Magnetar, Notorious Hedge Fund, Has Been In Trouble Many Times Before [HuffingtonPost] The hedge fund Magnetar helped create billions of dollars’ worth of risky deals called collateralized debt obligations, many of which failed spectacularly in the financial crisis. Magnetar, meanwhile, had taken positions that allowed the firm to profit when many of those same CDOs collapsed. Since ProPublica reported on Magnetar’s dealings two years ago, there’s been a long line of investigations and settlements related to the hedge fund.

I Was In The Room When Boaz Weinstein Revealed His Trade That Creamed JPMorgan [BusinessInsider] Everyone has been talking about how legendary derivatives trader Boaz Weinstein, the founder of Saba Capital and former co-head of credit trading at Deutsche Bank, is the man on the other side of the disastrous JPMorgan trade.
I was there on February 2 when Weinstein recommended buying the Investment Grade Series 9 10-Year Index CDS, which is reportedly the same security the JPMorgan desk was short.

Why You Shouldn’t Take Any Advice From This Week’s Big Hedge Fund Conference [BusinessInsider] I wasn’t really aware of the Ira Sohn Conference, but some very big names were there. As Richard Posner pointed out, however, intellectual reputation invariably lags achievement, so the biggest names almost by definition are over the hill. A great example of this was Ronald Coase, who remarked upon winning the Nobel Prize in 1991, “it is a strange experience to be praised in my eighties for work I did in my twenties.”

Hedge Funds Lose Ground In Early May [FINalternatives] After posting very modest gains in April, hedge funds returned to their losing ways in the first two weeks of May. The average hedge fund shed 1.22% this month through May 15, according to Hedge Fund Research’s HFRX intra-month update. The average fund is now up just 2.01% on the year, according to the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index. All but one of the strategies and substrategies tracked by the HFRX suite were in the red for the first half of May, with only convertible arbitrage funds posting gains of 0.45% (4.35% year-to-date).

Here at Clusterstock we’re on the hunt to find the right people for our first-ever most eligible bachelors and bachelorettes on Wall Street list. Aside from taking reader nominations (keep sending them in!), we’re scouring Manhattan to bring you the cream of the crop. We recently approached an attractive hedge fund employee about being on our list. During our conversation, he told us he only dates models. Naturally, we pressed on to understand why besides their good looks.

Read Full Article At BusinessInsider.

The potential witness list for the insider trading trial of the former Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble director Rajat K. Gupta is out and, as expected, it is chock full of boldfaced names. Possible witnesses who could be called to testify — or whose names may come up during the trial — include Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman; Gary Cohn, the bank’s president; A.G. Lafley, the former chief executive of Procter & Gamble; and Kenneth Chenault, the chief executive of American Express.

Read Full Article At DealBook.

An offshore hedge fund formed by asset manager BlackRock has raised more than $300 million.  The Cayman-domiciled fund, which deals in capital structure investments, brought in $313.6 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The filing also shows that minimum investment is $100,000, first sold to outside investors on April 27, got its capital from three investors and will remain open for an undisclosed period of time.

Read Full Article At HedgeFundNet.

Sears Holdings announced on Thursday that it would spin off part of its Canadian unit, a poor performer that has weighed down the struggling retailer. The move to sell shares in the unit, if approved by regulators, would reduce the holding company’s stake in Sears Canada to 51 percent from 95 percent. Sears indicated it could further wind down the stake, disclosing in a statement on Thursday that “subsequent to the spinoff,” the company could sell “any portion of its remaining interest in Sears Canada.”

Read Full Article At HedgeFundNet.

Hedge Fund All-Stars Appearing at Yankee Stadium

Hedge Fund Elite: What Our ‘Best Ideas’ Are Now [CNBC] David Einhorn, who runs hedge fund Greenlight Capital, said at a popular investor conference on Wednesday that shares in Martin Marietta Materialsare overvalued. The stock immediately plummeted on the noted short-seller’s comments, an indication of his prowess to move markets. Meanwhile, Einhorn also said favorable things about Apple, calling it a well-run company.

SEC Probes Role of Hedge Fund in CDOs [WSJ] U.S. securities regulators are investigating hedge-fund firm Magnetar Capital LLC, which bet on several mortgage-bond deals that wound up imploding during the financial crisis, according to people familiar with the matter. While Magnetar has faced scrutiny over its role in various collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, the Illinois firm itself now is a target of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, these people said.

