Suddenly Everyone Hates Hedge Funds — Now Here’s What That Actually Means (BusinessInsider)
Over the last month, the low hum of anti-hedge fund murmuring has exploded into a full-on festival of malice – thousands of investors, having spotted the 2-and-20 emperors sans clothing for the umpteenth time, are now reveling in their newfound courage to say it out loud: “I don’t get it.” The media – always in possession of a keen nose for blood in the water – has been all too happy to encircle the debate with articles, viewpoints, charts and statistics (oh so many statistics).
Bill Ackman Needs A Huge Score (Chron)
One of a hedge fund manager’s super powers is the ability to move market’s with a few words. On Wall Street, that’s like being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. To do it you need cash, a platform, and faith. Living legend Bill Ackman no longer has all three of those things. He still has the cash and the platform, but the faith has waned, and if Ackman wants to keep all of those from eroding further he’ll need to pull off a feat of heroic proportions this coming week. That’s when he’ll announce where exactly his hedge fund, Pershing Square, is putting $1 billion of investor money. Investors have until July 17th to commit some cash.
Former Hedge-Fund Manager Andy Kessler Blames Homeless Problem On Volunteers (OpposingViews)
A former hedge-fund manager might have come up with the solution to the homeless problem in America — stop feeding them. In an op-ed that ran in the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Andy Kessler seemed to make the argument that shelter workers and volunteers — including his own teenage son — are enabling the homeless by giving them food. “My 16-year-old son volunteers with an organization that feeds the homeless and fills kits with personal hygiene supplies for them,” Kessler wrote. “It’s a worthwhile project, and I tell him so — but he doesn’t like it when our conversation on the way to his minimum-wage job turns to why these homeless folks aren’t also working. Perhaps, I suggest, because someone is feeding, clothing and, in effect, bathing them?
Hedge Funds Have Actually Been Pretty Good Stock Pickers This Year (BusinessInsider)
The hedge fund industry has been taking a lot of heat in recent days and years for delivering poor performance at a high cost. Indeed, according to a recent report from Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), the average hedge fund returned a measly 2.5% during the first half of the year compared to the S&P 500 which returned 12.6% (13.8% including dividends). It’s worth noting that hedge funds often consist of both long and short positions. Short positions lose value when the asset price goes up. Some hedge funds take these long and short positions so they can be neutral on the direction of the stock market.
Ranking the Hedge Fund All-Stars at “Delivering Alpha” (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
One day after baseball’s best battle it out at New York’s Citi Field, the hedge fund industry will be hosting its own all-star game of sorts ten miles away in Manhattan. On Wednesday, July 17, many of the greatest managers of all time will suit up at Manhattan’s Pierre hotel to pitch their favorite investments at the third annual Delivering Alpha conference, which is cosponsored by Institutional Investor and CNBC. It is in some ways more like the home run competition the day before the All-Star Game. Hedge fund superstar after superstar will take a swing at their favorite investments. Several of them will strike out, a few will knock it out of the ballroom, while many will smack singles up the middle.
Small hedgie bests the rest (NYPost)
June was a tough month for most hedge funds — but not for one small manager who foresaw the commodities rout. Anuraag Shah’s Tusker Investment Fund, a $105 million commodities fund based in Chicago, gained a whopping 15.6 percent last month, compared with a loss of 2.75 percent for the Absolute Return Commodities Index. The entire hedge-fund universe fell 0.78 percent. Industry insiders said that Tusker’s performance could be the best monthly gain in the $2 trillion industry — certainly light years ahead of what the billion-dollar rock-star funds turned in.
Wall Street’s ‘Fabulous Fab’ heads to trial (CNN)
The trial of the infamous ex-Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) trader Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Tourre, which starts Monday, could put a face on the type of Wall Street recklessness that imploded the housing market and almost sank the economy five years ago. “This is one of the few opportunities that a court has had to punish conduct associated with the financial crisis that put this country into a grave recession,” said attorney David Marder. Marder is a former assistant director of the SEC’s Boston office who now defends clients against SEC charges.
