Federal authorities recorded several of SAC Capital Advisors founder Steven Cohen’s phone calls in the early stages of their wide-ranging insider-trading investigation.
How Much Money Clients Have Made Investing In Top Hedge Funds Since Inception (Bloomberg)
Below is a list of how much money clients have made investing in top hedge funds since inception. The data are provided by LCH Investments NV.
Paulson Funds: Where The Management Went Wrong? (Value Walk)
Paulson funds swung negative in 2011 recording double digit losses in every fund strategy. The management must have picked right assets, mostly, but it was wrong about the market and economy at macro levels. It seems that the management view was influenced by their existing position in the market; as a result they ignored most obvious signals of weak economy.
The 40 Highest-Earning Hedge Fund Managers (Forbes)
No hedge fund titan made more in 2011 than Raymond Dalio. The founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s biggest hedge fund firm, made an estimated $3 billion in 2011 as his funds produced net returns in the 20% range. As a result, Dalio tops Forbes’ list of the 40 highest-earning hedge fund managers of 2011.
Top Hedge Fund Managers Take Home $13 Billion In 2011 (Reuters)
Even in a brutal year, some top hedge fund managers made out like bandits. The top 40 highest-earning hedge fund managers took home a combined $13.2 billion, according to a Forbes magazine survey. The top 10 hedge fund managers made more than $200 million each, while the lowest earning managers made $40 million each.
Man Group Eyes Client Wins As Outflows Slow (Reuters)
Man Group, the world’s biggest listed hedge fund firm, cheered investors with news of lower fund outflows in a more buoyant 2012 for financial markets and said clients could begin to return after recent heavy withdrawals.
Buffett Poised to Win Wager on America With Burlington (Bloomberg)
When Warren Buffett bought North America’s second-biggest railroad, he called it an “all-in wager” on the U.S. economy. It’s turning out to be a pretty good bet on the oil industry, too. Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s track network puts it among the best situated of its peers to meet shipping demand for fracking sand, pipe and crude in the northern U.S. Bakken region, where oil production has more than tripled since 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Will Allen Stanford Walk? (CNBC)
Allen Stanford was arrested in 2008 for allegedly using $7 billion in other people’s money to finance his jet-setter lifestyle, complete with planes, yachts and mansions. After more than 3 years in jail, a head injury sustained in a fight with another inmate, and a revolving door of at least a dozen lawyers, Stanford’s trial finally began last month.
Faber Says ECB Loans to Only Help Short-Term, Handelsblatt Says (Bloomberg)
Marc Faber said the European Central Bank’s latest loans to European banks will only calm markets short-term, lead to inflation in the long-term and push banks’ funding problems into the future, Handelsblatt said in a preview of a story that will run tomorrow, citing the fund manager.
Fairfax’s Once-Sprawling Racketeering Suit Shrinks as Hedge Funds Drop Out (Bloomberg)
Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. (FFH), with seven of eight hedge funds it accused of spreading false rumors out of a lawsuit, may see the $24 billion case shrink again with a judge poised to rule whether racketeering counts allowing triple damages should be tossed. Three of the funds that won dismissal in the case, including billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors LP, have a total $29 billion in assets under management. The two main defendants remaining are a New York hedge fund with less than $100 million and a Memphis, Tennessee, brokerage recently sold for $930 million.
CNO Financial Says It Will Add $100 Million to Buyback Program (Bloomberg)
CNO Financial Group Inc. (CNO), the insurer that counts John Paulson’s hedge fund as its largest investor, said it will add $100 million to a share-buyback program.
SS&C Considering Offer for GlobeOp After TPG Deal (Bloomberg)
SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc. (SSNC) said it’s weighing a potential cash offer for GlobeOp Financial Services SA (GO/), even after TPG Capital LLP agreed to buy the hedge fund administrator last week.
Goldman Manager Investigated In Insider Trade Case (Reuters)
U.S. prosecutors are investigating David Loeb, a managing director of Goldman Sachs Group, as part of an insider-trading probe focusing on the company’s hedge-fund clients, a person familiar with the case said on Wednesday. Loeb works with technology hedge-fund employees, including an Asia-based analyst, Henry King, who is also under investigation, according to another source briefed on the case.
Fund Manager in GOP Race (WSJ)
Joseph Carvin, a full-time hedge-fund manager and part-time local leader who’s trying to dissolve the town he runs, has decided to seek the Republican nomination for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s seat, he said in an interview Thursday. Mr. Carvin, the 57-year-old supervisor of the Westchester County town of Rye, is the third entrant in the June 26 Republican primary. Ms. Gillibrand, a Democrat, has been finishing out Hillary Clinton’s term since she was appointed secretary of state.
Global Hedge Funds See Inflows Of $70bn For 2011 As Launches Outpace Liquidations (HFM Week)
Global hedge funds saw positive inflows of $70bn in 2011, a trend which is set to continue in the year ahead, with investors set to increase their allocations to alternatives, according to the latest report from TheCityUK. Global assets reached $1.9bn, a 3% reduction from the previous year, though new hedge fund launches outpaced fund liquidations for the second year running and totalled 9,800.
UBP To Acquire Nexar Capital (FINalternatives)
Union Bancaire Privée has boosted its hedge fund business with a deal for French hedge fund Nexar Capital Group. The Swiss bank, badly burned by the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, said yesterday it had agreed to buy the US$3 billion firm. Terms of the deal, expected to close in the spring, were not disclosed.
