Some macro hedge funds are using the recent sell-off in the Mexican peso as an opportunity to buy into the currency. Macro funds – which bet on stocks, bonds and currencies and which were made famous by the likes of George Soros – piled into the peso in recent months, hungry for profits after a tough two years in which they struggled to cope with markets dominated by political and central bank actions. Until recently, the trade was one of the successes in a year that otherwise has seen macro funds down 1.09 percent, according to the HFRX index. It returned as much as 18 percent as it went to below 12 to the US dollar a month ago from more than 14 last June. But since then it has quickly lost about a quarter of those gains.
‘Hedge Hogs’ is a fresh look at Wall Street trades (Chron)
The abuse of investors and American taxpayers by “Wall Street” is an oft-told tale, especially since the financial collapse of 2008. But Barbara T. Dreyfuss has found a fresh way to tell the story, and one of her protagonists is Houston’s billionaire philanthropist and former hedge fund luminary John Arnold. Although there are no heroes in the saga of macho trading and financial immorality, Arnold is clearly the “good guy,” relatively speaking. The bad guy, operating far away from Houston in the northern reaches of Alberta, Canada, is Brian Hunter.
E-mails reveal Prichard’s role in Ontario gas-plant talks (TheGlobeAndMail)
A trusted adviser to the Ontario government played a prominent role in crafting a $275-million settlement to scuttle an unpopular power plant in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga. Robert Prichard, a politically connected Bay Street lawyer, led talks to compensate the company building the plant and also negotiated an accord with a group of hedge-fund lenders to the project, according to internal government e-mails obtained by The Globe and Mail and interviews with sources close to the situation. The e-mails show that then-premier Dalton McGuinty’s office, along with his energy and finance ministers, signed off on the deal with the company.
Paul Soros | Shipping magnate, 87 (Philly)
Paul Soros, 87, an innovator in shipping, philanthropist, and the brother of billionaire financier George Soros, died in New York on Saturday after a long bout with a host of illnesses, said his son Peter. Mr. Soros, an engineer and businessman, founded Soros Associates, a world leader in the design and development of bulk handling and port facilities. The company has operations in 91 countries. Mr. Soros also held a number of patents and wrote more than 100 technical articles on the transportation of materials and related shipping design issues.
Buy Chinese yuan: Jim Rogers throws us another investment bone (Mining)
The Chinese yuan is an excellent long-term investment, potentially appreciating 500% and becoming the global reserve currency in the coming decades, legendary investor Jim Rogers claimed last week. Despite legitimate concerns in the US over China manipulating its currency to remain artificially low, the yuan has recently been on the move – upwards. Just over a week ago, the yuan hit its all-time high against the US dollar. Since January of this year, the yuan is up 1.6% overall (or 30% against the US dollar). Since January 2009, when President Obama first took office, the overall appreciation figure is more like 10%.
Hedge Funds Cut Brent Crude Net-Longs From Three-Month High (Bloomberg)
Hedge funds and other money managers cut bullish bets on Brent crude from a three-month high, the first reduction in seven weeks, according to data from ICE Futures Europe. Speculative bets that prices will rise, in futures and options combined, outnumbered short positions by 160,033 lots in the week ended June 11, the London-based exchange said today in its weekly Commitments of Traders report. The reduction of 4,871 contracts is the first since April 23.
Toscafund Makes Hay in Financial Stocks (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
One of this year’s best performing Tiger Cubs – or best-performing hedge funds, period – is a London-based fund that many investors had left for dead after it lost more than half its value in 2008. Managed out of the London-based hedge fund firm Toscafund Asset Management, the Toscafund is up 16.2 percent this year through May, net of its 1.5 percent management fee and 15 percent performance fee, after posting a strong 5.2 percent gain in May alone. The fund’s performance this year is a continuation of an impressive rebound that started when former Tiger Management financials specialist Johnny de la Hey took over as the fund’s portfolio manager in December of 2008.
