Insider Trading: Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors Bought $ETCF

Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors bought 1,975 shares in E Trade Financial Corp (ETCF), according to a SEC insider trading disclosure on December 21st. Ken Griffin bought those shares on December 19 at $7.49, giving totally 27.43 million shares in his position. This is the second insider transaction that Ken Griffin filed for ETCF in the fourth quarter. Previously he did some trading but made no net change to his position. Ken Griffin reported 27.42 million shares in ETFC in the third quarter. ETFC is now priced at $8.04, losing 50% year to date.

Beside Ken Griffin’s 27.42 million position in the third quarter, Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors increased its position by 33% and had 9.93 million shares in the stock. Michael A. Price and Amos Meron’s Empyrean Capital Partners boosted its position by 14% and had 8.35 million shares at the end of September.

Ken Griffin is the founder and CEO of Citadel Investment Group. The firm is based in Chicago, and ranks among the largest and most successful hedge funds in the world. He avoided extensive press coverage in manners similar to other hedge funds for several years. Ken Griffin has a personal net worth of $2.3 billion as of 2011, making him the 512th richest man in the world. Citadel Investment Group had a portfolio value of nearly $43 billion in the second quarter.

According to Google Finance, E TRADE Financial Corp “is a financial services company, which provides online brokerage and related products and services to the individual retail investors, under the brand E*TRADE Financial. It also provides investor-focused banking products, primarily sweep deposits and savings products, to retail investors. The company operates in two business segments: trading and investing, and balance sheet.”