The Barclays-QRT Trading Relationship: Inside the $100 Billion Prime Brokerage Partnership

• By February 2025, QRT had reached $23 billion in assets under management .
• By July 2025, it had grown further to ~$30 billion, and was preparing a US expansion by hiring Naveen Arora from Goldman Sachs .
• More recent reports place its AUM at nearly $40 billion, with a flagship fund that has generated roughly 30% annualized returns since inception .

QRT runs systematic, computer-driven strategies across equities, futures, and other liquid asset classes globally . Its rise from a $800 million spinoff to a $40 billion firm places it among the top 1% of hedge funds worldwide .

The Prime Brokerage Network and Barclays' Central Role

QRT maintains relationships with multiple prime brokers, exchanges, and central counterparties . But Barclays has emerged as its single most consequential prime broker. The relationship has deepened to the point where talent flows between the two firms. Eilidh Mackenzie, a former Barclays prime services director, moved directly to QRT as an Operations Director in February 2025 . James Proffitt, formerly a VP in prime services at Barclays, joined QRT as EMEA ETF COO in March 2026 . These personnel moves illustrate the operational closeness between the two organizations.

Barclays' Climb in Prime Brokerage Rankings

The QRT relationship has been a key driver of Barclays' ascent in prime brokerage league tables. According to data from research firm BCG Expand, Barclays climbed to 5th place in prime brokerage fee revenue by June 2024, up from approximately 7th place five years earlier . A second source confirmed the fifth place ranking .

Other metrics also show Barclays' growing footprint:

• As of H1 2025, Barclays ranked 6th globally by number of billion-dollar hedge fund clients, with 126 such relationships representing 23% coverage of the universe .
• The bank established 69 new fund relationships in the year ending March 2024 alone .
• Risk.net named Barclays "Prime broker of the year" in 2023, noting the bank had increased its prime broking revenues by an average 11% each year since 2016, rising from ninth to become the fifth largest prime broker by revenues .

The massive notional trading volume from QRT — a single quant client — has given Barclays a significant revenue boost in a business dominated by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan . Advancing further in the rankings poses a significant challenge, as those three Wall Street giants collectively hold nearly 50% market share in prime brokerage .

QRT's Disclosed Short Position Against Barclays: The Paradox

Despite the deep partnership, QRT has also maintained a short position against Barclays stock, creating a striking tension at the heart of the relationship:

• In March 2024, QRT disclosed a short position worth approximately £200 million, representing about 0.73% of Barclays' share capital — the largest ever disclosed short position against the bank . Regulatory filings showed QRT building the position gradually from 0.50% on 27 February 2024 up to a peak of 0.80% on 12 March 2024 .
• By November 2025, The Times reported that this bet was still active at roughly the same size, built despite a rally in Barclays' share price on optimism about CEO CS Venkatakrishnan's turnaround plan .
• As of May 2026, short-tracking data from Investegate shows QRT still listed among Barclays' historical disclosed short positions, though it is no longer flagged as "active" — suggesting it may have been reduced below the UK's 0.5% disclosure threshold .

This is a classic example of the Chinese wall dynamic in modern prime brokerage. On one side, Barclays provides QRT with execution, financing, and securities lending services that generate hundreds of millions in revenue. On the other side, QRT has simultaneously placed a directional bet against Barclays' own stock — a tension that highlights the arm's-length nature of prime brokerage relationships, where a bank services a hedge fund's trades even when the fund is betting against the bank's shares.

Significance

The Barclays-QRT relationship is a case study in how prime brokerage is evolving. A single quantitative hedge fund can drive a major bank's ascent in the league tables while simultaneously betting against its counterparty's stock. For QRT, the relationship provides access to the execution, leverage, and securities lending infrastructure needed to run strategies across $40 billion in assets. For Barclays, the relationship has been instrumental in climbing from the middle of the pack to a top-five position in prime brokerage revenue — an achievement that required the bank to service a client betting hundreds of millions against its own shares.

As of August 2026, the $100 billion notional milestone underscores that this relationship remains central to both firms' strategies, with no signs of cooling .