George Soros Made 8 Predictions about Politics, Financial Markets, and Facebook – Here’s How They Turned Out (Business Insider)
The billionaire investor George Soros is not shy about making predictions, in financial markets or otherwise. Soros is an investor of almost mythical status, having accumulated a fortune of nearly $40 billion from trading across currency, equity, and fixed-income markets. He started the Quantum Fund in 1973 before returning all outside capital in 2011 to focus solely on managing his own money. Soros also has a great interest in politics, having donated the majority of his fortune to the Open Society Foundations, which he establish to promote democracy and human rights across the world.
Hedge Fund in Sweden Trounces Return Goal With Rare AI Model (Bloomberg)
A Swedish hedge fund called Volt Capital Management AB has run circles around its own return target by relying on a form of artificial intelligence it says is unique. Volt Diversified Alpha Program was created in early 2017 by Jukka Harju, the former head of research at Lynx Asset Management. It only has about $30 million under management, but this year it’s delivered more than double the 10% return target it promised investors. Instead, they’ve received 24%. In March, when Covid-19 triggered a global selloff across markets, Volt had a positive return of 12%.
Supreme Court Hands Hedge Fund Loss, Rules Puerto Rico Financial Oversight Board is Legal (CNBC)
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled unanimously that appointments to Puerto Rico’s financial oversight board were lawful, finding that its members exercise “primarily local powers” and therefore do not require confirmation by the Senate under the Constitution. The case was brought by a hedge fund run by the investor Marc Brodsky and a local Puerto Rico labor union whose arguments that Puerto Rico’s financial oversight board was improperly constituted threatened to disrupt more than $100 billion in debt restructuring proceedings that the panel has carried out since it was established in 2016.
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Prevatt Capital Looks for Moats (Opalesque.com)
A new hedge fund from SAC Capital alum Jonathan Tepper is on the hunt for monopolies. The long-only strategy, which launched in this month, looks for high-quality companies that have dominance in their industries as monopolies, duopolies, or oligopolies. The fund runs a concentrated portfolio of under twenty long-term positions but may make opportunistic bets as market conditions warrant. According to Tepper, the companies that make the best investments have significant barriers to entry as they are the most likely to withstand the age of disruption. These funds typically have few real competitors, run asset-light businesses, and have consistent free cash flow.
Coronavirus Cures Terminally Ill Hedge Fund (Deal Breaker)
Just a few years ago, Alan Howard brought his terminally ailing hedge fund home. Shorn of its Brevan and left only in Howard’s care by the apparently-not-especially-restorative-regardless-of-tax-advantages shores of Lake Geneva, the firm that once made Howard the richest hedge fund manager in Britain was at death’s door. But, somewhat miraculously, Brevan Howard did not die. And re-transplanted to its native soil, and now breathing the especially free air of Blighty, it is not merely surviving but thriving.
Hedge-Fund Boss Crispin Odey is Famous for His Bearish Bets. Here are 10 of His Best Quotes on Investing. (Business Insider)
British hedge-fund chief Crispin Odey is one of Europe’s best-known investors. The founder of London-based Odey Asset Management reportedly made a substantial £115 million ($142 million) in just three weeks in March during the COVID-19 outbreak, as his fund’s signature bearish stance paid off. He is best known for his pessimistic bets on the economy, and for making £110 million by shorting the pound in the run up to Britain’s referendum to exit the European Union in 2016.
Why Did Bill Ackman Unload His Berkshire Stake? (AI-CIO.com)
Why has Bill Ackman dumped Warren Buffett? Specifically, the hedge fund impresario has sold all his holdings in Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate that investing guru Buffett runs. Perhaps the answer is that Berkshire, which trails the market, lacks the get-up-and-go that Ackman wants to see in a stock. Perhaps Ackman doesn’t like what he sees in the Buffett portfolio, such as limited exposure to health stocks. Perhaps Buffett is simply too stodgy for the much-younger Ackman, who claims to adore the legendary investor.
OPM Closes a FoHFs To Sharpen ESG Focus (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – OPM Multi Hedge, one of the three funds of hedge funds at Swedish alternative asset manager Optimized Portfolio Management (OPM), is in the process of closing down. Launched in mid-2018, OPM Multi Hedge maintained a portfolio of international UCITS-regulated hedge funds expected to exhibit low long-term correlation with equity markets. “We have seen less demand for traditional funds of hedge funds over many years,” fund manager Simon Reinius (pictured) tells HedgeNordic. “Instead, we see increased demand from institutions for our OPM Vega fund, an ESG-focused fund of hedge funds,” he adds. “ESG/Sustainability together with low equity beta is now our full focus within funds of hedge funds.”
Big Hedge Fund Sold Intel and Microsoft Stock. Here Are the 2 Bank Stocks It Bought. (Barron’s)
Brazilian hedge fund Adam Capital Gestão de Recursos owns large investments in only a few U.S.-traded stocks, but it made some major trades in the first quarter, a period when the coronavirus pandemic caused market volatility. The fund slashed investments in Intel (ticker: INTC) and Microsoft stock (MSFT), and dramatically increased stakes in JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America stock (BAC). Adam Capital disclosed the stock trades, among others, in a form it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Monday 6/1 Insider Buying Report: CFR, FIF (Nasdaq.com)
On Friday, Cullen/Frost Bankers’s Director, Samuel G. Dawson, made a $99,857 purchase of CFR, buying 1,306 shares at a cost of $76.46 a piece. Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. is trading up about 0.1% on the day Monday. And on Wednesday, James Murchie bought $71,522 worth of First Trust Energy Infrastructure Fund, buying 6,500 shares at a cost of $11.00 each. First Trust Energy Infrastructure Fund is trading up about 0.7% on the day Monday.
Notable Insider Buys: Avis, Dynavax And Formula One (Benzinga)
Here are some of the most noteworthy insider purchases reported in the past week. Formula One Group: Liberty Media Formula One (FWONA) saw 10% owner Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) add nearly 3.17 million shares of this motorsport company to its stake. At per-share prices ranging from $33.07 to $37.05, that totaled almost $112.42 million. Avis Budget: Beneficial owner SRS Investment Management purchased almost 500,000 Avis Budget Group Inc. (CAR) shares of this New Jersey-based company last week. Share prices ranged from $18.57 to $20.59 apiece, and the total for these transactions was more than $9.88 million.
Insider Buying at Carrier, Greenbrier and Zion (Guru Focus)
Three CEOs took million-dollar bites of their own cooking in May. At Carrier Global Corp. (NYSE:CARR), which makes heating and air conditioning equipment, Chief Executive David Gitlin spent just over $1 million to increase his stake. At Greenbrier Companies Inc. (NYSE:GBX), which manufactures rail cars, a trust connected with CEO William Furman added 100,000 shares to the 240,096 shares it already owned. The trust paid $1.65 million. And at Zions Bancorp NA (NASDAQ:ZION), a bank with headquarters in Salt Lake City, CEO Harris Simmons spent $1.05 million to add to his hoard of shares.
The Corp. VP – Marketing of Vicor (NASDAQ: VICR) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the Corp. VP – Marketing of Vicor (VICR), GENDRON ROBERT, sold shares of VICR for $141.7K. Following GENDRON ROBERT’s last VICR Sell transaction on May 05, 2020, the stock climbed by 8.2%. In addition to GENDRON ROBERT, 8 other VICR executives reported Sell trades in the last month.
