Point72, Balyasny Led Decline Among Big Multi-Strategy Funds (Bloomberg)
Billionaire Steve Cohen led losses among his biggest multistrategy hedge fund peers last month as sweeping market shifts blindsided investment managers. Cohen’s $15 billion Point72 Asset Management fell about 2%, trimming gains this year through September to more than 10%, according to people familiar with the matter. Balyasny Asset Management lost 1.4% in the month, paring year-to-date performance to about 9%. Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management fell 0.5% in the U.S. version of its main vehicle, while Ken Griffin’s $32 billion Citadel lost 0.2% in its flagship fund, trimming returns for 2019 to about 6.5% and 14%, respectively.
Billionaire Ken Fisher’s Firm Loses Nearly $1 Billion After Crass Remarks—And Much More Is On The Line (Forbes)
Billionaire Ken Fisher’s money management firm has been fired by three clients, representing over $900 million in client assets, since the CEO’s crass remarks at an exclusive industry conference on October 8. The City of Boston’s retirement board is the latest to say it is ending its relationship with Fisher Investments after a unanimous vote on Wednesday resulted in Fisher losing the $253 million it managed for the city’s pension fund.
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Ray Dalio Says the World is in a ‘Great Sag’ and Echoes the 1930s (CNBC)
Hedge fund owner Ray Dalio said the global business cycle is in a “great sag” and the world’s economy holds at least two parallels to the 1930s. Speaking a CNBC-moderated panel at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, Dalio said it was now too late for central banks to make much difference as economies enter a natural downturn.
Preqin Quarterly Update: Hedge Funds, Q3 2019 (Preqin.com)
Intensifying fears of a market correction mean hedge fund managers and investors are putting plans on hold. The number of both fund launches and fund searches almost halved in Q3 compared to Q2. Hedge funds may have gained a modest return of +2.14% over the 12 months to September, but the asset class continues to help ease market bumps caused by political turbulence, recording comparably lower volatility than equity markets, which have suffered huge swings in recent quarters. CTAs and macro strategies in particular reduce correlation to equity markets, and these strategies have the best six-month returns to September, rewarding investors that have positioned more defensively in response to deepening political tensions.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway lost a Longtime Investor Who Complained ‘Thumb-Sucking Has Not Cut the Heinz Mustard’ (Business Insider)
A longtime shareholder in Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway has sold his stake and published a laundry list of complaints about the legendary investor and his conglomerate. David Rolfe, the investing chief of Wedgewood Partners, dumped his stock after more than 20 years, according to his third-quarter letter to clients. He blamed Buffett’s failure to capitalize on gains in several stocks, bad investments, and reluctance to deploy his vast pile of cash.
What Makes Japanese Hotelier Unizo Attractive for Blackstone and Elliott? (Reuters)
TOKYO (Reuters) – Little-known hotelier Unizo Holdings Co Ltd. (3258.T) has found itself the center of private equity attention, with global names vying for the opportunity to buy into Japan’s property market on the cheap. However, the rare-for-Japan takeover approach which sparked interest in Unizo has left the hotelier fighting off suitors both hostile and friendly, in an unprecedented manner that has made it a test case for government efforts to attract foreign investors via improved corporate governance and transparency.
Pershing Square Is A 75-Cent Dollar Primed To Grow (Seeking Alpha)
Pershing Square Holdings is an under-followed and over-looked closed-end fund trading at a 25% discount to NAV. Management is capable, shareholder friendly, and has skin in the game. Bill Ackman has compounded capital at 14%, net of fees, since 2004. I estimate Pershing Square Holdings could compound at a mid-teens annual rate over the next five years.
$1 Billion Pulled From Hong Kong Hedge Funds, Most Since 2009 (Bloomberg)
Hong Kong’s hedge fund industry saw its biggest quarterly outflow since the global recession a decade ago, a shift that may deepen concern about investor sentiment in the protest-wracked financial hub. Net redemptions totaled about $1 billion in the three months ended September, the most since the second quarter of 2009, according to data compiled by Eurekahedge Pte.
