Fast Moving Risk Appetite Challenges Quants

Chidem Kurdas

As markets take hairpin turns, being prepared for the worst has itself become risky. 

Will Small Firms Survive?

Chidem Kurdas

Costs are up. Allocations are slow. What’s an emerging manager to do? The talk was about pressures and priorities at a conference organized by the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Goldman Sachs as Trading Thermostat

Chidem Kurdas

Goldman Sachs reports that its net revenue from fixed income, currency and commodities trading dropped 53% from the same quarter in 2010. The firm attributed this mainly to having taken less risk due to global uncertainty. But in part the fall comes from lower volumes of trading by clients—among them, hedge funds. 

BlueCrest Affiliate to Make IPO

A US arm of Guernsey-based BlueCrest is expected to make an initial public offering, following the trend among major alternative investment businesses to raise capital in public markets. BlueCrest, among the largest hedge fund managers worldwide with $25-billion in total assets, runs BlueTrend, a top commodity trading advisor managed by Leda Braga.

Another Middle Market Lender to Go Public

A number of managers are raising funds to make middle-market company loans, a niche seen as attractive in part because some of the hedge funds that used to be in the business retrenched or stopped operating after the crisis of 2008.

BofA Decides Against External Advisers

Hedge funds under the Bank of America umbrella have been affected by a change in company policy.

Tiffany Glitter Continues for Peltz

Chidem Kurdas

Long-term activist investors take big risks but when they win, they win big.  The bet Nelson Peltz’s Trian made on Tiffany demonstrates this.

Angelo Gordon Steel Turnaround

Chidem Kurdas

When Angelo, Gordon & Co. lent to United States Steel Corp. in the Spring of 2009, the steel maker was in serious trouble. The steel business slumped in tandem with construction. US Steel’s stock went into a tailspin after hitting a high of $187 in late 2008. It has not recovered; it is fluctuating around $60 now.  Yet Angelo, Gordon did well with the US Steel notes.

Cerberus SPV Makes High Return

Chidem Kurdas

Long-suffering clients of Stephen Feinberg’s Cerberus Capital Management received good news this fall—an early holiday gift, you might say.  It concerned the special-purpose vehicle set up to contain assets that became toxic and just about unsellable in 2008-2009. 

Distressed Credit Woes Influence Investors

Once burnt, twice shy, goes an old adage. Bad experience with distressed credit investments – considered very promising at the start of the real estate downturn – has put fund clients off this strategy.