Kynikos Alumni Start Hedge Fund Betting on Declining Stocks (Bloomberg)
Two former analysts of Jim Chanos’s Kynikos Associates Ltd., which rose to fame shorting Enron Corp., started a new London-based hedge fund earlier this month to bet on falling stocks globally. The Arhammar Short Alpha Fund Ltd., which started on Oct. 10 and is backed by the second-largest Baltic bank SEB AB (SEBA), will invest in 30 to 50 stocks which are expected to underperform the market, co-managers Mike Monnelly and David Bonnier said, declining to specify the amount of capital the fund has raised.
Ex-Credit Suisse traders return to sellside with Nomura (eFinancialNews)
Carlo Ramirez and Olivier Garcia, who left Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE:CS) in 2011 to set up a hedge fund, joined Nomura in London earlier this month, according to people close to the situation. Two former colleagues at the fund, Dilbagh Kalsi and Thierry Guilhot, have also joined. Ramirez is a former head of Asian trading for equity and equity derivatives at Credit Suisse, while Garcia previously led Asia-Pacific exotic trading at the Swiss bank, according to a Bloomberg article in 2012. They incorporated RG Investment Capital at Companies House in late 2011 and won regulatory authorisation in May 2012.
Fortress Third-Quarter Profit Rises 1.6% on Investments (Bloomberg)
Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG), the first publicly traded private-equity and hedge-fund manager in the U.S., said third-quarter profit rose 1.6 percent as its investments gained in value. Pretax distributable earnings, which exclude some compensation costs and other items, increased to $65 million, or 13 cents a share, from $64 million, or 12 cents, a year earlier, New York-based Fortress said today in a statement. The results missed the 15-cent per-share average profit estimate of seven analysts in a Bloomberg survey. …Both The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX) and KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR) reported higher third-quarter earnings this month as their holdings appreciated.
Hedge funds face automation challenge (Risk)
For an industry that has been so quick to deploy cutting-edge technology in its trading strategies, hedge funds remain crustily old-fashioned when it comes to other parts of the business. Procedures for handling and processing investor subscriptions have barely changed in decades, and are based largely on error-prone manual input. That may have to change. A host of new rules – from the US Dodd-Frank Act and European Market Infrastructure Regulation, to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) and Europe’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive – increase the reporting burden on hedge funds, which will have to achieve greater automation to have any chance of complying, observers say.
Paul Singer: Obamacare rollout a ‘fiasco’ (CNBC)
Hedge fund manager and billionaire conservative Paul Singer thinks the Affordable Care Act is a disaster. “It is no surprise, given the highly ideological component of its founding impulse as well as the lack of executive experience in its inventors, that the rollout of the national electronic network just weeks ago would turn into a (possibly temporary, but more likely ongoing) fiasco,” Singer wrote in a letter to Elliott Management investors obtained by CNBC.com “(It) may just be the introduction to the surprises and frustrations that are likely to befall tens of millions of Americans in the next few years.”
Why Japan is great for stock pickers now (CNBC)
Asian hedge fund capital growth accelerates, HFR reports (TheAsset)
Capital invested in Asian hedge funds surged to its highest level in five years and passed an important growth milestone in the third quarter, according to the latest HFR Asian hedge fund industry report. Total capital invested in the Asian hedge fund industry increased to US$103.8 billion, surpassing the US$100 billion milestone for the first time since the second quarter in 2008, prior to the global financial crisis. Performance gains were led by the HFRX Japan Index, which extended record performance gains in the third quarter this year, while hedge funds in emerging Asia continued to outperform local equity markets.
Billionaire Soros Throws Support Behind Clinton in 2016 Race for the White House (JewishVoiceNY)
Billionaire financier George Soros shows no equivocation with his stance in support of Hillary Clinton on the 2016 Presidential election, after pledging $25,000 to political action committee Ready For Hillary. “His support for Ready for Hillary is an extension of his long-held belief in the power of grassroots organizing,” said Soros spokesman Michael Vachon, according to a report by Reuters. Soros has a long-winded reputation of donating vast sums of money to other candidates in the past, including an estimated $27.5 million for the Democrats in the 2004 election and weighty contributions to Senator Barack Obama in his presidential campaign in 2008.
Netflix Share Swings Top Nasdaq 100 as Value Divides Icahn Clan (BusinessWeek)
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings warned in July that it takes “a strong stomach” to invest in the world’s largest video-subscription company. He wasn’t kidding. …A more than tripling of the stock this year has left Netflix trading at 184 times profit, fueling debate and exposing differences that have even split families. Billionaire Carl Icahn, the largest individual holder, sold more than half his stake this month while son Brett, a fund manager at Icahn Enterprises LP (NASDAQ:IEP), argued the stock is undervalued.
Pimco’s Bill Gross vows to give away his fortune before he dies (LATimes)
Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross, who was urged by billionaire Carl Icahn to give at least half his wealth to charity, said he and his wife, Sue, are committed to giving away all their money before they die. Gross, speaking in an interview on the CNBC television network Wednesday, said he’s following a pledge by steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who called it a disgrace for a wealthy person to die with money. Carnegie’s 1889 article “The Gospel of Wealth” said the wealthy have an obligation to give away their money to improve society.
Sohn Conference Kicks Off in London (WSJ)
Prepare for some stock-moving talk. This afternoon London plays host to the U.K. leg of the Sohn Conference, where hedge fund managers will name the stocks they love and which they hate. There have been some punchy calls in the past and some big swings in prices. …Mr. Armitage co-founded London-based Egerton in 1994 and since then his long/short equity hedge fund has delivered annualized returns of over 15%, with only two down years, in 2008 and 2011, according to investors. This year it is up 22% to October 25, according to a person familiar with the company.
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