March tech losses burn hedge funds (CNBC)
Betting on the growth of technology companies proved to be a dangerous game in March as sharp stock declines burned some prominent hedge fund investors. Hedge fund firms that suffered stinging losses last month included Viking Global Investors, Coatue Management, JAT Capital and Jericho Capital Partners. Well-known tech investors like Lone Pine Capital, Blue Ridge Capital and others are also now down for the year, likely in part because of investments in the sector. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)‘s prime brokerage unit said in a report Tuesday that hedge funds focused on technology, media and telecommunications—the “TMT” strategy—were likely down about 4 percent in March with returns for most funds ranging from no loss to down 7 percent or 8 percent.
‘Youngest African-American Hedge Fund Founder’ Gets Five Years (Finalternatives)
The boy-wonder hedge fund manager who wasn’t will have more than five years to reinvent himself—although the sentencing judge would prefer it not be as a finance teacher. Frederick Scott pleaded guilty charges that he defrauded clients of $1.3 million. Prosecutors said he went to great lengths to convince victims that he was the “youngest African-American hedge fund founder in history,” despite a period of homelessness, and all before he turned 30. Few if any of Scott’s claims, however—including the claim to manage $3.7 billion—proved true, and rather than investing his clients’ money, Scott spent it on himself.
Judges Junk Soros Ex Apartment Lawsuit (Finalternatives)
Adriana Ferreyr may indeed have been distressed by her ex-boyfriend’s backing out of a promise to buy her a Manhattan apartment. But George Soros isn’t legally liable for it, an appeals court ruled yesterday. The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division said that Soros’ change of heart—he eventually bought the East 85th Street home for his new girlfriend, whom he married last year—“cannot be said to be extreme and outrageous.” Nor did the hedge fund billionaire act “with disinterested malevolence” or cause “unconscionable injury,” any of which may have supported Ferreyr’s claim of “intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
Don’t Keep Your Gold and Silver in the US, Says Marc Faber (GoldSeek)
Gloom Boom & Doom Report publisher Marc Faber discusses the fragile state of the US and global financial systems… how rising inflation will affect the average American… how soon the bubble will burst… and why gold and silver will triumph. …The US is a country that likes to create trouble, but they don’t like to clean up things.” “We’ve now been five years into the bull market and the US economy bottomed out in June 2009. We already had a crack-up boom—not in the economy of the typical household, but in the economy of the super-well-to-do people, whose asset prices rose dramatically and as a result created a huge wealth inequality.”
Lyft raises $250 million for smartphone ride booking service (BizJournals)
Lyft, the smartphone ride booking service that connects passengers with drivers in personal vehicles, has raised $250 million to continue expansion of its fast growing, 20-month-old platform, which is known for the fuzzy, pink mustaches that Lyft drivers put on their cars. One of a slew of controversial new mobile apps that have proven popular with users despite opposition from taxi interests and efforts to restrict them by some local regulators, San Francisco-based Lyft launched to the public in 2012. It competes with UberX, a similar service owned by Uber Technologies, which also dispatches limos and taxis, and a number of smaller San Francisco-area startups, including Sidecar, Summon and Wingz, which focuses on airport rides.
The Frackers reveals how wildcatters spawned an energy revolution in the United States (Straight)
WALL STREET JOURNAL reporter Gregory Zuckerman thought he had found a phenomenal story when he wrote a book about a little-known hedge-fund manager who, in 2007, bet that the overheated housing market would bring down the financial industry. His book, The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History, was described by writer Malcolm Gladwell as the “easily best of the post-crash financial books”. But Zuckerman recently told the Georgia Straight that he came across an even better story when he began to investigate how the United States suddenly became an energy superpower following the 2008 global meltdown.
Recommended Reading:
