Brevan Howard was co-founded by Alan Howard, a former head of proprietary trading at Credit Suisse First Boston, and Jean-Philippe Blochet in 2002. The fund had a successful start, making Jean-Philippe Blochet left the firm in 2009. In 2011, it ranked fifth in Institutional Investor's Hedge Fund 100. Howard's focus has always been on finding "asymmetrical outcomes" whatever the instrument, from interest rates to currency, equities to commodity price movements. "He gets it right more than he gets it wrong," says Altedge Capital's Chris Goekjian. "But the important thing is that when he does get it wrong, he cuts very quickly."

Alan Howard, who is responsible for roughly 25% of the trades Brevan Howard makes, uses a risk-averse approach to trading, focusing on macro trades. "Like all good traders, Alan knows the value of risk, how much risk he can take and the availability of capital," says Oswald Gruebel, who worked with Howard at Credit Suisse Group AG. "That's the main differentiation between a good trader and a bad trader, and he was exceptional." In fact, Howard is so risk-averse that he was amongst those fund managers that relocated to Geneva in 2010 amidst uncertainty over taxation and market supervision in the UK, and even offered his employees the opportunity to follow suit. He also avoids depositing cash with investment banks, preferring instead to deposit Treasury bills with custodial banks, like Bank of New York Mellon.