Wing Lake Capital Shutting Down (The Wall Street Journal)
Hedge fund veteran Michael Beerman is shutting down Wing Lake Capital LLC amid lackluster performance, according to people familiar with the matter. The firm becomes one of the latest in a spate of recent closings for hedge fund managers. Last year was one of the worst for the industry since the 2008 financial crisis. Wing Lake managed $183 million as of Oct. 1 and earned 2% for the year through September after fees, according to a note sent to its investors. The stock hedge fund bet on and against companies largely located in North America, according to the note.
Start-up helps people invest like Warren Buffett (Brisbane Times)
Ordinary people can now invest as Warren Buffett, James Slater or Sir John Templeton do by using a free algorithm that mimics the stock-picking, buying, and selling decisions of the world’s most successful investors. This is the claim made by husband-and-wife team Maria and Michel Jacquemai, founders of “financial Facebook” MeetInvest, who crunched the formulas used by multi-millionaire market players to allow anyone to use their principles to make money. “We want to empower investors by giving them the same toolkits that the professionals have,” says Maria. “The financial world wants to keep this kind of information a secret but we have decided to give it away for free.”
Caesars Letting Apollo, TPG Keep Stake Fuels Creditor Anger (Bloomberg)
If all goes according to Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s (NASDAQ:CZR) plan that started with putting its biggest unit into bankruptcy today, the casino company’s private-equity owners won’t have to give up a penny of their $1.8 billion stake. Creditors would see half their claims wiped out. Usually, equity holders rank last for repayment in a bankruptcy. Yet Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE:APO) and TPG Capital, which bought Caesars in 2008, are pushing a proposal that would allow them to isolate the Las Vegas-based company’s troubled operating subsidiary and its $18.4 billion of debt, while hanging on to their control of its parent.
Hedge Fund Kept U.S. Inquiry Quiet (The New York Times)
In the volatile world of high finance, hedge funds come and hedge funds go. So there was little fanfare last week, apart from a few upset investors, when Vertical Capital, with $1.4 billion under management, suddenly announced it was unwinding its $400 million hedge fund operation. Behind the scenes, however, is a troubling Wall Street story, redeemed, in part, by a whistle-blower who was not willing to go along with what she viewed as dubious business practices. In a letter to investors sent during the evening of Dec. 2, Vertical said it was negotiating with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle a civil securities fraud case against its founder, Brett Graham, and its related brokerage firm, VCAP Securities.
Man Group wins Hedge Fund Mandate for UK’s Cornwall Pension Fund (Reuters)
Hedge fund Man Group said on Thursday it had won the mandate to manage the hedge fund allocation for British local government region Cornwall’s pension fund. The allocation has a target size of 8 percent of the 1.5 billion pound ($2.28 billion) fund, according to a statement from Man Group, or 120 million pounds. The allocation will be managed by Man FRM, a wholly owned subsidiary of Man Group, the statement said.
Hedge Funds, Speculators Face Big Losses on Swiss Franc Rally (CNBC)
Currency speculators, particularly large global macro hedge funds with big short positions in the Swiss franc, are staring massive losses in the face after the Swiss National Bank shocked markets on Thursday by removing a three-year-old cap on the currency. The move sent the safe-haven franc soaring against the euro and the U.S. dollar at a time when more than $3.5 billion was positioned in favor of franc weakness, the largest such position in more than a year and a half.
Leonteq Sells Structured Products Linked to Pretend Portfolios (Bloomberg)
Leonteq AG is selling structured products for investors who want to bet on successful unknown fund managers of pretend portfolios. It began offering certificates in Switzerland last month that track a basket of “wikifolios” created on wikifolio.com. Users on the German-language website create phony funds that hold no assets and can be turned into investable securities through certificates that trade on the Stuttgart Stock Exchange. The amateur investment pickers are trying to make a dent in an actively managed fund industry that endured a tough year in 2014. Investors allocated almost five times as much money to passive funds as to active strategies last year, according to Morningstar Inc. In the first half, 461 hedge funds closed, which was on pace to be the highest in five years, according to Hedge Fund Research Inc.
Hedge Fund Managers Pick Top 2015 Ideas (CNBC)
The smartest hedge fund strategies are often hidden from public view, shared only at clubby “idea dinners” and other places where ordinary investors aren’t invited. Here’s a peek at the top unusual trades for 2015—judged by some of the best investors in the world. The results are in (full reports) for the FactSet Top Idea Tournament Special Situations contest, run by SumZero, a community for analysts at hedge funds, mutual funds and private equity funds. The contest, which was open to the 10,500 members of the SumZero community, accepted event-driven and catalyst-focused pitches on virtually any security with a market capitalization of $500 million or more. The contest is the third in a four-part series that includes $160,000 in cash prizes.
