A trading desk built for edge — and survival.
Cygnus deploys proprietary capital across a curated set of strategies — quantitative, discretionary and derivatives-led — under a single, rigorous risk framework.
Eight pillars of the
Cygnus proprietary desk.
A multi-strategy book optimised for cross-cycle risk-adjusted returns. Independent alpha sources, unified risk.
Quantitative + Discretionary
A blended book where systematic alpha is overlaid with discretionary judgement during regime shifts.
Derivatives expertise
Options structures, calendar spreads, vol selling/buying and delta-hedged carry across index and stock derivatives.
Risk controls
Pre-trade risk budgets, position-level stops, gross/net exposure caps and intraday VaR monitoring.
Hedging systems
Automated tail-risk hedges, vol-targeted sizing and dynamic correlation-aware portfolio overlays.
Volatility frameworks
Regime detection across realised, implied and skew dimensions — feeding strategy weight allocations.
Market-neutral opportunities
Pair trades, statistical arbitrage and basis trades designed to generate alpha independent of market direction.
Multi-timeframe analysis
Intraday, swing and positional book operating in parallel — each with its own alpha source and risk budget.
Execution quality
Smart order routing, slippage analytics and post-trade TCA across every venue we transact on.
Risk before return. Always.
The Cygnus proprietary desk operates under explicit risk budgets, pre-trade checks and an independent risk committee with veto power on every strategy.
Each strategy carries its own daily loss limit, position cap and exposure ceiling. Aggregate book-level Value-at-Risk is monitored intraday with automated alerts that escalate to risk officers and partners.
Hedges are not retrofitted — they are budgeted at strategy inception. Tail-risk overlays use a combination of long index puts, VIX exposure and dynamically sized futures shorts.
Every trade is reviewed weekly. Performance attribution is broken down by strategy, factor exposure and execution quality. What gets measured, gets repeated.
Co-invest with the Cygnus desk.
Selective managed-account access for institutions and qualified investors who want exposure to the Cygnus proprietary book.