…making his investment so public. By doing so, Cooperman said Ackman has taken on a public responsibility that he now has to defend. Cooperman said if Ackman were to change his mind without telling the world, he could be in legal trouble. “Someone else who followed his advice and shorted the stock could turn around and sue because they were misled,” says Cooperman. A short position makes money when a company’s shares fall. “That’s a real risk.”
Gold rallied 4.9 percent in the past two weeks after entering a bear market April 12. The Federal Reserve raised the prospect of increasing its monthly bond buying on May 1 and the European Central Bank cut borrowing costs to a record low the next day. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said the metal has no appeal even after the slump, and a weekly Bloomberg survey of analysts and traders was the most bearish since February 2010. “It’s reasonable to say that the currency debasement and easing measures will support gold,” said Alan Gayle, a senior strategist at RidgeWorth Capital Management, which oversees about $48 billion of assets. “The bulls still have to prove a lot. There is lot of skepticism surrounding gold. We have to watch to see if prices have found a near-term bottom.”
Vinik to shut down hedge fund (iStockAnalyst)
Jeff Vinik says he will close down the hedge fund he has operated for 16 years and focus on running the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team. In a letter to investors, the head of Vinik Asset Management said he would return his client’s money and devote his time to his hockey team and his family. The firm has lost 4.8 percent of its value since July 2012, a period during which stock markets have soared. The negative return was a far cry from the hedge fund’s average return of 17 percent in the previous 15 years.
Hedge fund firm Palmer Square Capital Management hires industry veteran Jeffrey Fox (Opalesque)
Palmer Square Capital Management, an investment management firm that provides portfolios of structured credit, collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) and hedge fund strategies to a wide range of investors, today announced that Jeffrey Fox has joined the team as executive director. Reporting to Angie Long, Palmer Square’s chief investment officer, Mr. Fox’s primary focus will be on managing the analytics, trading and modeling behind the firm’s structured credit and CLO platform. He will also play a key role in new product development and working with the rating agencies. Mr. Fox draws upon more than a decade of fixed income experience, most recently serving as a managing director at Sandler O’Neill and Partners, where he focused on the structuring and sales of a wide range of products, including CLOs.
Asian credit hedge funds back in favour (Asian Investor)
The current low interest-rate environment, combined with an abundant issuance of Asian corporate bonds, has set the stage for a comeback of credit hedge funds in the region. Industry data provider Eurekahedge lists fixed income hedge funds as the second-best performing Asia strategy last year, with an average gain of 11.7%, behind event-driven funds, which returned 15.6%. A chief reason behind this performance…
