Bill Ackman Calls for the Fed to Start Raising Interest Rates ‘As Soon As Possible’ (CNBC)
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman called Friday for the Federal Reserve to begin reining in the support it has provided for the U.S. economy during the pandemic. In separate tweets, the head of Pershing Square Holdings, with $13.1 billion under management, said the central bank should start turning off the monetary juice right away.
A Wrong-Way Bet on Bond Yields Triggered Rokos, Alphadyne Losses (Bloomberg)
A rapid convergence in key global bond yields is behind losses for some of the biggest macro hedge funds. Chris Rokos’s hedge fund has sunk 11% in October, in part because of wagers that the difference between short- and long-term U.K. and U.S. government bond yields would widen, according to people familiar with the matter. Instead, they’ve tightened. The market’s shift to expecting Bank of England rate hikes sooner caused most of the harm at Rokos Capital Management, the people said. The fund, down 20% for the year, is on track to post its worst annual loss ever.
Third Point Set to Play Long Game in Pressuring Shell (Reuters)
Oct 29 (Reuters) – When investors saw Daniel Loeb‘s Third Point LLC unveil a stake in Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), some were quick to make the comparison to Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), whose board was challenged this year by another hedge fund, Engine No. 1. Both oil majors have been under pressure to improve financial performance and accelerate their transition away from fossil fuels. Exxon saw three directors unseated when Engine No. 1 won a proxy contest in May.
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New Quant Multi-Manager AFBI Secures Strategic Investment from New Holland Capital (Hedge Week)
AFBI, a new quantitative multi-manager platform led by former Tudor and Millennium portfolio manager Pierre-Yves Guillo, has secured an anchor investment from alternative investment seeder New Holland Capital. Established in May this year, AFBI looks to generate uncorrelated returns across a diverse set of liquid quant strategies, using alternative data, proprietary portfolio construction and robust risk management techniques.
Día De Muertos (Hedge Nordic)
(By Mark Dowding, CIO at BlueBay Asset Management) – A prominent hedge fund apparently suffered huge losses and capitulated from being long the front-end vs. short the long end. In the last week alone, money market yields across developed markets have moved to price in further multiple rate hikes over the next 24 months, including a noteworthy 200bps over in the next 12 months in New Zealand. At the same time, longer maturity bonds have fallen. The market has clearly been positioned on the wrong side of this trade, particularly in the UK.
Hedge Funds Were In The Red Last Month But Outperformed Major Indices (Forbes)
The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index declined 0.44% last month, outperforming the MSCI ACWI (Local), which declined 3.55% in September. Investors continued to worry about rising inflation as the Federal Reserve raised its inflation forecast from 3.4% to 4.2% for the year. Inflation forecasts on the rise: Eurekahedge, part of HFM, said supply chain bottlenecks and the growing energy crisis in Europe and China are driving inflation higher. Energy prices in Europe and China rose 11.6% in September. Additionally, OPEC+ is holding oil supplies tight, resulting in surging oil prices. Brent oil was up 9.52% last month, while West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 9.91%.
Why Cybersecurity Is an Important Consideration for Crypto Hedge Fund Launches (Coin Desk)
More investment managers are trading digital assets as interest in cryptocurrencies continues to grow. AIMA’s Global Crypto Report, released over the summer, showed that around 20% of hedge funds are now investing in the space. As a fund manager, protecting intellectual property, the complex algorithms, systems and data that allow them to generate returns, is paramount. That is why cybersecurity is an important consideration for both traditional managers moving into the space and newer startup funds.
Goldman Sachs Makes R1.5 Billion from Steinhoff Investment (News24.com)
Four years after an accounting scandal at Steinhoff punched a hole in Goldman Sachs’ earnings, the bank’s traders are exacting some revenge. The Wall Street giant has locked in about $100 million (R1.5 billion) in gains after acquiring Steinhoff debt at distressed levels and holding on through its rebound this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The bank snapped up deeply discounted loans to the furniture maker when hedge fund CQS was dumping its assets last year, two of the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public.
Friday 10/29 Insider Buying Report: FLXS, BLFY (Nasdaq.com)
At Flexsteel Industries, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Wednesday, Director Kathryn P. Dickson purchased 3,000 shares of FLXS, at a cost of $27.40 each, for a total investment of $82,200. Dickson was up about 5.5% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with FLXS trading as high as $28.91 in trading on Friday. Flexsteel Industries, is trading up about 3.3% on the day Friday. This purchase marks the first one filed by Dickson in the past year. And also on Wednesday, CRO Brent Michael Ciurlino purchased $55,349 worth of Blue Foundry Bancorp, purchasing 4,000 shares at a cost of $13.84 a piece. Before this latest buy, Ciurlino made one other purchase in the past twelve months, buying $27,980 shares at a cost of $13.99 each. Blue Foundry Bancorp is trading up about 0.8% on the day Friday.
Notable Palantir Technologies Insider Trades $48M In Company Stock (Benzinga)
Alexander Karp, Corporate Officer at Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR), made a large buy and sell of company shares on October 28, according to a new SEC filing. What Happened: A Form 4 filing from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission states that Alexander Karp exercised options to purchase 1,915,887 Palantir Technologies shares for $0 on October 28. They then sold their shares on multiple transactions in the open market. They sold at prices ranging from $25.35 to $26.38 to raise a total of $48,932,792 from the stock sale.
The Shareholder of Centamin (Other OTC: CELTF) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the Shareholder of Centamin (CELTF), Van Eck Associates Corporation, sold shares of CELTF for $9.31M. Currently, Centamin has an average volume of 300. CELTF’s market cap is $1.53 billion and the company has a P/E ratio of 10.90. The company has a one-year high of $1.86 and a one-year low of $1.23. Based on 3 analyst ratings, the analyst consensus is Moderate Buy with an average price target of $1.60, reflecting a -16.9% downside. In the last 30 days, insiders have sold $9.32M worth of CELTF shares and purchased $36.97K worth of CELTF shares. The insider sentiment on Centamin has been positive according to 15 insider trades in the past three months. This sentiment is slightly higher than the average sentiment of company insiders in this sector.
