An electronic trading firm hit employees with 3 year non-competes in late 2024

9 January 2025

2 minute read

If you thought the 21 month and two year non-competes imposed on some staff at Citadel and Citadel Securities were painful, you might need to recalibrate your pain threshold. Multiple sources say that one London electronic trading firm imposed three year non-competes on key staff towards the end of 2024.

Get Morning Coffee ☕ in your inbox. Sign up here.

G-Research, a London-based quant research and technology firm, is understood to have imposed the three year non-competes late last year. The firm didn't respond to multiple requests to comment on the issue.

Recruiters and sources at G-Research claim the non-competes were imposed on senior people in the fourth quarter. Quant researchers and quant developers seem to have been affected. One headhunter said the changes were implemented on an "aggressive timeline" and that some people have left G-Research as a result.

G-Research has a reputation for being highly secretive. This time last year, it cut around 100 technology staff in London as it moved people to Dallas. The three year non-competes are thought to have been a response to this, as it sought to lock remaining people in.

G-Research also has a reputation for policing its non-competes vigorously. Engineers who left are thought to have done so to avoid the angst of sitting out the market for three years or being pursued by a litigious former employer.

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, WhatsApp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available.

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libellous (in which case it won’t.)

Photo by Brice Cooper on Unsplash