Unstructured Finance

Sometimes it seems that insider trading cases are all about hedge funds. After all, the overwhelming majority of the federal government’s multi-year crackdown on insider trading has netted dozens of traders and analysts working in the $2.25 trillion hedge fund industry.

But this week’s escapades involving a former top audit partner at KPMG and his golfing buddy are reminder that the temptation to profit from inside information exists in many industries and professions.

Still, senior hedge fund reporter Svea Herbst-Bayliss reminds us in the following post,  a recent survey found a good portion of people who labor for hedge funds harbor private doubts about the integrity of their colleagues. If the numbers expressed in this survey are anything close to accurate, law enforcement should be busy for quite a while longer.

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

This week’s insider trading case involving a former KPMG partner has stolen some of the attention from the hedge fund industry. But a survey released this month suggest the regulatory heat won’t be lifting from the industry any time soon.

Half of the respondents in the hedge fund industry survey said they believe their competitors engaged in illegal activity and more than one third said they have felt pressure to break the law or engage in unethical behavior. The poll was  commissioned by law firm Labaton Sucharow LLP, HedgeWorld and the Hedge Fund Association and released earlier this month.

Michael Steinberg, the SAC Capital Advisers portfolio manager who was arrested at the crack of dawn last Friday morning probably envies former Goldman Sachs trader Matthew Taylor’s rush-hour surrender to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday.

While Steinberg was led away in handcuffs as a Wall Street Journal reporter took shaky video footage of the scene outside his door at 6am, Taylor sauntered into FBI headquarters in New York on his own, at 8:30am, having had plenty of time to collect his wits with a cup of hot coffee.

The difference between Steinberg’s dramatic arrest and Taylor’s quiet surrender highlights a theatrical strategy the FBI and prosecutors use for big cases. It does not bode well for the other potential targets in the high-profile insider trading investigation into Steven A. Cohen’s $15 billion hedge fund, which increasingly seems to be the primary focus of the government’s attempt to go after wrongful trading in the hedge fund industry.

By Matthew Goldstein

SAC Select may not have been one of SAC Capital Advisors’ best-known portfolios during its brief trading history. But the computer-driven trading program may have been one of the more controversial at Steven A. Cohen’s hedge fund.

Setup by a number of SAC Capital’s algo- savvy traders, including Neil Chriss, who left SAC in 2007 to found Hutchin Hill Capital, SAC Select was designed to piggyback on the trades on some of the hedge fund’s top portfolio managers. SAC Select, which at its peak in 2008 managed about $4.2 billion in hedge fund assets, was discontinued sometime in 2009 or early 2010. The strategy was intended as an added investment benefit for long-time SAC Capital clients.

But SAC Select was always controversial within Cohen’s empire because portfolio managers essentially viewed it as a platform simply copying some of their best ideas, say several people familiar with the strategy. Two people familiar with it said it “pissed off” the human traders at SAC.  Cohen is said to have countered that the computer program was not much different then PMs at SAC being regularly required to share their best “high conviction” trading ideas with Cohen each week.

By Matthew Goldstein and Svea Herbst-Bayliss

The WSJ is out today with a big story saying Stevie Cohen and SAC Capital are bracing for up to $1 billion in redemptions, or roughly 16 percent of the $6.3 billion it manages for outside investors. That’s a lot of money but sources are telling us redemptions will likely come in lower than that—think more in the $500 million range.

And more important, no matter what the figure is, don’t look for it to put much crimp in Cohen’s operation.

The deadline for submitting redemptions is Feb. 15, so there is still plenty of time for outside investors make a decision about sticking around or leaving. And even if an investor puts in a redemption notice now, those requests to withdraw money can get pulled at the last minute if the investor has a change of heart.

By Matthew Goldstein

Every time the insider trading investigation thrusts Stevie Cohen back into the spotlight, there’s always speculation about whether the billionaire trader will simply give back money to his outside investors and convert his $14 billion SAC Capital into a family office in order to avoid the unwanted headlines. But as tempting as that might be to the publicity-averse Cohen, the well-known trader has a big financial incentivel to keep managing money for his outside investors.

SAC Capital’s fee structure–one of the highest in the $2 trillion hedge fund industry–probably pays for a good chunk of Cohen’s overhead, say people in the hedge fund industry. These sources say that by charging a 3 percent asset management fee and skimming off as much as 50 percent of the firm’s trading profits, SAC Capital’s outside investors provide Cohen with a rich source of cash to pay his 900 or so employees.

Now sure, if Cohen were to return the roughly $6.3 billion in outside money that SAC Capital manages, he could reduce his workforce dramatically and move his operation out of its spacious offices at 72 Cummings Point Road in Stamford, Conn. But with billions of his own money invested in SAC Capital, Cohen would still need to employ a healthy crew of analysts and traders to manage his personal wealth in order to get the kind of double-digit returns he’s accustomed to. Last year, SAC Capital was up a little over 10 percent after accounting for fees–compared to the industry average of about 5 percent.

By Katya Wachtel

For the two founders of FBI-raided and since-shuttered hedge fund firm Level Global, life could not be more different.

In early January, one co-founder, David Ganek,  sat court-side at Madison Square Garden as the Charlotte Bobcats pummeled the New York Knicks. Ganek appeared relaxed and jovial as he greeted familiar faces in the front row. The Knicks lost, but Ganek could still enjoy the Knicks home-base party.

For Level Global’s other founder, Anthony Chiasson, life is not as sweet.

On Wednesday Chiasson (who launched Level Global with Ganek in 2003) was charged with insider trading as part of the FBI’s sweeping “Operation Perfect Hedge” investigation. Ganek has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

By Matthew Goldstein

SAC Capital industrials trader Charles Simonian is getting a new job–one that’s very close to Steve Cohen.

The SAC Capital founder is moving Simonian onto his own small team of traders and analysts at the $14 billion firm, say sources. Simonian will work with Chandler Blockage in overseeing trading in industrial sector stocks for the so-called Cohen Account–a portfolio that manages between $2 billion and $3 billion in gross exposure to the market. (Gross exposure includes the value of long and short positions).

The move comes as SAC Capital ended 2011 posting an 8 percent gain.

As previously reported on Reuters’ Unstructured Finance,  the top performer at Cohen’s fund was consumer products portfolio manager Gabriel Plotkin. His team of half-dozen traders and analysts manages about $1.2 billion of the firm’s money and has generated between $150 million and $200 million in trading profits.

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.

Indeed, only Cohen’s own 2 billion book–called the “big book,” the “Cohen account,” or simply “COHE”–is believed to manage more money at the $14 billion fund.

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.

At SAC Capital, where most portfolio managers run books that range from as little as $250 million to $500 million, Plotkin manages one of the largest. His team of half-dozen traders and analysts manages about $1.2 billion of the firm’s money, say sources.

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.

Others are grimacing, since many of the industry’s heavy-hitters have taken a beating this year. It’s no secret that stars like John Paulson,  Mark Kingdon and Lee Ainsle are sustaining double-digit losses. Through December 16,  Paulson’s Advantage Plus fund is down 52 percent year-to-date; Kingdon’s Offshore fund is down about 19 percent; and Ainslie’s Maverick Fund is off about 15 percent.