Citadel Securities Doubled Profit as Dominance Grew in Wild 2020 (Bloomberg)
In the last week of March, with the Covid-19 pandemic upending lives and markets, Ken Griffin started building a temporary trading floor in Florida. Citadel Securities mostly abandoned its Chicago and New York offices and set up shop at the Four Seasons Palm Beach, moving dozens of employees and their families. Others went to an emergency facility in Connecticut, moves designed to keep his market-making firm operating seamlessly as the rest of the financial world dealt with wild swings and extraordinary trading volumes from makeshift home offices.
Who’s Blue Skye? What You Need To Know About The Firm Behind The Elliott-AC Milan Deal (Forbes)
Rumours have long since circulated surrounding Blue Skye, the lesser-known company that played a huge part in Elliott Management’s takeover of AC Milan. Supporters of the club may not realise that this European investment group was instrumental in the unorthodox acquisition of the Milanese giant. But who are Blue Skye? The company was founded by Neapolitan financiers Salvatore Cerchione and Gianluca D’Avanzo. Like Elliott Management, Blue Skye is fiercely private, even though its portfolio includes the world famous Harry’s Bar in Venice as well as lavish properties around the world.
Hedge Fund Marshall Wace to Open Singapore Office (Reporter.am)
Marshall Wace, among the world’s most significant hedge fund supervisors, is preparing to open an office in Singapore, the most recent company to develop a base in the city-state while doubts grow over the future of competing monetary centre Hong Kong. The London- based company, which handles more than $48bn in properties, just recently acquired a fund management licence in Singapore, according to a regulative filing. It now prepares to open an office and to find fund supervisors there, according to an individual acquainted with its strategies.
Ian Wace of Marshall Wace
Hedge Funds Are Slow-Walking Wall Street’s Return to the Office (Bloomberg)
As the finance world tiptoes back into the office, some of the biggest hedge funds are opting to keep their workers at home into 2021. While Wall Street firms including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. ramp up attendance at their global headquarters, staff at Bridgewater Associates, D.E. Shaw & Co. and Two Sigma Investments are unlikely to be back until next year, according to people familiar with the matter and company officials.
Tungsten TRYCON AI-Powered UCITS Fund Marks Seventh Anniversary with 4.1 per cent Gain YTD (Hedge Week)
The Tungsten TRYCON AI Global Markets Fund, which was one of the first AI-based UCITS strategies when it launched back in 2013 is up 4.1 per cent YTD in 2020. In the drawdown period up to March, when many portfolios suffered considerable losses, it was able to generate a gain of over 5 per cent. The TRYCON fund, managed by Frankfurt-based asset management company Tungsten Capital Management, is designed to deliver uncorrelated returns. “Government bonds hardly generate adequate returns against the background of the low interest rate environment. In investor portfolios today, much of the pressure to succeed is on equities. Investors are therefore looking for alternatives,” explains Michael Günther, who develops and manages the fund together with his colleague Pablo Hess.
The Hedge Fund Chancellor isn’t Afraid to Trade (The Times)
One of the quirks of British political life is that our finance minister is rarely a financier. America’s Treasury secretary invariably hails from Wall Street but on this side of the Atlantic we have tended to leave our economy in the hands of lawyers and historians. But now, in Rishi Sunak, we have our first hedge fund chancellor. Hedge fund management is a singular pursuit. Some thrive in the face of constant risk; others are worn down by it. There is little room for self-delusion in a world where your performance record is there for all to see.
CLOs Fight Back Against Hedge Fund Efforts to Siphon Value (Bloomberg)
Collateralized loan obligations are the biggest investors in the $1.2 trillion leveraged loan market, yet for months they’ve been bullied by hedge funds and other money managers exploiting a glaring weakness in their structures. Now, they’re fighting back. Brigade Capital Management, Blackstone Group Inc. and CIFC Asset Management are among the firms looking to change the terms of the CLOs they oversee to put them on better footing when companies they’ve lent to can’t meet their obligations, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
