Steven Cohen’s Venture Firm Backs 24-Hour Stock-Trading Startup (The Wall Street Journal)
Hedge-fund billionaire and New York Mets owner Steven A. Cohen is backing a startup that wants to let investors trade stocks 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Point72 Ventures, Mr. Cohen’s early-stage venture-capital fund, is leading a $14.25 million funding round for 24 Exchange. The companies announced the transaction Wednesday after it was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
Scaramucci Fund Boosted Crypto Exposure by 150% in Third Quarter (Bloomberg)
Anthony Scaramucci’s flagship vehicle for investing in hedge funds increased its exposure to crypto-related assets by almost 150% during the third quarter. Investments in digital funds and securities in the SkyBridge Multi-Adviser Hedge Fund Portfolios totaled $485 million at the end of September, up from $195 million on June 30, according a regulatory filing this week. The increase reflected new investments and market appreciation. The fund’s net assets fell about 10% in the period to $2.4 billion, fueled by redemptions.
Billionaire Investor Ray Dalio Warns that the US is Coming to the Brink of an Empire-Ending Catastrophe. Here’s Why He’s Worried, and How He Says You Should Invest Your Money. (Business Insider)
Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates is known for successful investing on a global scale. Dalio has been studying the rise and fall of empires, and warns that the US is in trouble. He says investors should stay balanced, consider the effects of inflation, and hold little cash. Almost 50 years later, Ray Dalio still remembers his reaction to the news that the US would no longer allow dollars to be swapped for gold. He was sure it would be a disaster for markets.
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Trend-Following Hedge Funds’ Momentum Halted Following Market Wobble (Hedge Week)
CTAs and trend-following hedge funds have seen their recent advance halted, as anxieties over the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 punctured market momentum towards the end of last month. CTAs and other managed futures strategies had started the final quarter of 2021 on a high, with solid October gains. But Société Générale’s main CTA Index was set to finish November down 2.64 per cent earlier this week, reversing October’s 2.56 per cent gain. The index – which charts the daily performances of 20 of the largest CTAs, including funds run by brand-name firms such as Man AHL, Graham Capital, Systematica, AQR, and Aspect Capital – remains up almost 7 per cent over the 11 months since the start of 2021.
With Alden Once Again on the Prowl, It’s Time to Stop Hedge Funds from Destroying Newspapers (WGBH.org)
It’s rather late in the game to ask whether hedge funds can be stopped from buying up every last one of our local newspapers. After all, about half of us are already stuck with a paper that is owned by, or is in debt to, the likes of Alden Global Capital (Tribune Publishing and MediaNews Group), Apollo Global Management (Gannett) and Chatham Asset Management (McClatchy). Still, with Alden having now set its sights on Lee Enterprises, a chain that owns 77 daily newspapers in 26 states, we need to take steps aimed at preventing what is already a debacle from devolving into a catastrophe.
