commodities, and currencies along with other assets, Horowitz relayed to potential investors, the article reports. However, Hunterbrook will not trade on information that isn’t available to the public; indeed, an early name under consideration for the reporting arm was “Watchdog.”