A former Lehman Brothers prop trader and an ex-economist at the US bank have launched a global macro hedge fund with the backing of alternative asset manager Tages Capital.

Howard Kurz and John Llewellyn set up New York-based alternative asset manager Integrated Macro Manager in the middle of last year. The duo has now teamed up with Tages Capital, which manages $2.4 billion of assets and provided the seed capital for the global macro hedge fund. The fund launched with day-one investments of $76 million.