Fail Fast to Succeed (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Quantitative asset management firm OQAM out of Sweden’s southern town of Malmö is celebrating the two-year anniversary of its first – and so far only – investment product, the multi-strategy systematic hedge fund named ia. “For us this is a large milestone and an opportunity to reflect,” says CIO Thorbjörn Wallentin, who co-founded OQAM with Andreas Olsson. “Five years ago… we started OQAM. Two optimistic and admittingly slightly naive founders with a dream to build a successful quantitative asset management firm outside the established financial hubs,” Wallentin reflects on the beginning of their journey. “We have a lot of work to do, but this week our first product, ia, celebrates two years.”
Hedge Funds Delivered their Worst Performance Against Stock Benchmarks Since 2011 by One Measure (MarketWatch)
It appears to be the best of times and worst of times for Wall Street hedge funds. But for the biggest active fund managers, it is decidedly a poor stretch of comparative performance, according to data from J.P. Morgan, which indicates that returns against a benchmark, known as alpha in the parlance of investment managers, were the worst since 2011 and particularly abysmal for large hedge funds.
Steve Cohen: His Rise from Great Neck, to Wall Street, to Owner of the Mets (Newsday.com)
Before Steven A. Cohen used his intuitive mind and steely nerve to create a career on Wall Street, become unfathomably wealthy and purchase the New York Mets, he put those skills to work at the poker table in a friend’s basement in the early 1970s. On summer nights, he and his crew from Great Neck North High School gathered at Kenny Ginsburg’s house. The stakes were not high. Just a dollar bet here and quarter raise there, bigger as they got better. Their variant of choice: seven-card stud with a high-low split, in which the person with the worst hand gets half the pot.
Thursday 12/17 Insider Buying Report: SONA (Nasdaq.com)
On Wednesday, President/CEO Dennis J. Zember Jr. purchased $1.16M worth of Southern National Bancorp Of Virginia, purchasing 100,000 shares at a cost of $11.57 a piece. Before this latest buy, Zember Jr. bought SONA at 3 other times during the past year, for a total cost of $369,465 at an average of $12.32 per share. Southern National Bancorp Of Virginia is trading up about 4.2% on the day Thursday. So far Zember Jr. is in the green, up about 8.0% on their purchase based on today’s trading high of $12.50.
Airbnb Inc (ABNB) CEO and Chairman Brian Chesky Sold $30 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO and Chairman of Airbnb Inc, Brian Chesky, sold 441,177 shares of ABNB on 12/14/2020 at an average price of $68 a share. The total sale was $30 million. Airbnb Inc has a market cap of $82.44 billion; its shares were traded at around $137.990000 with and P/S ratio of 65.06. GuruFocus has detected 1 severe warning sign with Airbnb Inc.
The EVP of Flushing Financial (NASDAQ: FFIC) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the EVP of Flushing Financial (FFIC), Theresa Kelly, bought shares of FFIC for $199.9K. Following this transaction Theresa Kelly’s holding in the company was increased by 22.85% to a total of $1.12 million. This is Kelly’s first Buy trade following 5 Sell transactions.
