Salient to Investors: David Stockman writes: A growing chorus of investors blamed last week’s stock market sell-off on esoteric but increasingly influential trading strategies pioneered by hedge funds like Bridgewater. Hedge fund performance has benefited from broken capital markets rigged by the Fed. Thesecasino gamblers bought every one of the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jim Simons at Math for America said: In the old days, commodities or currencies had a tendency to trend. Trend-following was great in the ’60s, sort of OK in the ’70s, but not OK in the ’80s. You look for anomalies in the data, when efficient market hypothesis
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Cargill, the world’s largest grain trader, shut its commodities hedge fund last month, a sign that commodity speculators are in trouble. Donald Steinbrugge at Agecroft Partners said hedge funds are supposed to make money in both bull and bear markets but managers bias towards rising prices. Steinbrugge
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Armen Karamanian at Admire Capital said you can replicate Bill Ackman’s portfolio very easily and for free and with immediate liquidity without the headline risk, and Ackman’s focus on a small number of large investments makes Pershing Square easier to replicate. Karamanian said the public hedge funds’
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Tony James at Blackstone said hedge funds are a way to play the stock market with lower volatility and lower returns – shoot-the-lights-out returns are best left to private equity and real estate. Neil Chriss at Hutchin Hill Capital said Calpers’ hedge-fund allocation was not big enough to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Teacher Retirement System of Texas cut its hedge fund allocation to 8% from 9%, cut equities by 4 percentage points and fixed-income by 2 percentage points, and increased risk parity – a strategy based on allocation of risk and private equity and real assets – and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Calpers’ exit from hedge fund investing underscored that there is no magic bullet to dealing with mounting pension fund costs. Chris Mier at Loop Capital Markets said the problem cannot be fixed very rapidly. Wilshire Consulting said that in 2013, state pension plans had 75% of what they
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Amateur investors are giving up on trying to beat the market, while even the most sophisticated investors are rejecting strategies that require advanced math and managers with million-dollar salaries. ICI reports the average expense ratio on an equity mutual fund is down 25% in 10 years. Boston Consulting
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Ted Eliopoulos at Calpers said their small hedge fund allocation did not effectively diversify or hedge any meaningful portion of their total portfolio and their decision to divest the entire allocation was unrelated to its performance. Keith Brainard at National Assn of State Retirement Administrators said Calpers is often
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Julian Robertson at Tiger Mgmt said: You cannot expect spouses who love each other and are in the stock business not to talk stocks. People that compete well in one thing compete well in other things. In the hedge-fund industry, a few stock picks can make or break
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