Steve Cohen-Backed Firm Invests $10M in Web3 Game Marketplace AQUA (Coin Desk)
AQUA, a Web3 community platform for gamers, has launched its flagship marketplace for trading in-game assets. The startup also announced a $10 million investment from DIGITAL, an investment firm backed by Steve Cohen. The hedge fund billionaire owns the New York Mets baseball team, oversees Point72 Asset Management and has invested in crypto since 2018. Web3 game assets are typically non-fungible tokens (NFT) that allow players to take items like weapons and armor into the ecosystems of other games. The AQUA marketplace provides a community-driven place for players to buy and sell those assets.
Billionaire Druckenmiller would be ‘Stunned’ If No Recession in 2023 (TeleTrader.com)
Billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller said on Wednesday he would be “stunned” if the United States avoided a recession in 2023. “Our central case is a hard landing by the end of ’23,” Druckenmiller stated at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha Investor Summit in New York City. “I will be stunned if we don’t have recession in ’23. I don’t know the timing but certainly by the end of ’23. I will not be surprised if it’s not larger than the so-called average garden variety… I don’t rule out something really bad,” he added. The billionaire stressed the recession would come as a result of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes, which he branded a “big mistake.”
Chancellor’s Old Boss Crispin Odey Bets on Pound Falling Further (The Times)
The hedge fund boss who once employed the chancellor has predicted that sterling will weaken further after his firm bet on the continued fall in the value of the pound. Crispin Odey is one of at least two prominent Conservative donors who have made fortunes by betting on the pound’s decline. He believes it could reach parity against the US dollar for the first time, or even fall below it.
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Ray Dalio Says the U.K.’s Policies ‘Suggest Incompetence’ and Warns Other Governments Not to Make the Same Mistakes (Fortune)
Ray Dalio added his name to a growing list of critics of the U.K.’s new spending plan, unveiled last week by Prime Minister Liz Truss and Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng. The billionaire investor—who founded what is now the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, in 1975—argued the plan’s aggressive tax cuts will raise the U.K. debts to an unsustainable level and cripple the pound. “Investors and policymakers: Heed the lesson of the UK’s fiscal blunder,” Dalio wrote in a Tuesday tweet. “The panic selling you are now seeing that is leading to the plunge of UK bonds, currency, and financial assets is due to the recognition that the big supply of debt that will have to be sold by the government is much too much for the demand.”
Sound Point Capital Management Appoints Senior Director of Business Development for Independent Wealth Team (Hedge Week)
Sound Point Capital Management (Sound Point), a credit-focused investment manager with more than $32 billion in assets, has hired Merrill Martin as its new Senior Director of Business Development for their Independent Wealth team. Martin, who will be focused on covering Key Accounts, Family Offices, and Registered Investment Advisors, joins Sound Point from Credit Suisse Asset Management, where he worked for over a decade in roles including Strategy, Chief Operating Officer of Retail Distribution, and most recently as a Senior Relationship Manager. At Credit Suisse, he managed and covered Key Accounts, Registered Investment Advisors, Family Offices, Foundations and Endowments, and Pension Funds.
Ex-Deutsche Bank FX Chief Shuts Hedge Fund to Join ExodusPoint (Bloomberg)
Ahmet Arinc, the former head of foreign exchange trading at Deutsche Bank AG, is shutting down his hedge fund after four years to join bigger rival ExodusPoint Capital Management with his team. Arinc, who started Cirera Capital in London with colleague Tijen Gumusdis, is liquidating the emerging-markets-focused macro hedge fund, according to an investor document seen by Bloomberg. The duo managed about $500 million, having grown their capital from just $17 million at the fund’s start.
Citadel’s Inspired Rates Trading Hire from Goldman Sachs (eFinancialCareers.com)
Citadel, the $57bn multi-strategy hedge fund run by Ken Griffin, isn’t averse to hiring people from Goldman Sachs. Pablo Salame, Goldman’s ex-co-head of global markets is Citadel’s chief investment officer. Philippe Derimay, a former top Goldman strat, is Citadel’s head of quantitative development for the fixed income business. Andrew Philip, the New York-based CFO, was previously Goldman’s chief risk officer for Europe… The list is long. As the UK gilts market descends into chaos, though, there’s one particular ex-Goldman guy who’s likely to be doing especially well in Europe: Jonathan Bayliss.
Chinese Investors Could Snap Up Cryptocurrencies as Yuan Slides, Hedge Fund Says (Coin Desk)
As a bitcoin (BTC) propounder would say, the reason bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were invented – to hedge against fiat currency volatility – is upon us and now is the time to snap up digital assets. Chinese investors may do just that, according to Patrick Tan, CEO of Novum Alpha, a quantitative digital asset trading firm with MAS-regulated funds catering to accredited and institutional investors. “Decades of decay look set to culminate in the probable devaluation of the Chinese yuan,” Tan wrote in a note published Monday. “Just as ordinary Chinese were quick to circumvent strict capital controls with cryptocurrencies, they may do so again to combat a rapidly devaluing yuan.”
Danske Lost the Eliksir (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Danske Bank’s Finnish fund management arm announced the decision to terminate three alternative investment funds, including the Eliksir fund of hedge funds. Launched in mid-December 2002, Danske Invest Eliksir FoHF is one of the longest-running funds in the Nordic hedge fund universe. “The decision to terminate the funds was reached because the investors have shown minimal demand towards the funds and the assets under management have remained low,” writes an announcement.
Intelsat ‘Insider Trading’ Action Fails (Advanced-Television.com)
A California court cleared Intelsat’s pre-bankruptcy major shareholders of insider trading allegationson September 27th. The action started in late 2019 with allegations over violations of the federal securities laws. The lawsuit alleges that the named defendants violated the Exchange Act by selling Intelsat shares while they were in possession of material non-public information, including that Intelsat SA had met with the FCC on November 5th 2019, to discuss the private sale of certain frequencies controlled by Intelsat SA for future 5G use (the ‘C-Band’).
Wednesday 9/28 Insider Buying Report: FDX, CODI (Nasdaq.com)
At FedEx, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Monday, Director R. Brad Martin purchased 1,500 shares of FDX, at a cost of $143.41 each, for a total investment of $215,120. Martin was up about 2.8% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with FDX trading as high as $147.45 at last check today. FedEx Corp is trading up about 1.1% on the day Wednesday. And also on Monday, Patrick A. Maciariello purchased $118,290 worth of Compass Diversified, purchasing 6,500 shares at a cost of $18.20 each. Before this latest buy, Maciariello made one other purchase in the past twelve months, buying $139,729 shares for a cost of $23.29 each. Compass Diversified is trading up about 3.5% on the day Wednesday. Maciariello was up about 3.1% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with CODI trading as high as $18.77 at last check today.
Director of Braze Makes $3.76M Buy (Benzinga)
Matthew Jacobson, Director at Braze BRZE, reported a large insider buy on September 26, according to a new SEC filing. What Happened: A Form 4 filing from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday showed that Jacobson purchased 110,650 shares of Braze. The total transaction amounted to $3,763,832.
