Carl Icahn May Have Entered the Bloody Hedge Fund Battle Over Herbalife (Benzinga)
The Herbalife (NYSE: HLF) battle is shaping up to be the bloodiest hedge fund battle ever, having pulled in Bill Ackman, Dan Loeb, and Bob Chapman. Today, The New York Post is reporting that legendary activist investor Carl Icahn has entered the fray by taking a long position in the stock. This follows yesterday’s news that Dan Loeb’s fund Third Point took an 8.24 percent long position. Loeb called Bill Ackman’s thesis for his 20 million share short position “preposterous” in a letter to investors.
Soros Veteran Leaves To Launch Hedge Fund (Finalternatives)
Jixin Dai, who spent more than a decade at Soros Fund Management and helped set up the firm’s Hong Kong office two years ago, will launch his own hedge fund. The Chinese native has founded Jixin Capital in Hong Kong, HedgeFund Intelligence reports. Dai is the most recent top Soros executive to leave the firm in the wake of founder George Soros’ decision to return outside capital in July 2011.
WallStreetWindow’s Swanson: Hedge Funds Manipulating Gold Prices (MoneyNews)
Although it might not pass as willful financial manipulation, hedge fund actions are influencing gold prices, according to Mike Swanson, founder and chief editor of WallStreetWindow, an online community of independent investors and analysts. The price gold is being suppressed as poor-performing hedge fund — and there are many of them — are forced to meet investor redemptions, he says But gold will rise again when those redemptions end in a week, predicts Swanson, himself a former hedge manager.
Currency Funds Face Diminishing Returns (WSJ)
John Taylor, who has run one of the biggest currency hedge funds for more than three decades, is facing a harsh reality: The good times, at least for now, are gone. Mr. Taylor says the past few years have been among the most difficult in the 31-year history of his company, FX Concepts. In 2011, the firm’s flagship Global Currency Program portfolio was down 19.4%, when Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis shook financial markets, and last year it eked out a gain of just 0.93%. That compares with average returns of 11.1% a year from 2001 to 2010, according to the firm.
IMCA awards prize in first academic paper competition (PIOnline)
Associate professor Russell R. Wermers won the Investment Management Consultants Association’s $5,000 academic paper competition for “Monitoring Daily Hedge Fund Performance When Only Monthly Data is Available,” confirmed spokesman Ryan Hoffman. Mr. Wermers, associate professor of finance at Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, co-authored the paper with Daniel Li, research analyst at Markov Processes International, and Michael Markov, Markov chairman.
AC casinos were bad bet, with 8% revenue hit (NYPost)
Turns out, the house doesn’t always win. Hedge-fund high rollers who bet big on a comeback for Atlantic City’s casinos are watching their gambling profits dwindle. The city’s casino industry suffered its sixth straight decline last year, with winnings down 8 percent to $3.05 billion, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement said in its latest annual report, released yesterday. …Billionaire investor Carl Icahn owns Tropicana Casino and Resorts, which he bought out of bankruptcy in 2010.
