Quant Hedge Fund Icon AQR Cuts Back as Investors Exit (AI-CIO.com)
Once hailed as the magicians of finance, quantitative hedge funds haven’t shown much dazzle lately. One of the most celebrated and a pioneer in this math-intense field, AQR Capital Management, is cutting back resources as it confronts investment outflow. The firm, led by Cliff Asness, is axing a key bond operation, parting with five partners, and paring other activities, the Financial Times reported. The shuttered bond strategy is focused on long-term obligations; the unit started in 2014, investment site FundFire wrote.
New York Billionaire Seeks Permission to Build ‘Temple for a Titan’ Penthouse on Top of Historic Building (Independent.co.uk)
Billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman is seeking permission from New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to build a “flying saucer” penthouse on top of a historic building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Mr Ackman has won the backing of Manhattan’s Community Board 7 on the Upper West Side for the plan to build — what he likes to call — a temple for a titan, on top of the 120-year-old building that overlooks the Central Park.
Sundheim’s D1, Viking Bet Big on Peloton Ahead of Plunge (Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) — Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital and Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global Investors both significantly boosted their holdings in exercise-equipment maker Peloton Interactive Inc. in the third quarter, ahead of this month’s 48% plunge. D1 padded its stake in New York-based Peloton by almost 75%, making it the firm’s sixth-biggest shareholder. Viking increased its position by more than 10-fold, becoming the seven-largest investor. Each of the hedge funds held stakes worth about $500 million at the end of September, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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Melvin Capital’s Comeback Plan (Institutional Investor)
Gabe Plotkin made several moves in the third quarter in a bid to reverse his fund’s still considerable losses. Melvin Capital Management has significantly shaken up its portfolio in recent months.Five stocks cracked the long-short fund’s top-six holdings since the third quarter, after the hedge fund firm doubled or more than doubled their stakes. At the same time, Melvin fully unloaded what was its third-largest long at the end…
Elon Musk Slams Tesla Critic Michael Burry as a ‘Broken Clock’ — as the ‘The Big Short’ Investor Deletes Twitter Again (Business Insider)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hit back at “The Big Short” investor Michael Burry, labelling him a “broken clock.” It came after Burry, who’s famous for predicting the 2008 financial crisis, slammed Musk and Tesla, and said there was “more speculation than the 1920s” in the current stock market. Burry has now deleted his Twitter account, but not for the first time. Recently, he has followed a pattern of activating his profile to tweet dire warnings about financial markets, before shutting it down again.
