Appaloosa, Owl Creek, Tudor Among ’13 Winners (FINalternatives)
History will show that 2013 was an extremely disappointing year for hedge funds, with the average manager struggling to achieve even one-third the return of soaring stock markets. But a number of prominent managers will remember last year very differently. Appaloosa Management returned 42% and Owl Creek Asset Management 48%, to name just two of the hedge funds to top the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s nearly 30% rise last year. Tudor Investment Corp. didn’t do as well overall, but it earned more than 100% shorting gold in 2013. The $14 billion hedge fund’s bearish play on the precious metal was championed by senior trader Chris Tuohy, who turned less than $10 million in gold put options into more than $100 million, The Wall Street Journal reports. Tudor made further gains on gold from founder Paul Tudor Jones’ own smaller short against the metal.
TrimTabs and BarclayHedge report hedge funds get $17.5bn in November, highest inflow in six months (Opalesque)
BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research reported today that hedge funds took in $17.5 billion (0.9% of assets) in November, 2013. This inflow was the highest in six months and the second-highest in the past two years. “The hedge fund industry has taken in a net $66.9 billion in 2013, a healthy turnaround from an outflow of $8.2 billion in the same period in 2012,” said Sol Waksman, president and founder of BarclayHedge. Hedge funds had net inflows in nine of the first 11 months of 2013. Industry assets climbed to a five-year high of $2.1 trillion. “Assets are up 17% in 2013 but are still 14% below the all-time peak of $2.4 trillion in June 2008,” Waksman said.
Hedge-fund landlord near Dayton cuts schools’ funding (Columbus Dispatch)
Funding shortages have forced the district to stop providing buses for most high-school students. One 14-year-old told teacher Mike Yane she leaves home in the dark and walks an hour to arrive before the bell rings at 7:50 a.m. Once there, students share decade-old textbooks that are falling apart. “There’s no money for new books,” said Yane, 49, a history teacher. After $14.6 million in state and local cuts since 2009, the Huber Heights City School system is bracing for another hit, this time from Yane’s landlord. Last January, the $9 billion hedge fund Magnetar Capital quietly bought a third of all rental homes in Huber Heights, including Yane’s and those of at least 16 of his students. In April, Magnetar’s management company applied for the largest reduction in residential property taxes in Montgomery County history.
Winklevoss twins invest in new hedge fund: report (MarketWatch)
The Winklevoss twins are backing a new hedge fund started by a fellow Harvard graduate, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Friday. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss will invest in Briarwood Chase Management LLC run by Aalap Mahadevia. The fund operates out of the Winklevoss Capital offices in Manhattan and the exact amount of the investment was not determined. Briarwood Chase is focused on global microcap stocks with a market capitalization of between $50 million and $300 million, said the report. The 32-year-old twins were made famous by their legal involvement with Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Carlyle Group joins hedgies’ rush into liquid alt mutual funds (InvestmentNews)
Financial advisers’ infatuation with liquid alternatives continues to draw bigger and bigger hedge fund managers to the space. The latest is The Carlyle Group LP (NASDAQ:CG), which manages $185 billion across 122 hedge funds and 81 hedge funds of funds. The Carlyle Group plans to launch its first two ’40 Act liquid alternatives mutual funds, one a long/short commodities fund and the other a balanced risk global allocation fund similar to risk parity, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The funds will be subadvised by hedge fund manager Vermillion Asset Management. The filing did not include expense ratios.
