How Jim Simons Built the World’s Most Lucrative Black Box (Bloomberg)
Anyone looking to learn how a quant fund conquered the financial world should go out and buy Greg Zuckerman’s “The Man Who Solved the Market” when it’s released next week. Zuckerman provides the closest thing readers may ever get to a definitive account of how Jim Simons, a mathematics prodigy turned code-breaking savant, built Renaissance Technologies into the greatest money-making machine in Wall Street history.
David Stein Carved Out a Career Managing billions Learning Directly from Seth Klarman. He Shares his Strategy for Spotting Profitable Investments with a ‘High Degree of Predictability.’ (Business Insider)
David Stein, the former chief investment strategist and chief portfolio strategist at Fund Evaluation Group – a $70 billion investment advisory firm – homed in on his investment strategy under the influence of the billionaire investor Seth Klarman. He advocates focusing on the drivers of returns – dividend yield, earnings growth, and emotion – to make the investment landscape less wishy-washy.
BNP’s $300 Billion Hedge Fund Gamble (The Washington Post)
It’s rare for a European bank to be adding businesses nowadays, as capital constraints curtail dealmaking. The takeover of Deutsche Bank AG’s hedge fund activities by France’s BNP Paribas SA is an exception. There’s no mistaking what’s driving BNP: Absorbing a larger competitor with a chunky client base is one way to try to salvage its own ailing hedge fund division, and to stop its rivals from snapping up Deutsche’s clients themselves. Yet the French bank’s struggles in this business beg the question as to how easily the two units can be combined, let alone expanded.
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Top Hedge Fund Manager Warns Quant Funds are Becoming Utilities (eFinancialCareers.com)
If you’re a quant who aspires to work on the buy-side today, you might be tempted by the big money on offer at big funds like Bridgewater or aspire to work for a niche fund like BlueCove. If so, you may want to move soon. One of the UK’s top quant fund managers says quant funds now have such high costs that they’re in danger of changing into utilities. Speaking at today’s Quant Conference in London, Cantab founder and chief investment officer Ewan Kirk said it’s becoming very difficult to set up a new quant fund due to the elevated costs associated with the industry.
A Former Omega Employee Defends Leon Cooperman Against Elizabeth Warren: ‘She has Dehumanized an Admirable Human Being’ (CNBC)
My lawyer friends often warn me never to ask a question to which I don’t know the answer. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, despite her tenure as a Harvard Law School professor, needs to remember that advice. Her recent tweet to billionaire investor Leon Cooperman – “Leon, you were able to succeed because of the opportunities this country gave you. Now why don’t you pitch in a bit more so everyone else has a chance at the American dream, too?” – proves the point. More worrisome, her heated rhetoric ignores the bottomless generosity of one of America’s greatest investors.
Baker Brothers Make $1.4 Billion in Two Weeks on Biotech (Bloomberg)
Even in the volatile world of biotech, Baker Bros. Advisors has notched some extraordinary returns in the past two weeks. On October 21, Seattle Genetics Inc. added $2.1 billion to its market capitalization after a study showed one of its therapies slowed the spread of breast cancer, including for patients whose disease had metastasized to the brain. Then on Friday in Hong Kong, BeiGene Ltd. gained 32% after Amgen Inc. said it would take a $2.7 billion minority stake in the Chinese-American drug developer.
P&G Shareholder Sells $267M in Stock (BizJournals.com)
Procter & Gamble Co. director Nelson Peltz, the activist investor who is CEO of Trian Fund Management, sold more than 2.1 million shares of P&G stock on behalf of his hedge fund over the last three days for a total of nearly $267 million. A spokeswoman for Peltz, who last year joined the board of the Cincinnati-based maker of consumer goods such as Tide detergent (NYSE: PG), said he remains focused on long-term P&G shareholder value. A Procter & Gamble spokesman declined to comment.
Citi Government Bond Trader Latest to Join Millennium (eFinancialCareers.com)
A government bond trader who left Citi three months ago has become the latest person to join hedge fund Millennium Capital Management in London. We reported the resignation of Jorge Deza Neira, a managing director on Citi’s European government bond trading desk, in July. Neira has just turned up at hedge fund Millennium Capital Management, according to his LinkedIn profile. Neira spent seven years at Citi in London after beginning his career at Santander Global Markets in Madrid for six years.
OZY Media Raises $35 million (Axios.com)
OZY Media, a media and entertainment company led by Carlos Watson, said Friday that it’s raised $35 million in new venture capital funding. The bottom line: OZY originally launched as a digital magazine for the “change generation,” but has moved its focus toward TV production, podcasts, and live events. OZY’s new funding round was led by Marc Lasry, a hedge fund manager and co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. Lasry also will join OZY’s board of directors.
Hedge Fund Software Market In-Depth Analysis Report 2019| Eze Software , Northstar Risk , VestServe (UncoveringNews.com)
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