Emerging Managers Summit: Inside the Vortex – Trends and Influences Shaping the Emerging Hedge Fund Space (Hedge Week)
Given the current market uncertainty, start-up and emerging hedge fund managers must be clever in their choices when bringing a fund to market in 2020 and beyond. And this November, the inaugural Hedgeweek Emerging Manager Summit will provide a forum for managers to explore the challenges and opportunities they must consider en route to a successful launch… Start-up and emerging managers face an uphill battle to establish and differentiate themselves in such a competitive market space. There are many opportunities that emerging managers can take advantage of when first starting out on their journey. However, having an awareness of the challenges and pitfalls that can befall fund managers at the beginning of a fund’s lifecycle is essential.
The M&A Lawyer, a Custody Fight and French Insider-Trading Raids (Bloomberg Law)
Mondays are never easy. But there’s one Monday morning Patrick Jaïs has been trying to erase from his memory — or at least from legal existence — for half a decade. On a sunny morning in March 2014, French investigators stormed his Neuilly-sur-Seine home west of Paris. The officers rifled through his and his wife’s mobile phones as well as his personal laptop in a raid meant to shed light on insider-trading suspicions linked to a longtime friend’s activities.
SEBI Lets Off the ‘Tipper’ in Crisil Insider-Trading Case (TheHinduBusinessLine.com)
Market regulator says case has been settled with person who used the info to trade. In a rare instance, SEBI, in an order, chose not to hold guilty a person who passed insider-trading information, saying that it had settled the same case with the person who traded using the insider information. Simply put, SEBI order with regard to insider-trading in Crisil shares took a view that it will not punish the ‘tipper’ of insider information as it had settled the case with the ‘person who used the tip to trade.’
Facebook Inc (FB) COB and CEO Mark Zuckerberg Sold $1.4 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
COB and CEO of Facebook Inc., Mark Zuckerberg, sold 7,500 shares of FB on 10/15/2019 at an average price of $188.32 a share. The total sale was $1.4 million. Facebook Inc is the world’s largest online social network. Its products are Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Oculus. Its products enable people to connect and share through mobile devices and personal computers. Facebook Inc has a market cap of $540.78 billion; its shares were traded at around $189.55 with a P/E ratio of 32.13 and P/S ratio of 8.73. Facebook Inc had annual average EBITDA growth of 48.30% over the past five years.
A Wave of Insider Buying is Washing Over the Cannabis Sector (CantechLetter.com)
A rash of insider buying in the cannabis sector should be taken as a boost of confidence for the slumping pot sector, say analysts at Beacon Securities. In a note to clients on Tuesday, Beacon analysts point to recent buying activity from C-Suite executives from companies such as Acreage Holdings (CSE:ACRG.U), iAnthus Capital Holdings (CSE:IAN) and Aurora Cannabis (TSX:ACB).
Hubspot Inc (HUBS) CEO Brian Halligan Sold $1.4 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO of Hubspot Inc., Brian Halligan, sold 8,500 shares of HUBS on 10/15/2019 at an average price of $164.48 a share. The total sale was $1.4 million. HubSpot Inc provides a cloud-based inbound marketing and sales platform which features integrated applications to help businesses attract visitors to websites, convert visitors into leads, close leads into customers and delight customers. HubSpot Inc has a market cap of $6.89 billion; its shares were traded at around $162.10 with and P/S ratio of 11.04.
18 Traders Charged in $31 Million Stock Manipulation Scheme (HedgeCo.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed an emergency action and obtained an asset freeze against 18 traders in a scheme to manipulate more than 3,000 U.S.-listed securities for over $31 million in illicit profits. The SEC alleges that the traders, who are primarily based in China, manipulated the prices of thousands of thinly traded securities by creating the false appearance of trading interest and activity in those stocks, thereby enabling them to reap illicit profits by artificially boosting or depressing stock prices. For example, according to the SEC’s complaint, the traders used multiple accounts to place several small sell orders to drive down a stock’s price before using a different set of accounts to buy larger amounts of the stock at the artificially low prices.
