Hedge Fund Boss Hohn Slams ESG Engagement as ‘Blah, Blah, Blah’ (Bloomberg)
Famed activist investor Chris Hohn ripped into one of the ESG industry’s most popular strategies, known as “engagement,” characterizing it as all talk and no meaningful action. “We should stop pretending and just be honest,” the chief executive of TCI Fund Management said on Thursday at the Bloomberg Intelligence ESG Investment Forum in London. “The acid test is actual emissions, are they falling or are they rising? And they’re rising. And that’s where the rubber hits the road.”
Hedge Fund Titan Brevan Howard Poached Peter Johnson from Jump Crypto to Help Launch its Crypto Division. He Breaks Down 4 Ways the Investing Powerhouse is Uncovering Alpha in the Digital Assets Market (Business Insider)
At the start of this year, venture capitalist Peter Johnson moved from one ultra-secretive investment house to another, when hedge fund Brevan Howard poached him from Jump Capital, the venture arm of proprietary trading firm Jump Trading. In his nine years at Jump, Johnson launched the company’s crypto investing strategy, which now sits within their crypto division, Jump Crypto. Now, he’s co-leading private investments for Brevan Howard’s crypto arm, BH Digital.
Hedge Funder Dalio Says Bubbles Burst for Tech Darlings Tesla, Roku (The Street)
‘Emerging tech stocks no longer appear to be in a bubble,’ said hedge fund mogul Ray Dalio. So is it time to buy? For several years, many stock watchers have pointed to signs of bubbles in the market. Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund firm, has formulated a bubble indicator made up of six factors, including broad bullish sentiment and high prices relative to traditional measures.
Tiger, Gaingels, Insight Most Active Investors In US Market In April As 2Q Starts (Crunch Base)
Although six venture firms had deal totals that hit double digits in April, that number is down from a dozen just two months ago. The usual suspects lead the way, with Gaingels, Tiger Global and Insight Partners again sealing the most deals in US-based startups last month, according to Crunchbase data.
Elon Musk, Cathie Wood Say Passive Investing has Become a ‘Major problem’ (New York Post)
Elon Musk and Cathie Wood argued in a tweetstorm that the increased popularity of passive index funds has become a “major problem” as the bosses of those funds gain outsized power over the boards of public companies. “Decisions are being made on behalf of actual shareholders that are contrary to their interests! Major problem with index/passive funds,” the Tesla chief wrote in a tweet Wednesday.
Quant Hedge Funds Increasingly Popular with Investors (Hedge Week)
Research from SigTech’s 2021 annual Hedge Fund Research Report saw 80 per cent of hedge fund managers expecting institutional investors to increase their allocation to quant strategies over the following year, and 86 per cent expecting quant hedge fund strategies to increase allocations over the following five years. Industry data indicates one in five hedge funds now apply quant investment processes. The latest research from SigTech shows that 22 per cent of the world’s hedge funds use purely quantitative investment processes, with roughly 2 per cent saying that they also use AI.
Want To Invest Like Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square? Try These ETFs (Investing.com)
The well-known hedge fund manager, Bill Ackman, is also referred to as an investor activist. In 2003, he founded Pershing Square Capital, an investment adviser registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Pershing Square Holdings (LON:PSHP) (OTC:PSHZF) is a closed-end fund run by Ackman. The fund: “Makes concentrated investments in publicly traded, principally North American-domiciled, companies. PSH is incorporated in Guernsey…”
Marshall Wace Makes Hire to Focus on Blockchain Investments (Bloomberg)
Marshall Wace is building out a team that invests in private blockchain-related companies, hiring William Benattar for its crossover investment fund, according to people familiar with the matter. The London-based investment firm manages about $60 billion, mostly in hedge funds that bet on stocks rising or falling. Last July, Bloomberg News reported the firm was raising a new digital finance fund to bet on private companies in areas such as blockchain technology, digital payments and stablecoins.
Calculo Growing Beyond One-Person Shop (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Commodity-focused Calculo Capital has grown beyond Philip Engel Carlsson’s one-person shop with the hiring of Victor Lund Klestrup Hansen as a quantitative analyst. The new hire is expanding the data-analysis and research-based capabilities powering the artificial intelligence-assisted trend-following strategy employed by Calculo Evolution Fund. “Victor Lund Klestrup Hansen will join Calculo Capital as Quantitative Analyst from May 1,” says Philip Engel Carlsson, who launched Calculo Evolution Fund during the summer of 2018.
Fund Size and Performance: Private Equity (Preqin)
To help LPs analyze the effects of different fund sizes on performance, we have put together a six-part series spanning the private capital asset classes: private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, infrastructure, and natural resources. The second in the series looks at private equity. Is small beautiful or is bigger better?
Thursday 5/5 Insider Buying Report: CFR, BGSF (Nasdaq.com)
At Cullen/Frost Bankers, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Monday, Director Chris Avery purchased 5,000 shares of CFR, at a cost of $131.55 each, for a total investment of $657,750. Avery was up about 2.6% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with CFR trading as high as $134.96 at last check today. Cullen/Frost Bankers is trading down about 2.6% on the day Thursday. And at BGSF, there was insider buying on Monday, by Director Douglas Hailey who purchased 20,000 shares for a cost of $12.68 each, for a total investment of $253,600. Before this latest buy, Hailey made one other buy in the past twelve months, purchasing $342,492 shares at a cost of $13.70 each. BGSF is trading down about 0.3% on the day Thursday. So far Hailey is in the green, up about 4.7% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $13.28.
Executives Buy Over $373M Of 4 Stocks (Benzinga)
Occidental Petroleum: The Trade: Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) 10% owner Warren E Buffett acquired a total of 5,887,618 shares at at an average price of $57.11. To acquire these shares, it cost around $336.22 million. Appian: The Trade: Appian Corporation (APPN) 10% owner Colin Moran acquired a total of 157,000 shares at an average price of $48.21. To acquire these shares, it cost around $7.57 million.
