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Reuters blog archive
from Unstructured Finance:
Daniel Loeb surfing to the top of the hedge fund charts again
Something must be in the water over at 399 Park Avenue, where Daniel Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point is headquartered. His Third Point Ultra fund has already gained 12.42 percent this year through the 13th of March, according to data from HSBC’s Private Bank.
The portfolio added 3.3 percent alone between March 1 and March 13. By comparison, hedge funds have returned about 4 percent year-to-date, according to HSBC.
The roughly $1.7 billion Ultra portfolio is a levered version of the firm’s flagship Offshore fund, which manages about $5.7 billion and has gained 8.5 percent over the same period.
It will be more useful to check in again at the end of the month to see where Ultra’s returns are but we thought the gains were worth pointing out because the fund is among the Top 10 performers in HSBC’s HedgeWeekly report again after finishing in the Top 10 last year.
from Unstructured Finance:
Hedge fund scorecard 2012: Mortgage masters win, Paulson on bottom again
Mortgage funds roared home with returns of almost 19 percent last year, trouncing all other hedge fund strategies and beating the S&P 500 stock index, which rose 13 percent.
BTG Pactual's $245.5 million Distressed Mortgage Fund, which invests primarily in distressed non-agency Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS), returned about 46 percent for the year, putting it at the top of HSBC Private Bank's list of the Top 20 performing hedge funds and making it one of 2012's best performing funds. Bear in mind the the average hedge fund gained only 6 percent last year.
from Unstructured Finance:
Daniel Loeb goes long Chesapeake bonds; leaves activism to others
Daniel Loeb, who runs $8.7 billion at his hedge fund Third Point, has been an opportunistic buyer in the bonds of Chesapeake Energy, the embattled natural gas producer, according to sources familiar with the matter.
But Loeb, known to rattle the cages of companies for years (see: war with Yahoo), isn’t piggybacking on Carl Icahn’s or O. Mason Hawkins’s activist role in Chesapeake, demanding changes in management or the overhaul of its business practices. Indeed, all the elements are there for a veteran agitator like Loeb, as Chesapeake has been embroiled in scandal over a controversial investment program involving CEO Aubrey McClendon.
from Unstructured Finance:
The hedge fund world’s version Elvis plays cupid
You know Bill Ackman as a hedge fund rabble rouser, but did you know on the side he likes to play cupid. Here's Svea Herbst-Bayliss with a post on the Pershing Square Capital manager's softer side:
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
Bill Ackman is known as many things: investor, corporate nudge and quick-talking television pundit. But matchmaker?
from Global Investing:
Three snapshots for Monday
China's trade balance plunged $31.5 billion into the red in February as imports swamped exports. It followed reports on Friday that inflation cooled in February while retail sales and industrial output fell below forecast, all pointing to a gradual cooling.
Investors ploughed more money into hedge funds over the past month as performance has picked up after last year's losses.
from Unstructured Finance:
SAC Capital: a look back in time
By Matthew Goldstein
The full year numbers aren't in, but it appears Steve Cohen's SAC Capital had a pretty good year--especially compared to most other long/short equity hedge funds which lost money. But how does this year's 8% gain stack-up against other strong years posted by the Stamford, Conn. hedge fund?
As we reported previously on UF, a good chunk of SAC Capital's trading prowess in 2011 is being credited by sources to a single team led by Gabe Plotkin. His $1.2 billion book is one of the largest at SAC Capital and has generated between $150 million and $200 million in profits.
from Unstructured Finance:
The guy who is killing it at SAC Capital
By Matthew Goldstein
Move over Steve Cohen. The trader who is killing it at Cohen's $14 billion SAC Capital Advisors this year is Gabriel Plotkin.
The portfolio manager, who specializes in consumer products and the gaming and lodging industry, is one of the top producers this year at Cohen's hedge fund, say several people familiar with the Stamford, Conn. hedge fund. Plotkin, who joined SAC Capital in late 2006 from North Sound Capital, is emerging as on Cohen's most reliable money men.
from Unstructured Finance:
John Thaler’s JAT thaws some more in December
By Katya Wachtel
John Thaler's hedge fund, JAT Capital, had a meteoric rise through much of 2011, generating a 38 percent return at its peak in early September. Since then, Shumway Capital alum has ebbed, though he's still beating a ton of his competitors.
Through December 16, JAT fell 1.2 percent, according to an investor.
The fund remains up 14 percent year-to-date though, and given the average hedge fund was down about 4.4 percent through November, JAT investors have something to smile about. Though they have less to smile about than they did a few months ago.
from Unstructured Finance:
Stevie Cohen Unplugged
By Jennifer Ablan
Steven A. Cohen, one of the world's most successful and secretive billionaire hedge fund managers, shared some of his thinking on insider trading, something his worst critics have alleged SAC Capital knows a thing or two about.
Cohen in sworn deposition testimony earlier this year, an extended excerpt of which was obtained by my prolific colleague and partner-in-crime Matthew Goldstein, said: "The way I understand the rules on trading on inside information, it's very vague."
from Unstructured Finance:
Phil Falcone’s ray of sunshine
By Matthew Goldstein
Leave it to Phil Falcone to find a glimmer of good news to relay to the beleaguered investors in his Harbinger Capital Partners. A day after U.S. securities regulators threatened to sanction the billionaire hedge fund manger for alleged trading irregularities, Falcone told investors in his roughly $4 billion firm that not all is lost.
In a note emailed to investors the day after Falcone officially learned the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is considering charging him with a number of securities law violations, the former Harvard hockey star told them that nothing the SEC is looking at involves his beloved LightSquared.
