Boaz Weinstein

Boaz Weinstein joined Deutsche Bank in 1998 after graduating from the University of Michigan and quickly rose through its credit derivatives desk. By age 27 he was running Deutsche Bank's global credit derivatives business, building it into one of the largest in the world with a book valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars notionally. He gained attention for complex CDS index trades and structured credit strategies. In 2009 he left Deutsche Bank to found Saba Capital Management. The fund gained widespread recognition in 2012 when Weinstein's team identified and traded against the enormous derivatives position of Bruno Iksil — the trader known as the "London Whale" at JPMorgan — earning substantial profits when the position unravelled and generated $6 billion in losses for JPMorgan. Saba Capital subsequently expanded into closed-end fund activism, accumulating positions in discounted closed-end funds and pressuring boards to narrow discounts through buybacks and conversions. This strategy has made Weinstein one of the most active shareholders in the closed-end fund universe. He is also an internationally ranked chess player, a connection he sees as intellectually analogous to trading — both require pattern recognition and probabilistic thinking under uncertainty.