Odey Hedge Fund Slips to Fourth Annual Loss in Five Years (Bloomberg)
Crispin Odey’s main hedge fund slumped to a fourth annual loss in the last five years as his bearish bets misfired amid the longest-running equities bull market in history. The Odey European Inc. hedge fund finished 2019 down 10.1% despite a late rally in December, according to a spokesman for London-based Odey Asset Management.
Billionaire Bill Ackman’s Hedge Fund Delivered 58% Returns in 2019 After Making a Big Investment in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (Business Insider)
After three years of net negative returns, Bill Ackman‘s hedge fund posted an incredible rebound in 2019. Pershing Square Holdings, the activist fund run by Ackman, gained 4.5% in December, bringing its 2019 net performance to 58.1%, according to its December portfolio update. It’s a massive outperformance of the S&P 500, which gained 29% last year. The positive annual performance is the first for Pershing Square since the fund began trading publicly in 2014, when it returned 40.4%. From 2015 to 2018, the fund posted negative returns, including 2018, where it nearly posted a positive return, but was pulled down to -0.7% from 0.07% for the year by fees.
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2020 Outlook: Look to Healthcare, Russian Natural Gas Stocks, Trump Winning Reelection, Says Hedge Fund Manager (Podcast) (Forbes)
Lukasz Tomicki of LRT Capital Management likes healthcare stocks and shares of Russian natural gas companies as the crucial election year 2020 gets underway – an election he expects will culminate with President Donald Trump winning a second term. Tomicki, who started Austin, Tex.-based hedge fund in 2012, joined the Contrarian Investor Podcast last month to discuss these and other ideas.
Fulcrum Asset Management launches Fulcrum Risk Premia Fund (UCITS) (HedgeWeek.com)
Fulcrum Asset Management (Fulcrum) has launched the Fulcrum Risk Premia Fund (UCITS) with USD70 million of initial capital with a further USD1.1 billion in the strategy across a Cayman fund and separately managed accounts. The strategy is designed to give investors access to attractive risk-adjusted returns with historically low correlations to traditional assets, while meeting its return objectives in different market environments. It does so by combining a highly diversified portfolio of return streams, focused on macro premia and excluding any exposure to single name equities or equity factors. The Fund is an absolute return product with a target volatility of 8 per cent and offers daily liquidity with no performance fees and complete transparency.
Brevan Howard Main Hedge Fund Gains 8% After Inflows Return (Bloomberg)
Brevan Howard Asset Management’s flagship hedge fund returned 8.4% last year, building on its 2018 gain and helping to pause a bleeding of assets. The $2.7 billion Brevan Howard Master Fund posted a 1.5% return in December, according to a letter to investors seen by Bloomberg. After racking up a 12.4% gain in 2018, its best since the end of the global financial crisis, the fund saw its first net inflows in five years in May and more in later months.
In Disappointing Year, Bridgewater’s Flagship Fund Returns 0.5% (Institutional Investor)
Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund firm, had a tough 2019. The firm’s flagship Pure Alpha strategy was essentially flat in 2019, with Pure Alpha 18 Percent, the more leveraged version, falling 0.5 percent for the year, according to an investor in the funds. The less leveraged version, Pure Alpha 12 percent, gained 0.5 percent for the year. Pure Alpha 18 percent had been in losing territory all year.
Billionaire Larry Robbins’ Glenview Capital Crushes 2019 with Eye-popping Returns After a Year that Lost the Firm Billions (Business Insider)
Billionaire Larry Robbins‘ Glenview Capital had a banner year, posting returns of nearly 30% in its flagship fund when the average hedge fund returned just over 8%, according to Hedge Fund Research. Glenview had lost billions in assets since 2017 after poor performance, though the firm said most of the redemptions have come from its long-only fund. While the firm more than tripled the returns of the average hedge fund, it still trailed the overall stock market, which finished 2019 up 33%, including dividends.
2019 Hedge Fund Success Stories: D.E. Shaw, Rokos Capital (Bloomberg)
Among the winning firms who came out on top of the hedge fund industry last year, D.E. Shaw & Co.’s flagship fund saw a 10.5% return last year, while Rokos Capital Management paid out 51% more to its top staff in 2019 on a surge in revenue. Bloomberg’s Sonali Basak reports on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Agecroft Partners Predict Hedge Fund AUM to Increase but Most will Go to Top 5% of Managers (Opalesque.com)
Agecroft Partners release 11th annual predictions of top trends in the hedge fund industry Each year, Agecroft Partners predicts the top hedge fund industry trends through their contact with more than 2,000 institutional investors and hundreds of hedge fund organizations. The hedge fund industry is dynamic and both managers and investors can benefit from anticipating, and preparing for, the changes likely to occur. Firms that can effectively evolve with the industry improve their chances of success while stagnant firms do so at their own peril. Below are Agecroft’s predictions for the biggest trends in the hedge fund industry for 2020.
Oprah, Ray Dalio and Lady Gaga Swear by this Simple Meditation Technique (CNBC)
Meditation is certainly having a moment. Everyone from Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey to Beyonce claim that the practice can help manage stress, improve creativity and boost energy. But there’s a specific type of meditation that’s been getting a lot of buzz from high-profile individuals: Transcendental Meditation (TM). At Oprah’s 2020 Vision Your Life In Focus Tour in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Saturday, Lady Gaga, aka Stefani Germanotta, and Oprah Winfrey spoke about mental health, including their shared love of transcendental meditation. Germanotta and Winfrey, as well as billionaire Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio – who attributes much of his success to TM – learned Transcendental Meditation from the same teacher, Bob Roth, CEO of The David Lynch Foundation.
