American Billionaire Hedge-Fund Manager Julian Robertson Took $800,000 in COVID-19 Aid from New Zealand’s Government to Pay the Staff at his Luxury Resorts (Business Insider)
A billionaire former hedge-fund manager took hundreds of thousands of dollars from New Zealand’s government to pay the staff at the luxury resorts he owns there, data from New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Development shows. Julian Robertson‘s luxury resorts and golf courses received more than $1.2 million NZ ($800,000 USD) in aid to help them pay their staff as tourism came to a grinding halt amid the coronavirus pandemic. Like the Paycheck Protection Program in the United States, New Zealand’s wage subsidies scheme has been criticized for giving funds to larger businesses that could survive without government aid.
Hedge Fund Manager Lays Out His Two Best Investments for a Post-Pandemic Inflationary World (Market Watch)
The U.S. reached another grim pandemic milestone Friday, with news that post-recession employment gains have largely been wiped out, though some relief on the U.S.-China trade front has investors looking past that historic data. Our call of the day comes from hedge fund Stanphyl Capital portfolio manager Mark Spiegel, who is pretty gloomy about the economic future that lies ahead, but has straight-up advice for investors wondering how to face down this pandemic. “If you have a long-term perspective, buy an S&P 500 index SPX, 1.37% and own some gold,” he told MarketWatch in an interview.
Popular Hedge Fund Manager Paul Tudor Jones: ‘Bitcoin Reminds Me of Gold Back in 1976’ (News.Bitcoin.com)
Hedge fund manager and investor, Paul Tudor Jones, discussed his opinion in regard to the crypto asset bitcoin on Thursday, saying that it reminds him of the part gold played back in the ‘70s. Jones also disclosed that his fund Tudor BVI has a percentage of Bitcoin futures products as well, and he believes the cryptocurrency is a hedge against inflation.
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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Has a Record $137 Billion Cash Pile. Here’s Why the Investor will be Frustrated by that Fact (Business Insider)
Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway boasted a record $137 billion cash pile at the end of March. The famed investor defended the hoard at Berkshire’s recent annual meeting, but he will be frustrated by its size if his past critiques of cash are any indication. A pandemic piggy bank. Buffett underscored the value of Berkshire’s cash during the virtual gathering on Saturday. “We really want to be prepared for anything,” he said. “We never want to be dependent, not only on the kindness of strangers, but the kindness of friends.”
Borea’s Sharp ‘V-Shaped’ Recovery (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Norwegian long/short equity fund Borea Global Equities did not enjoy a good start to the year, but a sharp reversal in performance almost erased all the losses incurred during the first quarter. Borea Global Equities started the month of April with no short positions and a net market exposure of 113 percent, which led to a gain of 20.2 percent in April. This was the fund’s best monthly performance on record. Confident in the financial standing and the business strength of its holdings, which include Warren Buffett’s cash-rich Berkshire Hathaway and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, portfolio manager Kjetil Nyland and his team increased the fund’s net market exposure to 113 percent at the end of March from 78 percent at the beginning of March.
Fund of Funds for Digital Asset Quant Strategies Expands to the UK (Hedge Week)
YRD Capital, a fund of funds (FoF) focused on quantitative trading in digital assets is to expand into the UK. The move follows the fund’s second investment in a UK based fund, and reflects YRD Capital’s aim to focus on the UK and European markets. YRD Capital constructed a portfolio of systematic funds trading Digital Assets, providing uncorrelated returns, to equity markets, bonds and Bitcoin. The fund target is to benefit from the high volatility of Digital Assets. YRD Capital also successfully gained positive returns during March 2020, when most funds had significant losses.
Hedge Funds Surge to Best Gain Since 2009 as Managers Navigate Pandemic Volatility (Opalesque.com)
Opalesque Industry Update – Hedge funds surged to the strongest monthly gain in over 10 years in April, as managers positioned for the re-opening of global economies which have been shut down as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, while also navigating historic volatility in oil and commodity markets. The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index (FWC) jumped +4.8 percent for the month, with gains led by Equity Hedge, Event-Driven, Energy/Basic Materials, and Activist strategies, as reported today by HFR. The investable HFRI 500 Hedge Fund Composite Index gained +4.3 percent for the month, improving YTD performance to -5.3 percent, which tops the YTD decline of the DJIA by over 900 basis points (bps) through April. The monthly gain of the HFRI FWC represents the sixth-highest month of performance in the history of the index, dating back to January 1990. The top decile of HFRI FWC constituents vaulted +19.7 percent for the month, while the bottom decile fell -4.1 percent, representing a dispersion of 23.8 percentage points.
Hedge Fund Blames U.S. Meat Processing ‘Oligopoly’ for ‘Excessive Concentration, Reduced Competition and…a Decline in Resilience’ (MarketWatch.com)
A portfolio manager at one of world’s leading hedge funds has launched an attack against America’s big four meat processing firms for their alleged part in breaking the U.S. food supply chain. The comments by Tim Bond, partner and portfolio manager at Odey Asset Management, were triggered by full-page newspaper advertisements taken out by meat processor Tyson Foods US:TSN at the end of last month. The ads warned “the food supply chain is breaking.”
Friday 5/8 Insider Buying Report: GRA, HMST (Nasdaq.com)
At Grace, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Monday, CEO Force Andrew Hudson La III purchased 5,000 shares of GRA, at a cost of $46.37 each, for a total investment of $231,870. La III was up about 10.2% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with GRA trading as high as $51.11 in trading on Friday. Grace is trading up about 4.2% on the day Friday. Before this latest buy, La III made one other purchase in the past twelve months, buying $276,160 shares at a cost of $69.04 each. And on Thursday, Director Mark Robert Patterson bought $228,865 worth of HomeStreet, buying 10,000 shares at a cost of $22.89 a piece. Before this latest buy, Patterson made one other purchase in the past year, buying $115,900 shares for a cost of $23.18 a piece. HomeStreet Inc is trading up about 5.5% on the day Friday. So far Patterson is in the green, up about 6.7% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $24.41.
Wayfair Inc (W) CFO Michael D Fleisher Sold $4.5 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
CFO of Wayfair Inc., Michael D Fleisher, sold 26,016 shares of W on 05/05/2020 at an average price of $174.32 a share. The total sale was $4.5 million. Wayfair Inc operates as an online destination for the home good products in the United States. It offers a range of furniture, décor, decorative accent, housewares, seasonal décor, and other home good products. Wayfair Inc has a market cap of $16.74 billion; its shares were traded at around $176.89 with and P/S ratio of 1.71. GuruFocus has detected 3 severe warning signs with Wayfair Inc.
The VP, Strategy and IR of Stryker (NYSE: SYK) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the VP, Strategy and IR of Stryker (SYK), Katherine Ann Owen, sold shares of SYK for $1.71M. Following Katherine Ann Owen’s last SYK Sell transaction on July 29, 2015, the stock climbed by 89.7%. In addition to Katherine Ann Owen, one other SYK executive reported Sell trades in the last month.
SEC Charges Bloomberg Tradebook for Order Routing Misrepresentations (HedgeCo.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed settled charges against registered broker-dealer Bloomberg Tradebook LLC for making material misrepresentations and omitting material facts about how the firm handled certain customer trade orders. The SEC’s order finds that Tradebook routed certain customer orders – primarily orders entered by customers who paid relatively low commission rates – using an undisclosed arrangement that it referred to internally as the “Low Cost Router.” As part of this arrangement, Tradebook allowed three unaffiliated broker-dealers to determine the venues to which certain customer “immediate-or-cancel” orders would be routed for execution.
