Four of six BlueCrest Capital strategies were positive in December, with the hedge fund operator’s BlueCrest Capital International and BlueTrend finding difficulty. BlueCrest Capital International operates a strategy along the yield curve and is managed by Michael Platt, the founder of BlueCrest, now the world’s third-largest hedge fund with a reported $34 billion under management. BlueTrend is the managed futures hedge fund operated by former JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) quantitative analyst Leda Braga and, despite posting -11.3% in 2013, has generated a reported 11% annualized return since its founding in 2004.
5 stocks hedge funds are buying (MarketWatch)
The first one is Kenneth Mario Garschina‘s Mason Capital Management, which has boosted its stake in Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE:HUB.A), revealing that it currently holds 630,500 class A shares, up from its previous holding of 493,900 shares. The position accounts for 8.8% of the company’s class A common stock. In addition, Mason Capital holds some 1.14 million class B shares of Hubbell. Steven Cohen‘s SAC Capital has initiated a position in Textura Corp (NYSE:TXTR). The fund now owns about 1.25 million shares, which represent 5% of the company’s common stock…
Fisher Asset Management’s Top Picks From The Latest 13F: American Express Company (AXP), Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) & Others (Insider Monkey)
Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management in its latest 13F, filed recently with the Securities and Exchange Commission, disclosed an equity portfolio with a total value of about $44.36 billion, slightly up from $40.58 million disclosed in the previous quarter. Since empirical studies show that following the activity of big hedge funds can actually help retail investors, we have picked the five largest holdings from the Fisher’s equity portfolio, in terms of value, as at the end of last year. While the first several large holdings from the 13F are represented mainly by Exchange-traded funds, we have selected the companies, in which the fund holds its largest long positions. The first one is American Express Company (NYSE:AXP). The fund added some shares to the holding, upping to over 10.91 million shares, from around 10.90 million held previously.
Separating The “Haves” From The “Have Yachts” On Wall Street (Forbes)
Just like there is a 99% and a 1%, the 1% has its own 99% and 1%. Although people who work on Wall Street earn high salaries, with big bonus checks often arriving at the end of the year, it is surprisingly not a significant source of the ultra-wealthy. For example, few billionaires can trace their overflowing coffers to time spent working day-to-day on Wall Street. The richest individuals in the world almost invariably have built their fortunes after having started a new, highly successful business, like Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) or Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT). Those in private equity and hedge funds who have crossed the billionaire threshold typically have done so by building a larger firm – like Blackstone or Soros Capital – that magnifies the efforts and legacy of a single person.
UPDATE 1-Einhorn’s hedge fund adds positions in Micron and BP (Reuters)
Hedge fund manager David Einhorn, whose Greenlight Capital ranked among last year’s best performers, has taken new positions in Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) and BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP), both of which he praised in a letter to investors for practices focused on returning cash to shareholders. Greenlight also added a position in Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) while closing out investments in Thyssen Krupp and Airbus Group, Einhorn said in the letter, which was seen by Reuters. Einhorn’s hedge fund had held a short position in Micron, a semiconductor memory chip maker, between 2001 and 2005.
Video a new tool for hedge fund marketing (CNBC.com)
Kepos Capital Selects MSCI for Open Protocol Reporting (PYMNTS.com)
Msci Inc (NYSE:MSCI), a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, today announced that Kepos Capital L.P. (Kepos Capital) has selected MSCI for Open Protocol reporting, an industry wide risk reporting initiative. MSCI will generate the Open Protocol reports by leveraging Kepos Capital’s participation on HedgePlatform, MSCI’s industry-leading hedge fund transparency tool which covers over 1,400 hedge funds, including over 80 of the top 100 global funds.
Singer Says Derivatives He ‘Loves Trading’ Hurt Society (Bloomberg)
Billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Singer said derivatives have been a “net negative” for society and that the touted hedging benefits have been overstated by financial companies. “I love trading them,” Singer, whose Elliott Management Corp. manages $23.9 billion, said during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, today. “On balance, there’s been a net negative to society from this particular type of invention.”
Think Investments Raises $270 Million for Two New Hedge Funds (Businessweek)
Think Investments, a hedge fund manager run by a former analyst from Valiant Capital Management, has raised more than $270 million for two funds, according to regulatory filings. Think Investments Fund LP has raised $148.4 million and Think Investments Offshore Ltd. brought in $121.9 million, the firm said yesterday in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Shashin Shah, who is listed as the managing principal of both funds, left San Francisco-based Valiant in 2013 to become a researcher at Think, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that, he worked at Blue Ridge Capital until 2008.
Hound Partners Raises Over $200M For Pair Of Hedge Funds (FINalternatives)
New York-based Tiger seed Hound Partners, founded by Jonathan Auerbach, launched a pair of hedge funds on January 1—a concentrated fund and a long fund. Auerbach has raised $130 million for the on and offshore versions of the the Hound Partners Concentrated Fund and about $95 million for the on and offshore versions of the Hound Partners Long Fund, according to regulatory filings.
