Balls On George Soros’s Ex-Girlfriend Significantly Bigger Than Previously Thought (DealBreaker)
From 2006-2011, former soap opera star Adriana Ferreyr was the “on-again, off-again” girlfriend of hedge fund manager George Soros. As the story goes, toward the end of their relationship, Soros promised Ferreyr her “dream” apartment on East 85th Street, broke up with her a day after the place went into contract, texted her “what are you up to?”1 one night a few weeks later, and then, after going over to her place to “reconcile,” whispered in her ear that he’d given her apartment away to another woman (who would later become his wife). Since then, Ferreyr has demonstrated time and time again that she’s packing a serious pair, but no more so than today.
SEC: Investment advisers, attorney misused money (PalmbeachDailyNews)
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Palm Beacher Albert Hallac, founder of Weston Capital Asset Management LLC of West Palm Beach, with illegally draining more than $17 million from a hedge fund his firm managed. The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, against Hallac, 76, and his firm names his son, Jeffrey Hallac of West Palm Beach, and Weston’s general counsel, Keith Wellner of New York City, as relief and co-defendants, respectively.
Everybody Loves Hedge Funds, Assets Hit Record $3 Trillion (Forbes)
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the world of hedge funds is only getting bigger. The industry saw assets surpass $3 trillion in May for the first time ever. That’s according to hedge fund database, eVestment, which notes the new record exceeds the asset peak from 2008. It’s been a particularly strong year for hedge funds. In May alone, $22 billion of new capital was added bringing year-to-date flows to $93.3 billion. That’s the strongest start to a year since 2007. The industry’s growth is part of a larger trend since the financial crisis that involved hedge funds changing the way they ran their firms.
Tiger Grandcub Valiant Capital Reverses Losses, at Least for Now (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
Has Christopher Hansen‘s Valiant Capital Management gotten back on track after an ugly rough patch that began a year or so ago? The short answer is, perhaps. The San Francisco-based manager – known as a Tiger Grandcub because Hansen previously worked for seven years at Tiger Cub John Griffin’s New York-based Blue Ridge Capital – is up more than 6 percent this year in his flagship fund after posting a gain of 10.65 percent in May. (So-called Tiger Cubs are managers who worked for Julian Robertson Jr.’s legendary Tiger Management Corp.)
A Look At Hedge-Fund-Style Mutual Funds (FA-Mag)
Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. For investment firms, the “better mousetrap” is a fund that has appeal because it promises a good return without exposing the customer to more risk than he can bear. For more than a decade, contenders for the “better mousetrap” designation have included mutual funds that use hedge fund strategies. Such funds seemed to offer the best of both worlds: hedge-fund-like diversity and ability to adapt to different market environments without costing as much to participate. And they have the liquidity and transparency (investors can see how and where their money is invested) of mutual funds.
Investors manic for ‘disrupter’ stocks (FT)
Euphoria is a typical late-cycle signal. Investors throw caution to the wind and try to maximise upside returns. Pension funds overweight equities at the expense of prudent asset allocation, individual investors rush into hot equity mutual funds, Wall Street’s strategists recommend overweighting equities and hedge funds lever long positions substantially. We can find no data that conclusively support the notion that the US stock market is in such a euphoric stage. Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE:CS) data indicate US pension funds have among the lowest equity allocations in more than 30 years and remain focused on alternatives rather than conventional equities.
Diversifying portfolio key for hedge funds: Pro (CNBC)
Hedge Funds Reject Argentine Delay Request (Finalternatives)
The hedge fund holdouts battling Argentina for full payment on its defaulted debt urged a federal judge to refuse the country’s bid for more time—while holding out the possibility of a deal, if Argentina behaves. Argentina on Monday asked U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa, whose ruling that Argentina must pay the holdouts if it wishes to continue paying its other creditors was allowed to stand earlier this month by the U.S. Supreme Court, to reinstate a stay allowing it to pay the latter while negotiating with the former. The country pledged “good-faith negotiations” with the legally victorious hedge funds, and is mulling a payment to them in exchange for more time.
Hedge Fund AUM Hit Record $3T (Finalternatives)
Hedge fund assets under management have crossed the $3 trillion threshold for the first time on record, according to new data from eVestment. The figure represents an all-time high, surpassing the industry’s previous Q2 2008 peak, and is the result of both new allocations—$22 billion in May, $93.3 billion year to date—and performance gains, which added $37.8 billion to total AUM in May. Equity funds continue to register high inflows, a trend that has persisted since June 2013. Investors poured $11.5 billion into equity strategies in May, bringing YTD allocations to $59.4 billion.
Booms, busts and human nature (Business-Standard)
The recent international financial meltdown following the failure of two hedge funds owned by the US investment bank Bear Stearns and the subprime crisis has spawned a large number of books that review similar episodes in the past, in an effort to trace the common threads through them and the lessons to be learnt. Bob Swarup’s book belongs to this genre. He has organised the material not by chronology but around common human foibles. It deals with 25 centuries of financial bubbles, investment manias and human folly with historical details relating to the period from ancient Rome to the crisis of 2008.
LPs Eager to Back Ex-Highbridge Team (HFAlert)
It looks like Pagoda Asset Management, a startup led by a former Highbridge Capital investment team, is on track to launch with more than $200 million. Investors appreciate the fact that founders Adam Bernstein and Mark Hoffman, along with sector head Glenn Vogelman, spent more than six years working together at Highbridge before leaving the hedge fund giant in April to start their own fund shop. The team’s specialty at Highbridge — technology, media and telecommunications stocks, as well as consumer stocks — will be the focus of Pagoda. “The coolest thing about these guys is it’s a lift-out more than a startup,” one source said. “The three of them worked together.”
Rajaratnam’s driver sues former billionaire, wife (CNBC)
A former driver for Raj Rajaratnam has sued the one-time billionaire, claiming he was fired for complaining about secret wire transfers the founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund made to fellow prisoners following his conviction for insider trading. Peter Malaszuk, a longtime assistant to Rajaratnam, sued his former boss, his wife, and a company she owns, saying the wire transfers were made to 20 inmates at the prison for several months, in violation of federal law.
Florida Hedge Fund Firm Charged With $17 Million Fraud Scheme (HedgeCo)
A West Palm Beach-based hedge fund advisory firm and its founder have been charged by the SEC with fraudulently shifting money from one investment to another without informing investors, the South Florida Business Journal reports. The firm’s founder and another individual later pocketed some of the transferred investor proceeds to enrich themselves. “Investment advisers owe their clients a fiduciary duty of utmost good faith and full disclosure about what they’re doing with their money,” said Eric I. Bustillo, director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office. “Weston and Hallac dishonored that duty with Wellner’s assistance by secretly steering investor proceeds to a third party and then pocketing some of those funds.”
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