Watch Leon Cooperman’s Biggest Positions Get Hit (CNBC)
The vultures were circling Leon Cooperman‘s biggest positions after the SEC announced at 10:47 a.m. ET Wednesday it was charging the billionaire and his firm Omega Advisors with insider trading. The speculation by the traders knocking these stocks is that Cooperman will face big redemptions because of the charges and that in turn may force the firm to sell some of his holdings to cover those redemptions. The hardest hit positions were the smaller stocks where a combination of their light trading volume and Omega’s position size would make it difficult for the hedge fund to exit the position in an efficient manner.
Tiger Cub Citrone Sees Market in Biggest Correction Since 2008 (Bloomberg)
Robert Citrone, the Tiger cub who now runs one of the best-known macro hedge funds, is warning investors that the market moment they’ve been anticipating is at hand. “We believe we are in the midst of the market correction we have been expecting,” Citrone, founder of Discovery Capital Management, told investors in an e-mail obtained by Bloomberg. “It will likely persist over the next 3-4 months and be the largest correction since the 2008 crisis,” he said. The firm managed about $12.4 billion at the start of 2016.
Third Point’s Loeb: BOJ Move Will Be ‘Positive’ For Markets (Reuters)
Billionaire investor Daniel Loeb, whose Third Point hedge fund has recently pushed for change at Japanese companies, said on Wednesday that he approved of the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy move, but added corporate reform is still needed to help revive growth. The Japanese central bank announced earlier on Wednesday it would target interest rates on government bonds and Loeb said the move will have “very positive implications for the market.” Loeb, whose $16 billion Third Point fund has been investing in Japan for years, was speaking at the Reuters Newsmaker event featuring Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
BlueCrest Hires Two Ex-Visium Portfolio Managers (Reuters)
BlueCrest Capital Management has hired two former money managers from shuttered Visium Asset Management‘s London office. Robert Bonte-Friedheim and Owen Taylor joined BlueCrest on Sept. 15 from Visium Asset UK, filings on the website of British regulator the Financial Conduct Authority showed. Visium Asset Management, which once managed $8 billion, has returned most client money after founder Jacob Gottlieb decided to close the fund in the aftermath of an insider trading and fraud scandal involving some of his staff earlier this year.
Hedge Fund SpringOwl Starts New Activist Fund After Viacom Battle (Reuters)
An activist investment firm that helped oust Viacom’s chief executive this year plans to launch a new fund in the fourth quarter, one of its co-founders said on Tuesday. SpringOwl Asset Management, the three-year-old firm founded by Jason Ader and Andrew Wallach, plans to invest in real estate, financial services, consumer and technology companies. Ader, Wallach and their team currently invest roughly $140 million in managed accounts for wealthy families, earning returns between 20 percent and 40 percent this year alone. That beats the average activist fund’s 5.6 percent return. Ader, who earned his reputation on Wall Street as a gaming analyst, said SpringOwl has more ideas than cash.
Acela Fight Splits Hedge-Fund Connecticut and Old-Money Enclaves (Bloomberg)
Connecticut’s residential coastline is two worlds, the one of newcomer millionaires and one whose wealth and New England roots span generations. Now, their differences over a rail route threaten to gum up plans for the U.S. Northeast’s fastest-ever trains. About 30 miles from Manhattan, hedge funds such as Bridgewater Associates and Tudor Investment Corp. and Fortune 500 companies help make Stamford the busiest station in the wealthiest state for Amtrak’s Acela Express. Boardings are 47 percent lower toward the east, where century-old estates overlook the Long Island Sound and the Ivy League’s Yale University has educated scholars for 300 years.
A Relative Of Leon Cooperman Tried To Blow The Whistle On Him (Business Insider)
A family member of Leon Cooperman tried to blow the whistle on trades that the relative described as “fishy.” That’s according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which on Wednesday charged Cooperman and his $5.5 billion hedge fund, Omega Advisors, with insider trading. The trading involves a company called Atlas Pipeline Partners, according to the SEC complaint. The SEC does not identify the relative, but says they are a hedge fund manager. Cooperman’s son Wayne runs the hedge fund Cobalt Capital Management, which has held positions in Atlas. Business Insider has reached out to Wayne Cooperman but has not received a response.
