Caxton Hedge Fund Hires Former BNP Paribas Trader Fourcade (BusinessWeek)
Caxton Associates LP, the hedge fund firm co-founded by billionaire Bruce Kovner, hired Philippe Fourcade, a former proprietary trader at BNP Paribas SA (EPA:BNP) Fourcade started at the firm’s London office on Sept. 22, the Financial Conduct Authority register shows. He declined to comment when reached by telephone today, while a spokeswoman for firm in London declined to comment. …Mitesh Parikh, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)’s European head of spot foreign-exchange trading, is joining hedge-fund firm Balyasny Asset Management LP after 12 years at the bank, a person with knowledge of the plans said this week.
HedgeCoVest Unveiled At Finovate New York (HedgeCo)
HedgeCo Networks has unveiled HedgeCoVest, their new, real time hedge fund replication platform, at the national Finovate conference on September 23-24, 2014 in New York. HedgeCoVest featured 20 investable hedge fund portfolios at the conference. HedgeCo has already signed up 33 hedge fund managers operating 38 unique strategies to take part in the strategy. Finovate is a conference for innovative startups in the fields of banking and financial technology.
With China Set to Open Stock Trading, Investors Lay Groundwork (NYTimes)
O’Connor, the $5.6 billion hedge fund owned by UBS, has been expanding its presence in Asia. It has hired traders from UBS’s proprietary trading desk to work in its Hong Kong and Singapore offices. In August, it hired John Yu, a former analyst at SAC Capital Advisors It is not alone. Bankers, brokerage firms and hedge funds have all been quietly expanding their Asian operations to take advantage of one event: the biggest opening into China in years.
Baupost Tilts Portfolio Toward Stocks (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
Seth Klarman‘s Baupost Group is often mistaken for a classic value investor. However, the Boston-based firm could be more accurately described as an eclectic investor that seeks undervalued, ignored assets – or very complex ones – mostly in distressed debt, commercial real estate, mortgages and equities. However, equities have typically accounted for a small portion of Baupost’s assets. In recent years the firm’s U.S. equity portfolio managed anywhere…
Steyer’s climate PAC turns to Oregon, Washington state Senate races (WashingtonExaminer)
Billionaire ex-hedge fund manager Tom Steyer’s Super PAC is turning to state Senate races in Oregon and Washington to boost Democratic candidates, a move that would help legislatures there pass climate change bills. Steyer’s NextGen Climate Action PAC has focused on Senate and gubernatorial races. But much like conservative groups funded by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers, the move toward state races underscores the belief that state legislatures can act while Congress remains stuck on energy and climate issues.
Why CalPERS left hedge funds (CNBC)
Hedge Funds Get Jostled by Inversions’ Jiggles (WSJ)
Buying shares of Shire PLC (ADR) (NASDAQ:SHPG) has been one of the most popular hedge-fund bets of the year. It also has been among the most nerve-racking. Hedge funds Paulson & Co., Magnetar Financial LLC and Elliott Management Corp. are among eight firms that have together snapped up more than $8 billion of Shire stock, or about 17% of the Dublin pharmaceutical company, anticipating a big payoff if its $54 billion purchase by AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) -0.08% is completed. The collective bet is one of the biggest wagers on a deal in recent memory, some hedge-fund managers said.
Nawaz meets philanthropist George Soros (Tribune)
The premier informed Soros about steps taken by the government to universalise primary education and appreciated his foundation’s work in Pakistan. The Open Society Foundation undertook rehabilitation and reconstruction projects in Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake devastated eight districts, four in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and four in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The foundation has also established a think-tank in Lahore and the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives.
Brevan Howard vs Rokos trial postponed to March 2015 (Reuters)
A Jersey court has postponed the trial date for a case involving leading hedge fund Brevan Howard and its co-founder Christopher Rokos to March 2015, to determine whether the former star trader can launch a new rival firm. Rokos, who made about $4 billion for Brevan’s main fund between 2004 and 2012, filed a lawsuit in May seeking to overturn an agreement with the firm preventing him from starting his own fund and raising money from investors until 2018.
JP Morgan markets RMBS with weak investor protection (IFR)
Even though the new US$483m transaction is backed by mortgages to high-quality borrowers, some in the market are anxious about what they say are problems across the asset class. As one hedge fund investor who has bought Redwood Trust jumbo deals put it: “We participated in a number of the earlier Sequoia deals last year – and got burned on them.” In addition, JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM)’s new deal – dubbed JPMMT 2014-IVR3 and backed by 551 loans – is relatively weak on representations and warranties framework, DBRS rating agency said in a report.
HedgeFund People: BTIG Expands With 2 New Hires (HedgeCo)
BTIG LLC, a global financial services firm specializing in institutional trading, investment banking and related brokerage services, is expanding its Futures and Commodities desk with the hires of Eric Silverman and Jordan Lichtenstein. Eric and Jordan are based in BTIG’s New York office and will report to Robert Gagnon, Head of Commodity Futures. “These hires complement the expertise of the Futures and Commodities desk and will broaden our reach into the energy segment of the futures and OTC market,” said Gagnon. “Between Eric’s buy-side experience and Jordan’s sell-side experience, we can offer our clients balanced insight from both the institutional and commercial client base.”
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