Crypto Bull Mike Novogratz Calls Bitcoin Plunge a ‘Liquidation Event,’ Feels Like Capitulation (CNBC)
Mike Novogratz, a major cryptocurrency investor, told CNBC on Wednesday that the breakdown in bitcoin won’t be fixed quickly. The Galaxy Digital founder said on “Squawk Box” that bitcoin’s morning plunge feels like capitulation. Novogratz also called it a “liquidation event,” as bitcoin overnight fell below $40,000 for the first time in 14 weeks and then dropped to below $31,000 at the morning’s low. That put it down more than 25% in the past 24 hours alone. That’s also a decline of more than 50% from last month’s all-time high near $65,000.
GSR Appoints Hedge Fund Veteran Jon Loflin as Chief Risk Officer (Opalesque)
Opalesque Industry Update – GSR, a global leader in digital asset trading, has appointed hedge fund veteran and AI / machine-learning expert Jon Loflin as Chief Risk Officer & Managing Director. Loflin’s team will be tasked with developing the next iteration of the firm’s risk management framework, with a focus on utilizing cutting-edge technologies to evaluate pre-trade, real-time and post-trade risk. GSR’s latest addition comes as the company continues to enhance the sophistication of the programmatic strategies that underlie its market-making and trading operations.
News Guild Protests Takeovers by Alden Hedge Fund – ‘the Destroyer of Newspapers’ (Peoples World)
CHICAGO (PAI)—Mass rallies organized by the News Guild in Chicago, Orlando, Virginia Beach, Annapolis, Md., and Hartford, Conn., demanded the Tribune Company’s board reject a $630 million takeover by vulture hedge fund Alden Global Capital. Demanding “Save Our Sun” in Maryland, “Save Our Courant” in Hartford, and so on, thousands of people told the Tribune Company board that Alden’s aims are to rip off and rip up local papers, fire staffers, slash coverage, sell off real estate, and then close the papers and walk away with the cash.
Pixabay/Public Domain
PE Firm Steps Into Lending (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Copenhagen-based private equity firm Polaris is now becoming a lender through the launch of Polaris Flexible Capital. Established with its own investment team, independent investment committee and Investment Advisory Board, Polaris Flexible Capital will make investments in subordinated loan capital such as junior capital and minority shareholdings of Nordic medium-sized companies.
The Hedge Fund that Lost More than 50% in a Single Month Betting Against GameStop Closed out of its Public Short Positions in the 1st Quarter (Business Insider)
Melvin Capital closed out of all its public short positions in the first quarter following a battle earlier this year with GameStop enthusiasts who drove up the share price and caused major losses for short-sellers. According to a filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York-based hedge fund exited all of its put options – meaning its bets against certain stocks – in the first three months of the year.
Post-Archegos Hedge Fund Financing Faces Close Scrutiny by BOE (Bloomberg)
The Bank of England is considering closer scrutiny of the work banks carry out for hedge funds after the meltdown of Archegos Capital Management exposed gaps in oversight. Banks’ prime brokerage desks, which trade on behalf of large clients such as hedge funds, need to be able to cover losses in good times and bad and should be a “low-risk business,” said Jon Hall, external member of the BOE’s Financial Policy Committee.
Hedge Funds Increase Bets on Private Companies (The Wall Street Journal)
Hedge-fund firms are stepping up their presence in what has emerged as Wall Street’s hottest area: investing in private companies. Viking Global Investors LP, Maverick Capital Ltd., Lone Pine Capital LLC and others have taken steps recently to increase their investments in private companies. Viking, a large investor in private healthcare and biotechnology companies, is aiming to raise $1 billion from investors for its first dedicated private-equity fund, said potential clients. The new fund is expected to close on Oct. 1.
BlackRock’s Climate Views Put It Center Stage in Exxon Boardroom Fight (Reuters)
Exxon’s 12 directors are up for election on May 26, in a vote that offers a high profile test of BlackRock’s approach to getting companies set a course to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. Exxon stresses it is on a path to meet the Paris accord with a market-based approach. Forced board changes or splitting chairman and CEO roles would be a blow to the company’s management. Unlike rivals that predict peak demand within a decade, Exxon’s board has built plans that forecast growing appetite for oil and gas.
Lone Pine’s Mala Gaonkar, a Longtime Lieutenant to Billionaire Stephen Mandel Jr., is One of the Hedge-Fund Industry’s Most Interesting Characters (Business Insider)
Mala Gaonkar has led Lone Pine with Kelly Granat and David Craver since Stephen Mandel Jr. retired. She’s also active outside of investing, working with the likes of David Byrne and Malcolm Gladwell. Insider dove deep on one of the industry’s more interesting characters. An upside-down investing landscape requires an outside-the-box thinker.
‘Big Short’ Hedge Fund Manager Shorts Tesla: Michael Burry Makes a £376m Bet as He Takes Aim at Elon Musk (DailyMail.co.uk)
The hedge fund manager who featured in the blockbuster film the Big Short has taken aim at Elon Musk. Michael Burry, famous for shorting the sub-prime mortgage market before the 2008 crisis, has made a £376million bet against Tesla’s stock price – with ‘put’ options on 800,100 shares in the electric car maker. This allows an investor to sell shares at a certain price in the future. They become more valuable as a share price decreases.
Wednesday 5/19 Insider Buying Report: PFX, TLIS (Nasdaq.com)
On Tuesday, Phenixfin’s Chairman & Chief Exec. Officer, David A. Lorber, made a $337,290 buy of PFX, purchasing 8,800 shares at a cost of $38.33 each. So far Lorber is in the green, up about 1.2% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $38.79. Phenixfin is trading trading flat on the day Wednesday. And at Talis Biomedical, there was insider buying on Monday, by Director Randal W. Scott who bought 20,000 shares at a cost of $10.13 each, for a trade totaling $202,650. Before this latest buy, Scott made one other buy in the past twelve months, purchasing $5M shares at a cost of $16.00 each. Talis Biomedical is trading off about 4.9% on the day Wednesday. Scott was up about 8.7% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with TLIS trading as high as $11.01 at last check today.
The Vice-President of Risk Management of Russel Metals (Other OTC: RUSMF) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the Vice-President of Risk Management of Russel Metals (RUSMF), Ryan Wallace Macdermid, sold shares of RUSMF for $205.2K. Following Ryan Wallace Macdermid’s last RUSMF Sell transaction on February 19, 2020, the stock climbed by 11.7%. In addition to Ryan Wallace Macdermid, 3 other RUSMF executives reported Sell trades in the last month.
Insider Trading Law at Another Crossroads: ‘Blaszczak’ Shows the Need for Legislation (Law.com)
In this edition of his Corporate Securities column, John C. Coffee Jr. discusses that the current scope of insider trading law, which remains unresolved and is unlikely to be resolved by an upcoming Second Circuit decision on remand in ‘Blaszczak’. He writes: The case for a legislative resolution of the issue thus grows stronger, and passage of a revised insider trading law is now feasible in view of the Democrats’ razor-thin majority in the Senate.