Einhorn and the PowerPoint Speed Read [DealBook] The crowd began to buzz just before David Einhorn took the stage on Wednesday at the Ira Sohn Conference. Cellphone screens cast a fluorescent glow in the packed auditorium, as investors eagerly awaited the hedge fund managers latest tip. An image of Bart Simpson standing before a chalkboard was projected onto a large screen with the words “I will not pretend to be David Einhorn on earnings calls.”

Paulson Pitches AngloGold Ashanti and Caesar’s [DealBook] John Paulson, the hedge fund manager whose every move has become the fascination of Wall Street, appeared unruffled. In a slick gray suit and blue-striped tie, he delivered a pitch for three of his “long” ideas to an audience of investors gathered at Lincoln Center for the 2012 Ira Sohn conference. The ideas are ones he is desperately hoping the market will come around to, particularly for the sake of his main funds, the Advantage and the Advantage Plus. While Mr. Paulson’s other funds are mostly faring well this year, the two Advantage funds are in negative territory so far, adding to staggering losses last year, including more than 50 percent in the Advantage Plus.

The Man Who Beached ‘Moby Iksil’

Barclays Readies Credit Hedge Fund Helmed By Citadel Vet [FINalternatives] Barclays is preparing to launch a credit hedge fund in the third quarter with hundreds of millions in initial assets, the bank’s first such vehicle. The Barclays Credit Opportunities Strategy will be a long/short fund, HFMWeek reports. Other details of the strategy, to be managed by Bruce Ivory, were unavailable. Ivory worked at Citadel Investment Group and GSO Blackstone before joining Barclays. At Citadel, he was a senior analyst, while at GSO, he led credit trading. At Barclays, he now works in funds and advisory, but formerly led Barclays Capital’s proprietary credit trading desk.

Hedge Funds Worry About JPMorgan Probe [CNBC] Hedge fund managers on the other side of the trades that resulted in over $2 billion in losses at JPMorgan Chase are worried about reports that the Justice Department is investigating the matter, according to a person familiar with the matter. Several hedge funds took up large trading positions in the credit derivatives market, after they came to believe a London-based trader at JPMorgan [JPM 36.011 -0.229 (-0.63%)] had built up a position so large that it was distorting the market. London-based CQS and Blue Mountain Capital were two of the hedge funds on the other side of the JPMorgan trade, according to sources cited by Reuters.

The World’s Best Hedge Funders Present Their Top Picks [BusinessInsider] Investors are gathering at Lincoln Center in New York City today for the highly-anticipated 17th annual Ira Sohn Investment Conference where top hedge fund managers will share their investment views and picks. Today’s conference lineup includes Bill Ackman, Dwight Anderson, Dan Ariely, David Einhorn, bond god Jeffrey Gundlach, Jonathan Kolatch, Philippe Laffont, John Lykouretzos, Steve Mandel, Larry Robbins, Kenneth Rogoff, John Wilder and Meryl Witmer.

Here’s How All The Big Investment Ideas From Ira Sohn Did Last Yea [BusinessInsider] The Ira Sohn Investment Conference, a charity conference where hedge funders offer up new investment ideas to raise money for cancer research, will be taking place today at noon. An all-star cast of hedge funders will be presenting today, but it’s up to the investor whether they want to actually go into those positions. To make that decision, it might be helpful to see how ideas in the past have done. Lawrence Delevingne at AR has compiled this nifty chart that highlights how all the investment ideas from last year did.

We Have Never Been To A Party Where We Saw This Many Huge Hedge Funders In One Room [BusinessInsider] At just 27 year-old, Maneet Ahuja, CNBC’s Hedge Fund Specialist/”Squawk Box” producer, is incredibly connected to the super-secretive hedge fund industry.
In fact, she has a massive Rolodex filled with the biggest names that would make most financial journalists envious.
Even New York Times’ reporter and “Squawk Box” co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin was quoted saying she had a deeper Rolodex than him.
At the end of this month, Ahuja releases her book “The Alpha Masters,” which highlights the stories, insights and lessons of industry titans such Ray Dalio, David Tepper, John Paulson, David Einhorn, Bill Ackman, Jim Chanos and Dan Loeb, just to name a few.

