PTJ on BTC: Bitcoin Is Now the Macro Big Bet (CoinDesk.com)
The bull case for bitcoin as a store of value is simple: at first nobody owns it. Then it’s owned by people who are some combination of crazy and smart, but generally crazier than they are smart. Over time the craziness requirement drops, more investors buy it and it becomes dumb not to own a little. Since existing monetary systems are necessarily optimized for the status quo – and the dollar is, in fact, very well optimized for a globalized world with a hegemonic United States – an alternative system like bitcoin is necessarily a bet on a weirder world. We certainly live in a weird world today. And some sophisticated money managers are taking notice. Paul Tudor Jones II, a well-regarded global macro investor, made headlines last week when he announced he’d bought bitcoin and planned to invest up to a single-digit percentage of his net worth in the currency. PTJ is not exactly a nose-ringed millennial day trading on Robinhood. He’s been running his fund since 1980 and has accumulated almost $40 billion in assets under management.
Hedge Fund Manager Makes the Case for Value Investing (ETFTrends.com)
AQR Capital Management founder Clif Asness addressed whether value investing can work today via a blog post entitled “Is (Systematic) Value Investing Dead?” The extended bull market certainly put value investing in the rear-view mirror for investors riding the momentum of growth, which had them wondering if the tried-and-tested value investing style was on its last legs? “No, it’s not,” the blog simply said. “Quite the opposite.” “Besides just an inherent discomfort with randomness, part of the issue is confusion about why value works at all. It does not depend on getting big events or trends right. It does not depend on having perfect accounting information,” the AQR post noted.
Investor TCI Files Criminal Complaint Against Wirecard Managers (Reuters)
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The investor TCI Fund Management said on Tuesday that it has filed a criminal complaint against Wirecard managers with public prosecutors in Munich. A recent independent audit by KPMG, along with reporting by the Financial Times and WirtschaftsWoche, “reveal anomalies that may have criminal relevance”, it said.
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Dalios Pull Out of State Education Partnership, Attack GOP Reps (CTPost.com)
Barbara and Ray Dalio are exiting the Partnership for Connecticut, ending the arrangement that was touted in 2019 as a unique way to reach troubled youths, although they will maintain their commitment to the cause with at least $100 million. “Today we are announcing our intent to withdraw from The Partnership,” Barbara Dalio said in a written statement released Tuesday. “We’ve tried hard over the past 15 months to make this unique model work, but it has become clear that it’s not working because of political fighting. I am not a politician and I never signed up to become one. I only want to help people. Through this experience I’ve learned about our broken political system and I don’t see a path through it to help people.”
Nelson Peltz is Bullish on the Market Long Term Because of a Vaccine. Here are His Biggest Bets (CNBC)
Billionaire hedge fund manager and activist investor Nelson Peltz cut his exposure to a number of stocks during a volatile first quarter for markets, according to a securities filing released Friday.
Successful Fund Launch Amid Turmoil (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – With about 40 years of combined experience at DNB Markets, Ole Christian Presterud and Kent Torbjørnsen left Norway’s leading investment bank to start their own business. The Norwegian duo launched Polar Asset Management in January this year, followed by the successful launch of multi-strategy fund Polar Multi Asset I at the beginning of March. The newly-launched fund, which has now joined the Nordic Hedge Index, gained 20.5 percent in March and is up 24.8 percent year-to-date through mid-May. Both Presterud and Torbjørnsen spent most of their careers at DNB Markets in Norway.
Hedge Fund That Timed Big Short, Crypto Rally Eyes Venezuela (Bloomberg)
Venezuela’s bond market has been rocked over the past few years by defaults, sanctions and a collapse in crude oil prices. Yet the disastrous cocktail is attracting hedge funds including London’s Altana Wealth Ltd. that say the situation can’t get any worse. Altana is pitching the South American nation’s government notes, which can be bought at pennies on the dollar, as the “trade of the new decade,” according to two letters to investors seen by Bloomberg.
Hedge Fund Redemptions Skyrocket in March as Investors Pull USD85bn Amid Covid-19 Pandemic Fears, New Data Shows (Hedge Week)
Investors pulled more than USD85 billion out of hedge funds during March – some 2.7 per cent of total industry assets globally – amid growing fears over the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, new data from BarclayHedge shows. Investor redemptions skyrocketed from USD8.1 billion in February to USD85.6 billion the following month, with hedge funds in continental Europe the hardest hit, according to BarclayHedge’s Barclay Fund Flow Indicator. Continental European hedge fund managers suffered outflows of USD38.3 billion, while across the Atlantic US hedge funds recorded USD31.6 billion in redemptions. Funds in the UK meanwhile lost USD24.7 billion in redemptions.
