Morgan Stanley Investment Management may be about to buy a stake in its sixth hedge fund manager in a year, acquiring a share of about 20% in Traxis Partners, a $1.5bn (€1.1bn) global macro fund run by one of its former chief strategists.

Traxis, which already has a distribution agreement with Morgan Stanley, is run by Barton Biggs, who was at Morgan Stanley for 30 years before leaving in 2003 to set up the hedge fund alongside partners Cyril Moulle-Berteaux and Madhav Dhar.