Hedge Fund and Insider Trading News: Paul Marshall, Chris Rokos, D. E. Shaw, Mondrian Investment Partners, AQR Capital Management, Morgan Creek Digital, Diameter Capital Partners, Lovesac Co (LOVE), Better Therapeutics, Inc. (BTTR), and More

D. E. Shaw Expands in India as Other US Hedge Funds Ramp Up Hiring (Reuters)
U.S. hedge fund heavyweight D. E. Shaw is opening two offices in India, the company said on Tuesday, joining rivals Millennium and AQR Capital Management which are also expanding in the country. D.E. Shaw, which manages more than $60 billion, is opening offices in the cities of Bengaluru and Gurugram, adding over 300 employees in total, Eddie Fishman, a member of D. E. Shaw’s executive committee, said in a statement.

Hedge Fund Titan Marshall Warns Real Estate Is Next Shoe to Drop (Bloomberg)
Commercial real estate could face the next crisis of confidence after last month’s jitters in the banking system, according to Paul Marshall, who leads one of the world’s biggest hedge fund firms. While the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was swiftly contained, it has pushed lenders into “self preservation mode,” the Marshall Wace founder said in a letter to investors this month, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg.

How Some City Hedge Funds Outpaced Bigger Rivals as Banking Crisis Hit (Financial News)
London-based hedge funds posted mixed returns in the first quarter with bigger firms particularly battling in the wake of the banking crisis and volatile bond markets. Chris Rokos’ £15.5bn macro hedge fund fell by more than 11% through 24 March after its bets on US government bonds went wrong, a source familiar with the matter told Financial News. City hedge fund Marshall Wace, which manages $61bn in assets, saw its flagship Eureka fund losing roughly 1% through 31 March, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

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Crypto Bull Market Officially Coming, According to Morgan Creek’s Mark Yusko – Here’s His Timeline (The Daily Hodl)
The founder and CEO of crypto hedge fund Morgan Creek Digital, Mark Yusko, believes that a bull market is a couple of weeks away from starting. In a new Blockworks Macro interview, Yusko says that “crypto summer” will formally kick off early next month. “I’m officially declaring three weeks from Tuesday [April 18th], this coming Tuesday, is the official start of crypto summer. That also happens to be my birthday, but that’s going to be the official start of crypto summer.”

EUR/CHF Forex Trend Following trade Idea: How to Play the Long Term Trend Accelerating Lower (FX Street)
According to AQR the quantitative hedge fund and Yale University, over the past 100 years markets moved in trends. Trends are successive upwards and downwards movements in price that occur at a greater frequency than would be predicted by randomness alone. The following trade idea is a trend following trade idea which takes the assumption that the market will continue moving in the way it has over the previous sessions. Trend Trading, however is different than scalping due to the time horizon of the trade as trend following trades will take a week while scalping is done on a daily or intraday basis.

Mondrian Joins Investor Critics of Italy’s Enel Board Shake-Up (Reuters)
Mondrian Investment Partners, which holds 1.7% of Enel (ENEI.MI) shares, added its voice on Tuesday to shareholder criticism over the process of renewing the board of Italy’s biggest utility. The Italian government, which controls Enel with a stake of nearly 24%, last week said it would oust Francesco Starace, who has been the utility’s chief executive since 2014. “We have been extremely disappointed by the complete lack of transparency around the nomination process and criteria, as well as by the absence of engagement on behalf of the Italian government despite our best efforts to initiate a constructive dialogue,” Mondrian said in a statement.

Diameter Capital Partners Closes $2.2 Billion Dislocation Fund II at Hard Cap (Buffalo News)
Diameter Capital Partners LP (“Diameter”), a New York-based alternative asset manager focused on the global credit markets, today announced the final close of Diameter Dislocation Fund II (“DDF II”) at the hard cap with $2.2 billion of capital commitments. DDF II received significant support from current Diameter clients and new institutional relationships, with approximately 50% of commitments coming from first-time Diameter investors. The closed-end drawdown fund will invest globally across sectors and focus on dislocated performing credit, stressed and distressed investments emerging from either micro-cyclical dislocations or broader macro challenges. The strategy leverages Diameter’s dynamic approach with top-down portfolio management and bottom-up position construction. Consistent with Diameter’s investment process, DDF II will benefit from Diameter’s combination of research and trading to capitalize quickly on dislocation opportunities. To date, Diameter has called 35% of DDF II’s committed capital.

Hedge Funds are Betting Stocks will Fall (The Irish Times)
Hedge funds and large speculators are betting 2023′s market gains are unsustainable. Bearish bets, as evidenced by Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data, have hit levels unseen since late 2011. That sounds ominous, but such pessimism is potentially bullish for stocks. When positioning gets lopsided, unexpectedly good news – for example, positive economic data or strong earnings – could result in a short squeeze, with bearish traders scrambling to get out of losing bets.

The Odyssey Acceleration Program for Web3 Startups Initiates, Launched by Gotbit Hedge Fund (GlobeNewswire.com)
On the 10th of April, Gotbit Hedge Fund announced the launch of a new accelerator program called Odyssey. The two-month initiative, which is designed to boost any project looking to build solutions for DeFi and Web3 infrastructure, will focus on delivering comprehensive business education individually for each participating startup. Odyssey is seeking to accelerate early-stage (seed or private) blockchain technology companies as well as private entities raising capital in their token or equity sales. In the first phase, the number of competitive projects surpassed 200 and only the cohort of 9 Web3’s rising stars were accepted to the program: Arcana, DeFiHelper, Farm xyz, Firepot Finance, Interest Protocol, Kinetex Network, Movement, Stable Battle, and Trait Swap.

Tuesday 4/18 Insider Buying Report: LOVE, JOAN (Nasdaq.com)
On Friday, Lovesac’s Director, Sharon M. Leite, made a $142,750 buy of LOVE, purchasing 5,000 shares at a cost of $28.55 a piece. Leite was up about 8.4% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with LOVE trading as high as $30.93 in trading on Tuesday. Lovesac is trading up about 4.4% on the day Tuesday. This purchase marks the first one filed by Leite in the past twelve months. And also on Friday, EVP, Chief Financial Officer Scott Sekella purchased $44,043 worth of JOANN, purchasing 27,700 shares at a cost of $1.59 a piece. This buy marks the first one filed by Sekella in the past year. JOANN is trading up about 4.5% on the day Tuesday. Sekella was up about 3.8% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with JOAN trading as high as $1.65 in trading on Tuesday.

More Than $4M Bet On Better Therapeutics? Check Out These 4 Penny Stocks Insiders Are Aggressively Buying (Benzinga)
Better Therapeutics: The Trade: Better Therapeutics, Inc. (BTTR) 10% owner David P. Perry 2015 Trust acquired a total 4,969,697 shares an average price of $0.82. To acquire these shares, it cost around $4.1 million. The company’s other Directors also purchased the company’s shares. NN: The Trade: NN, Inc. (NNBR) 10% owner Hjalmar Eric Soderlund acquired a total of 171,325 shares at an average price of $1.06. The insider spent around $182.11 thousand to buy those shares.