Ray Dalio Reveals the ‘Most Important Thing You Need to Do’ to be a Successful Investor (CNBC)
If you are going to take investing advice from anybody, Ray Dalio is a good bet. Dalio founded investment firm Bridgewater Associates out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York City in 1975. Currently, Bridgewater Associates has $160 billion in assets under management, making it the largest hedge fund in the world. According to Dalio, “diversifying well is the most important thing you need to do in order to invest well,” he wrote on LinkedIn on Monday.
US Backed Hedge Fund Set to Invest $7 million into South African Cryptocurrency Exchange (Issuewire.com)
South African born cryptocurrency exchange KRYPTORO has secured $7 million in its seed round. Major international investors apparently include blockchain-focused venture capital fund The Proof of Capital Group and an undisclosed Major USA based blockchain hedge fund among others. In a leaked paper on a crypto insider blog, both companies revealed that it had invested in KRYPTORO, a tech startup offering both simple and advanced crypto assets trading, a native utility token and soon to be launched over-the-counter trading services. Consensus, blockchain-based capital market FBG, and crypto hedge fund Galois Capital also provided substantial funding.
Alex Oakenman / shutterstock.com
Crayhill Capital Management Closes $100M Transportation Financing in Mexico (Opalesque.com)
Private credit shop Crayhill Capital Management is providing a senior secured credit facility of up to $100 million to Mutuo Financiera, a vehicle fleet leasing company focused on clean energy passenger transportation in Mexico. Crayhill Capital Management is led by Joshua Eaton and Carlos Mendez, who were previously with hedge fund firm Magnetar Capital. Mutuo promotes the use of cleaner and cost-efficient energies, such as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), which can be used to operate vehicles. Mutuo Financiera is working with Middlemarch Partners on its growth and capital strategy. Middlemarch arranged the credit facility with Crayhill. The financing will be used for the acquisition of new compressed natural-gas vehicles to be leased to commercial and passenger transportation fleets across Mexico.
Who Is This ‘Dan Och’ You Speak Of? (Deal Breaker)
Once upon a time, Och-Ziff Capital Management was the largest publicly-traded hedge fund in the world and a giant in the industry. But after some African unpleasantness, massive losses and even more massive consequent redemptions, the name had lost a bit of luster, and in the aftermath, although he successfully steered the firm away from oblivion, Dan Och did nothing to endear his name to those who would inherit his namesake. And so, now with no Och and no Ziffs (or, at least, less Ziff), Och-Ziff is not gonna be Och-Ziff anymore.
A Hedge Fund, a Bond Default and a College’s Fight to Survive (Bloomberg)
The fate of a Florida college founded by a black civil rights activist may be in the hands of a California hedge fund. That’s because Lapis Advisers, a distressed debt investor, is the biggest single holder of about $17 million of bonds sold by Bethune-Cookman University, a 115-year-old school in Daytona Beach contending with mounting losses, declining enrollment and a troubled dormitory project whose soaring costs led to a court fight over allegations of fraud.
Argentina Market Rout Pummels Brazilian Hedge Fund (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A Brazilian hedge fund was among the casualties of Monday’s market rout on Argentine assets, with at least 75 percent of its equity exposure suffering losses between 25% and 59%. Newfoundland Capital Management, based in Sao Paulo, was hit with a loss on paper of around $55 million, as its bets on four Argentine companies in agribusiness, natural gas, energy distribution and telecommunications imploded.
Hedge Fund Managers Recorded Another Positive Month in July Following Strong H1 Performance (Hedge Week)
The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index was up 0.69 per cent in July bringing their year-to-date return to 6.56 per cent as global equity markets edged higher following expectations over a Fed rate cut. The MSCI ACWI (Local) was up 0.83 per cent in July and 15.33 per cent as of July 2019 year-to-date supported by the gains in developed market equities and bonds over the month. The MSCI ACWI (Local) ended the month up 0.83 per cent with US equities outperforming other markets. On the other hand, the trade dispute between Japan and South Korea, together with lacklustre economic data in India pushed Asian equities lower.
Hedge Funds are Encouraged to Jump on the ESG Bandwagon (Opalesque.com)
How much sense does it make for a hedge fund manager to apply environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in its investments? It does make a lot of sense on two main counts: pressure from large and small asset owners, and positive performance. Then there’s also a moral imperative. Today, hedge funds still lag long-only funds in doing so. But many are about to launch their own ESG-compatible products, says Franz Odematt, senior portfolio manager at Crossbow Partners. Why should they, if that could affect their returns and investment styles? Well, he says, recent studies suggest that investors do not underperform over the long-term if they systematically apply ESG criteria to their investment process. So one should not fear underperformance.
MAS Issues Prohibition Orders to 3 Traders Jailed for Insider Trading (ChannelNewsAsia.com)
SINGAPORE: Three traders who were earlier convicted of insider trading have been given prohibition orders by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). E Seck Peng Simon and Leong Chee Wai are banned from performing any regulated activity under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) for 15 years, MAS said in a media release on Wednesday (Aug 14). Toh Chew Leong was given a ban of 13 years.
Wednesday 8/14 Insider Buying Report: RHP, SPB (Nasdaq.com)
On Friday, Ryman Hospitality Properties (RHP)’s CEO, Colin V. Reed, made a $1.08M purchase of RHP, buying 13,585 shares at a cost of $79.30 each. So far Reed is in the green, up about 1.6% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $80.54. Ryman Hospitality Properties is trading off about 2.6% on the day Wednesday. Before this latest buy, Reed purchased RHP on 2 other occasions during the past year, for a total investment of $1.49M at an average of $77.94 per share. And at Spectrum Brands Holdings (SPB), there was insider buying on Friday, by CEO David M. Maura who bought 20,000 shares at a cost of $50.42 each, for a trade totaling $1.01M. Spectrum Brands Holdings is trading down about 2.8% on the day Wednesday. Bargain hunters can bag SPB even cheaper than Maura did, with the stock trading as low as $48.30 at last check today which is 4.2% under Maura’s purchase price.
Case of the Week: What’s a 10b5-1 Plan? (Napa-net.org)
CASE OF THE WEEK: The ERISA consultants at the Retirement Learning Center Resource regularly receive calls from financial advisors on a broad array of technical topics related to IRAs, qualified retirement plans and other types of retirement savings plans. We bring Case of the Week to you to highlight the most relevant topics affecting your business. A recent call with a financial advisor from Kansas is representative of a common inquiry related to trading securities. The advisor asked: “Is a 10b5-1 plan a type of qualified retirement plan?” Highlights of the Discussion: No, it is not a “qualified plan” in the sense of a 401(k) or profit sharing plan, which meet the requirements for favorable tax treatment under Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a). A 10b5-1 plan is a buy/sell agreement for securities that meets the requirements of the Securities Exchange Commission’s Rule 10b5-1 related to insider trading.
A Director at Intrepid Potash (NYSE: IPI) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, a Director at Intrepid Potash (IPI), Hugh Harvey, bought shares of IPI for $64.5K. Following Hugh Harvey’s last IPI Buy transaction on March 23, 2017, the stock climbed by 1.6%. Based on Intrepid Potash’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending June 30, the company posted quarterly revenue of $62.51 million and quarterly net profit of $5.61 million. In comparison, last year the company earned revenue of $51.01 million and had a GAAP net loss of $958K.
