Coatue, Ackman Invest in Trading-Focused Social Network Commonstock (Reuters)
Oct 5 (Reuters) – Commonstock, a social network platform for retail investors, said on Tuesday it had raised $25 million in a funding round led by hedge fund Coatue and from others including billionaire investor Bill Ackman and Hollywood power broker Ari Emanuel. The company, which lets users on its platform copy each others’ trades and discuss and rank investment strategies, did not disclose the valuation at which the funds were raised.
How Billionaire Ray Dalio Became Business Coach to Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs – and Tips from Dalio on Getting Your Own (CNBC)
Billionaire Ray Dalio believes in an old saying: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” That may explain how Dalio, a hedge fund tycoon with a net worth of $20 billion, according to Forbes, became a mentor to entrepreneur and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. The two met during a photoshoot for Forbes magazine’s list of “100 Greatest Living Business Minds” in 2017 when Combs approached Dalio and started asking him questions, Dalio tells CNBC Make It.
The Richest Hedge Fund Managers On The 2021 Forbes 400 List (Forbes)
The wealth of hedge fund billionaires on the Forbes 400 is the highest it has ever been, amid strong industry returns so far in 2021. It’s a good year to be a hedge fund billionaire. Today Forbes released the 2021 edition of The Forbes 400 list of the richest people in the United States, and the 25 wealthiest hedge funders are worth a combined $220 billion, up an impressive $35 billion from last year. In the first half of 2021, hedge funds returned an average of just over 10%—the strongest industry returns in more than two decades, according to an analysis by data and analytics firm Hedge Fund Research.
Hedge Fund Billionaire Ken Griffin Slams Crypto as a ‘Jihadist Call’ Against the Dollar – and Says Regulation will Oust Those Looking to Make a Quick Buck (Business Insider)
Citadel founder Ken Griffin has taken a swipe at crypto cheerleaders, saying their efforts are a “jihadist call” against the dollar. “I wish all this passion and energy that went to crypto was directed towards making the United States stronger,” the hedge fund billionaire said at the Economic Club of Chicago. “It’s a jihadist call that we don’t believe in the dollar,” he said Monday. “What a crazy concept this is, that we as a country embrace so many bright, young, talented people to come up with a replacement for our reserve currency.”
How “Explosive” Energy Prices are Fuelling a Quant Hedge Fund Surge (Hedge Week)
The “explosive” upward price movements in energy markets are helping power performance among machine-based hedge funds this year, as CTAs and trend-following strategies successfully lock onto strong price signals. The rally in energy prices have proven one of this year’s most reliable and enduring trends, according to David Gorton, founder and chief investment officer, DG Partners.
Andurand’s Hedge Fund Surges 50% Amid Commodities Boom (Bloomberg)
Oil trader Pierre Andurand’s hedge funds are having yet another banner year, with one of his money pools returning 50% even before a surge in September. The gains by his Andurand Commodities Discretionary Enhanced Fund, disclosed in a letter to investors this week and seen by Bloomberg, follow last year’s 154% advance. His older Andurand Commodities fund, which returned 68.6% last year, was up 25.7%.
Ken Griffin’s Citadel Flagship Hedge Fund Returns 8% in September During Market Sell-Off (CNBC)
The volatile September was a golden opportunity for billionaire investor Ken Griffin to shine as his main hedge fund crushed the market with outperformance. Citadel’s multistrategy flagship fund Wellington gained 7.8% in September, bringing its year-to-date performance to 18.5%, according to a person familiar with the returns.
Elliott Co-CEO Says Rising Rates Threaten Equities Bull Run (Bloomberg)
The co-head of activist investor Elliott Investment Management said rising interest rates and inflation threaten to put an end to an 18-month rally in equities that has rewarded investors across the board. Jonathan Pollock, Elliott co-chief executive officer, said low rates and ultra-accommodative monetary policy have buoyed the markets in recent years.
Notable Vizio Holding Insider Trades $8.8M In Company Stock (Benzinga)
William Baxter, Chief Technology Officer at Vizio Holding (NYSE:VZIO), made a large buy and sell of company shares on October 4, according to a new SEC filing. What Happened: A Form 4 filing from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission states that William Baxter exercised options to purchase 297,523 Vizio Holding shares at prices ranging from $2.00 to $2.89 per share for a total of $841,253 on October 4. They then sold their shares on multiple transactions in the open market. They sold at prices ranging from $21.07 to $21.23 to raise a total of $8,007,334 from the stock sale.
Social Network Commonstock Aims to Harness Retail Investor Energy and Verify ‘YOLO’ Trades (CNBC)
Commonstock is a relatively new social media platform dedicated to financial markets. It requires traders to link to their brokerage account to verify the investments they post about really happened. The San Francisco-based start-up announced a $25 million Series A funding round Tuesday. Hedge fund managers Bill Ackman, Dan Loeb and Stanley Druckenmiller are among Commonstock’s early strategic investors. “The ability for anybody to prove they own Tesla or Peloton by percentage, and show their skin in the game, weeds out a lot of the grifters who might say they had a 1,000% return,” says David McDonough, Commonstock’s founder and CEO.
Tuesday 10/5 Insider Buying Report: FPI, XXII (Nasdaq.com)
At Farmland Partners, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Thursday, Director John A. Good bought 5,825 shares of FPI, at a cost of $12.10 each, for a total investment of $70,482. Investors have the opportunity to snag FPI even cheaper than Good did, with the stock changing hands as low as $11.91 in trading on Tuesday which is 1.6% under Good’s purchase price. Farmland Partners is trading up about 0.2% on the day Tuesday. Before this latest buy, Good made one other buy in the past twelve months, purchasing $80,300 shares at a cost of $8.03 each. And at 22nd Century Group, there was insider buying on Thursday, by Chief Executive Officer James A. Mish who purchased 20,000 shares at a cost of $2.88 each, for a trade totaling $57,600. Before this latest buy, Mish made one other purchase in the past year, buying $48,450 shares for a cost of $3.23 a piece. 22nd Century Group is trading up about 2.6% on the day Tuesday. Mish was up about 12.2% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with XXII trading as high as $3.23 in trading on Tuesday.
The EC of Designer Brands (NYSE: DBI) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the EC of Designer Brands (DBI), Jay Schottenstein, bought shares of DBI for $2.76M. This recent transaction increases Jay Schottenstein’s holding in the company by 4.27% to a total of $69.94 million. Following Jay Schottenstein’s last DBI Buy transaction on September 20, 2021, the stock climbed by 1.2%.
