A US hedge fund closed its US gas trading business. Banks & hedge funds are hiring its people
Natural gas trading can be a lucrative business. Just ask Citadel, which the FT says made $8bn in profits trading it when the Ukraine war broke out in 2022. $2bn of that was made by a single trader (Chris Foster), who can be seen here wearing pink socks.
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Not all natural gas trading teams make money, though. In January, Bloomberg reported that US hedge fund Roscommon Analytics had lost money and was closing its US gas desk. Roscommon people have been leaving ever since. They have also been turning up elsewhere.
We count at least 11 traders who've left Roscommon Analytics in 2026. Seven of them have new roles. It's not clear whether they all come from Roscommon's natural gas desk.
Those seven include James Degelia, Roscommon's chief risk officer for the US, who just joined Balyasny, and Samantha Philipp West, who left in January but who just joined Citi as a VP power trader. In April, Paul Matasso joined Marathon Petroleum Corporation as head of natural gas trading; Daniel Hassouni joined Saracen Energy; and Rishi Khullar joined Trafigura. Logan Graham joined Castleton Commodities as a power strategist in January. Adam O'Shay joined BofA as a director of North East power trading in February. And Michael Ciano, whose arrival from Hartree in March 2025 contributed to Roscommon's natural gas buildout, but who moved to the ever-acquisitive SquarePoint in February.
If you want to participate in the Roscommon Analytics hiring party, it's not too late. Various members of the team have indicated on LinkedIn that their time at the fund has come to an end but that something completely new has yet to begin. Many are based in Houston. They include: Ross Sclafani (a power trader); Suresh Dongre (the chief information officer), William Smith (a London-based power and gas data architect); and Michael Britt (a former MD on the treasury team).
Roscommon Analytics didn't comment for this article. Speaking to Bloomberg in January, its CEO Kevin Kelly said the firm was well capitalized and "operating in an orderly manner." Its most recently filed regulatory ADV form says it has 95 employees of whom 45 are investment staff. The fund's own site says it has offices in Houston and New York City. It currently has 31 people registered on LinkedIn, versus over twice that number a year ago.
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