Texas Tech Coach Sued For Fraud At Hedge Fund (FINalternatives)
A prominent U.S. college football coach has been accused of malfeasance at his second job as a hedge fund owner. Tommy Tuberville, the head football coach at Texas Tech University, his partner and his hedge fund were sued by several investors—whom Tuberville said were also employees—who allege that they were misled and that Tuberville and his partner, John David Stroud, used TS Capital Partners as something of a personal piggy bank
Hedge Fund Managers’ Hoop Dreams Fizzle (FINalternatives)
Christopher Hansen is going to have to look elsewhere to find a basketball team to bring to his hometown. The Valiant Capital Management founder earlier this month unveiled his plans to build a new arena in Seattle to house a National Basketball Association franchise and possibly a National Hockey League team, as well. As eyes turned to Sacramento, which had until the end of the month to come up with a plan for a new arena or risk losing their Kings.
Judge Nixes Change Of Venue For Accused Calif. Hedge Fund Manager (FINalternatives)
Hedge fund manager Doug Whitman will have to suffer an unwanted vacation in New York City this summer, a judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff rejected a request by the Whitman Capital founder’s lawyers to move his trial on insider-trading charges from the Big Apple to California, where Whitman lives and where most of the companies whose stock he is alleged to have traded illegally are based.
Hedge Fund Manager Carvin To Run For Senate (FINalternatives)
It’s official: Altima Partners’ Joseph Carvin wants a new job. Carvin said that he would pursue the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat from New York. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is up for reelection in November, seeking her first full term—she was appointed to the seat after former Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) was appointed U.S. secretary of state, and won the right to finish that term in a byelection in 2010.
Wilson Named New Sprott Opps. Manager (FINalternatives)
Sprott Asset Management has hired a new portfolio manager, entrusting two of its hedge funds to him. John Wilson joined the Toronto-based fund in January. He’s now lead manager of Sprott’s Opportunties Hedge and Opportunities RSP funds, Sprott said this week.
GAM Buys Hedge Fund Arkos (FINalternatives)
Fund of hedge funds GAM Holding has bought a fellow Swiss fund manager—the first of what could be a series of acquisitions.
7 Stocks Hedge Funds Are Getting Bullish About (Finalternatives)
You probably know by now that Apple (AAPL) is the most popular stock among hedge funds (see the 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds ). What you didn’t know is that 13 of the 375 hedge funds we are tracking sold their Apple holdings, and only 15 hedge funds initiated new positions. Overall, the increase in the number of hedge funds with bullish Apple bets was only 2. Hedge funds’ sentiment towards Apple didn’t change much during the fourth quarter.
Elliott Associates Wants To Stay Out Of Trouble In 2012 (Opalesque)
Despite positive returns in 2011, Elliott Associates, like many hedge funds, says it struggled to remain in positive territories. The firm now paints a lurid picture of economic and financial possibilities, but says it is sticking to its uncorrelated, manual, process-driven approach to face the future. Elliott Associates, L.P. (EALP) and Elliott International Limited (EIL) lost 0.8% and 0.9% (est.) respectively in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to investors in the fund. The combined assets of both hedge funds are around $19.2bn.
Hedge Funds Care Works To Provide Support For Victims Of Child Abuse (Opalesque)
When people think of hedge funds the first thoughts that come to mind are rarely positive. Often portrayed as purveyors of greed, hedge funds rival politicians in negative media coverage and associations in the popular imagination. However, there are some bright spots – like Hedge Funds Care – a global philanthropic organization inside the hedge fund industry that raises money to provide support for victims of child abuse.
MerchantCantos Interviews Man Group (Hedge Co. Net)
Man Group has reported booking $16.7 billion of product sales for the nine months ended 31 Dec 2011. A spike in hedge fund redemptions in September led to modest net inflows in alternatives and an outflow in long only. The Board also today announced a change to its dividend policy.
Deutsche Bank Hedge Fund Survey Predicts Growth And Increased Institutional Participation (Hedge Co. Net)
Deutsche Bank’s tenth annual Alternative Investment Survey, which was conducted in December 2011 by the Bank’s Global Prime Finance business, predicts increased institutional participation in driving growth as hedge funds become an established and formidable part of the investment landscape.
Tiger Global’s Coleman Gets Rich Off IPOs — Long Before You See Them (Forbes)
Charles “Chase” Coleman III earned an estimated $500 million last year as the head of Tiger Global, enough to put him in sixth place on our list of Top Hedge Fund Traders in 2011. The 36-year-old trader, a product of Julian Robertson’s fabled Tiger Management hedge-fund operation, made his millions in two ways. One you can do yourself, the other you can’t.
Investors Flee Hedge Funds At Fastest Pace Since ’09 (Barrons)
You can’t blame investors for wanting to yank money from the hedge-fund industry after months of underperformance. And a new report says in January they pulled out money at the fastest pace since July 2009.
The Daily Start-Up: Soros-Backed Fund Jumps Into Solar Sector (WSJ)
Around The Market In 80 Seconds (The Reformed Broker)
Morning Read: Traders Pulling Money From Financials (Barrons)
Thursday 7atseven: Are We Back Yet? (Abnormal Returns)
HFMWeek Daily Snapshot – 1 March (HFM Week)
New Hedge Funds Update: March 2012 (AR)
Paulson’s Euro Prediction, Crime At MF Global Tough To Prove, ’Stupid Algos’ And More (Reuters Hedge World)
Daily US Opening News And Market Re-Cap: March 1 – Eurozone Jobless Rate Highest Since October 1997 (Zero Hedge)
Frontrunning: March 1 (Zero Hedge)
Morning News: March 1, 2012 (Crossing Wall Street)
10 Thursday AM Reads (The Big Picture)