Hedge Fund Charity Raises US$22.8 Million

NJ Resident Uses Soros’ Name for Ponzi Scam [HedgeFundNet] A New Jersey woman is being held on $100,000 bail for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme that solicited $450,000 for a fund supposedly overseen by legendary hedge fund manager George Soros. The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office said Monday that Dunya Predovan of Manahawkin, N.J. was arrested Thursday, and was charged with one count of theft by deception and four counts of issuing bad checks. She is currently in the Bergen County Jail.

Hedge Funder David Tepper Buys Tons More Apple, And Reveals New Position In Bank Of America [BusinessInsider] Hedge fund titan David Tepper’s latest 13F filing is out and Appaloosa Management massively increased its stake in Apple and bought huge position in Bank of America. For the quarter ended 3/31/2012, Appaloosa had 685,000 shares in Apple compared with 181,850 in the previous quarter’s 13F. The hedge fund also snapped up 7,465,408 shares in Bank of America, according to the regulatory filing.  In the previous filing, Tepper had no shares in BofA. Speaking of financials, Appaloosa also disclosed a new position in Citigroup (6,094,305 shares) as of the quarter ended 3/31/2012.

Flamand’s Edoma Down In First Quarter [FINalternatives] Goldman Sachs’ former top proprietary trader is still in a “frustrating” fight to find his footing at his hedge fund. Pierre-Henri Flamand told investors last week that his Edoma Capital lost 0.85% in the first quarter. The year-and-a-half old hedge fund has yet to make a dime for investors—it’s down 3.1% since its inception in November 2010. Flamand raised US$2 billion for the fund, one of the most hotly-anticipated in recent years. But early returns have not repaid investor confidence, even as other hedge funds have enjoyed positive returns in the first quarter as the broader markets rallied.

Clive Capital Hedge Fund Manager Paid $60m [FinancialNews] Accounts filed at Companies House today do not disclose the recipient of the pay package, but Clive Capital founder Chris Levett appeared on the Sunday Times Rich List for the first time this year, with an estimated worth of £250m. The huge pay-package tops the $49m that Pimco Europe, the European arm of the world’s largest fixed-income manager, paid its top executive in 2011. Pimco Europe filed its accounts last month.

Asia focused hedge funds have more than recovered all the assets lost after last year’s dire performance although the industry has still underperformed local stock markets in the first quarter of 2012, according to industry data. China dominates the regional industry and 30 percent of global hedge funds by number are now located in the country including Hong Kong, second only to the U.S., according to the Chicago based Hedge Fund Research group. However, most Asian funds are significantly smaller than those in the U.S. and other established jurisdictions, so their assets make up just 4 percent of the global industry’s $2.13 trillion total.

Read Full Article At CNBC.

The Best Way For College Student To Land A Job At A Hedge Fund Right After Graduation [BusinessInsider] Everyone knows networking is a big factor in getting that long-awaited job offer—but for possible employment at hedge funds, it’s the ace in the hole that will get you the job. Because hedge funds are so focused on culture and overall environmental “fit” when it comes to hiring new employees, they are more likely to hire someone they know on a more personal basis—that’s why networking  is so important, according to Bob Olman, president of the executive search firm Alpha Search Adivsory Partners.

Doug Kass Explains Why He Just Bought JP Morgan [BusinessInsider] It has been a profoundly negative news day for JP Morgan. After announcing a surprise $2 billion loss from a botched hedge last night, the stock dropped precipitously. It is currently down more than 8 percent. But hedge fund manager Doug Kass of Seabreeze saw a unique opportunity. He bought the stock at $38.20 last night after the surprise 5 P.M. conference call. In a post on The Street Kass explains his reasoning

Hedge Funds Are Shadow Banks in Need of Regulation, Bafin Says [SFGate] Hedge funds act as shadow banks and should be added to the list of organizations in need of regulation, according to Raimund Roeseler, head of banking supervision at Germany’s financial regulator Bafin. Shadow-banking definitions by the Financial Stability Board and the Basel Committee are too narrow, Roeseler said. Bafin is working on its own proposals to regulate the sector and will provide them for the discussion at the FSB, he said.