Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Builds $5.7 Billion Bet Against European Stocks (Bloomberg)
Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates has emerged as the biggest short seller of European stocks, wagering more than $5.7 billion against them in a bid to profit from a potential decline in value. The investment by the world’s biggest hedge fund firm includes a $1 billion position against semiconductor manufacturer ASML Holding NV and a short wager on TotalEnergies SE worth about $752 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg based on regulatory filings. The firm has raised its short bets in the region this month to 18 companies.
Greenfield Partners Closes $350m in Investment Funds (Globes)
Israeli tech company investment fund Greenfield Partners has announced the final closing of new funds totaling $350 million. The new funds include Greenfield Partners Fund II, for investment in 15 early growth startups (rounds B and C), and several additional investment vehicles that will jointly enable investments of larger amounts and support Greenfield’s existing portfolio companies at later stages and for the long term. The new funds raised bring the total assets under management by Greenfield Partners to over $500 million.
Citron Research Targets Bitcoin, Ethereum, NFTs After Staying On Sidelines For 18 Months (Benzinga)
A well-known figure from the David vs. Goliath story involving video game retailer GameStop Corp (GME) that pitted retail traders against hedge funds and short-sellers has sights set on the cryptocurrency investors. What Happened: Hedge fund Citron Research, led by Andrew Left, has returned to the spotlight Wednesday using Twitter Inc (TWTR) to call out high valuations for the two largest cryptocurrencies.
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CTAs Starting Summer on a High Note (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – After trends took a breather in May, Nordic trend-following CTAs are back at it again: back at successfully capturing trends. Four Nordic CTAs within the Nordic Hedge Index offering daily liquidity gained about eight percent on average in the first half of June, with Lynx Asset Management’s trend-following vehicle Lynx advancing 10.3 percent so far in June to take its year-to-date advance to over 42 percent.
How Tiger Global Outsourced Much of its Venture-Capital Strategy to Consulting Firm Bain — and Drew Scorn from VCs and Silicon Valley (Business Insider)
As Tiger Global Management plowed money into technology startups at an astonishing speed in 2021, the firm attracted envy, fear, and scorn from Silicon Valley. Tiger reeled in billions of dollars and outmaneuvered many venture-capital firms by moving quicker and promising a more hands-off approach to close deals. Critics were more than happy to point out that Tiger had gotten its start as a hedge fund and that large-scale startup investing was not its primary business.
Hedge Funds Hold Fairly Steady Amid The May Market Turmoil (Forbes)
Hedge funds continued to show their worth in May, with those administered by Citco recording a small positive return as the markets continued to plummet. Hedge fund performance improved slightly month over month, although not enough to shift the asset class into the green on a year-to-date basis. Hedge fund performance in May: According to Citco’s monthly report on hedge fund performance, the funds it administered recorded a total weighted average return of 1.1%, compared to the -2.9% return recorded in April. The firm said performance by strategy and size was again mixed.
Nordic Quant Funds Win Awards (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Two members of the Nordic Hedge Index running systematic strategies, Othania Invest and Mandatum Managed Futures Fund, have received recognition at the Hedge Fund Journal’s CTA and Discretionary Trader Awards 2022. Othania Invest, the inaugural fund of Danish systematic asset manager Othania, was named the best performing fund in 2021 and over the previous three and four years in the category “Systematic Fundamental Macro.” The fund relies on a quant-based risk-assessment model to allocate capital either into equity or bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) every month.
Transcript: Jim Chanos on Why Some of the Worst Hit Parts of the Market Still Have More Pain Ahead (Bloomberg)
Legendary short seller Jim Chanos says that despite the plunge in stocks, there are numerous swathes of the equity market with plenty of downside risk. On this episode, the Chanos & Co. fund manager, argues that the market overall has simply not internalized what sustained higher rates will mean to business models and valuations across a variety of sectors, including real estate, utilities and consumer packaged goods. He walks through the various excesses that we’ve seen over the last several years, and why investors are all paying the price for them now.
Thursday 6/16 Insider Buying Report: VST (Nasdaq.com)
At Vistra, there was insider buying on Tuesday, by CFO James A. Burke who bought 32,000 shares for a cost of $23.30 each, for a total investment of $745,568. Before this latest buy, Burke made one other purchase in the past twelve months, buying $299,993 shares at a cost of $23.19 a piece. Vistra is trading off about 2.5% on the day Thursday.
SEC Looks at Insider Trading on Crypto Exchanges (The Street)
On Wednesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated a probe into the way crypto exchanges are handling the growing problem of insider trading. According to Fox Business, multiple crypto exchanges have received a letter from the SEC investigating how virtual asset exchanges are grappling with insider trading, an illegal practice of using confidential information for one’s own economic advantage.
Insiders Buy More Than $57M Of 2 Stocks (Benzinga)
NortonLifeLock: The Trade: NortonLifeLock Inc. NLOK Director Peter A Feld acquired a total of 2,500,000 shares at at an average price of $22.22. To acquire these shares, it cost around $55.56 million. United Airlines: The Trade: United Airlines Holdings, Inc. UAL Director Edward Shapiro acquired a total of 50,000 shares at an average price of $37.69. To acquire these shares, it cost around $1.88 million.
