Hedge Fund Balyasny is Diversifying, and Hiring (eFinancialCareers)
Three weeks ago, when most people were winding down for Christmas, Balyasny Asset Management (BAM), the multi-strategy hedge fund, held an investor day. It was its first since 2017, and was something of a milestone. BAM has changed a lot in five years. When BAM was founded by Dmitry Balyasny, Scott Schroeder and Taylor O’Malle in 2001, its focus was fundamental investing and long/short equities trading. After diversifying its strategy, this is no longer the case – at the December investor day, the fund revealed that more than half of its $17bn in assets under management are now spread across other strategies, including early stage investing, commodities, commodities and macro.
Elliott Hires Cornwall Capital’s Tai to Boost Japanese Activism (Bloomberg)
Elliott Investment Management has hired Aaron Tai, a partner at hedge fund Cornwall Capital, to grow its activism practice in Japan, according to a person familiar with the matter. Tai joined Elliott this week and reports to London-based senior portfolio manager Nabeel Bhanji, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.
Trian Fund Management, Now Pushing for Seat at Disney, Lost 10.6% in 2022 (Reuters)
Trian Fund Management, the activist investment firm currently pushing for changes plus a board seat at Walt Disney Co (DIS.N), posted a return of negative 10.6% last year when many hedge funds nursed losses, people familiar with the number said. Trian’s co-founder, Nelson Peltz, has criticized Disney for bungled succession planning and rising costs at its streaming service and he is pushing for a board seat, arguing he has the operational know-how to help repair the damage.
Image by Sergei Tokmakov Terms.Law from Pixabay
Hedge Funds End 2022 On A Sour Note As Global Macro Outperformed And Multi-Strategy Stalled (Forbes)
December brought a bit of a turnaround in hedge fund performance, with global macro funds taking center stage as the best performers. Meanwhile, multi-strategy funds stalled last month, and smaller funds outperformed larger ones in some strategies, marking a turnaround of what was seen in many previous months of 2022. In its “Monthly Hedge Fund Update” for December, Citco reported that the overall weighted-average return for the hedge funds it administers was -0.7%, a significant turnaround after two straight months of positive returns. The overall median return was flat, indicating no difference in performance between large and small funds.
US Hedge Fund Cleans Up Betting Against Cathie Wood’s ARK Fund (Proactiveinvestors.co.uk)
US hedge fund Greenlight Capital made 37% of its money in 2022 by shorting stocks held by Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF, its founder hinted in a letter to investors. While the ARK fund was not named specifically, David Einhorn said that in early 2021 Greenlight identified an “actively-managed ETF of so-called ‘innovation’ stocks that appeared to us to have significantly similar characteristics to our bubble names”.
