Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Management to start Quantitative Trading hedge fund

SAC Capital Advisors, the Stamford-based hedge fund founded by Chief Executive Officer Steven A. Cohen, has announced that it will be launching a quantitative trading based hedge fund due to requests from current investors. According to an article from Bloomberg, quantitative trading already makes up 15% of SAC Capital’s $35 billion in assets under management. It is thought that the new quantitative fund will be run by roughly 20 different teams of quantitative traders.

This news comes a week after an announcement that SAC Capital Advisors is considering closing off its flagship fund to new investors, despite attracting $1.5 billion in new investment since last year. Steven Cohen kept the flagship fund closed for 13 years in order to ensure returns remained high, and it could be the same story this time around. Also, SAC has decided to wind down its multi-strategy hedge fund, which it opened in 2005, due to heavy losses incurred during the 2008 financial crisis.

Top Hedge Fund List sees Assets jump by 24% in 2010

The Top Hedge Funds in the United States saw their US Equity assets jump by over $35.3 billion during 2010, representing a 24% increase in assets. Collectively, the top 10 hedge funds on the list managed $182.1 billion at the end of 2010, according to SEC filings. The top hedge fund on the list is John Paulson’s Paulson & Co with $29.2 billion in equity assets. Mr. Paulson’s hedge fund firm saw its assets increase by nearly $10 billion over the course of 2010. Last year, Paulson & Co. was ranked #4 with $19.4 billion in assets under management.

Last year’s largest hedge fund, D.E. Shaw & Co, only fell one notch down the list to number two. David Shaw’s New York-based hedge fund recorded assets of $25.8 billion, slightly down from the $26.7 billion the multi-strategy hedge fund shop managed at the end of 2009.

Robert Atchinson and Phil Gross’ Adage Capital Partners retained its number three spot on the list. Adage reportedly managed $25.5 billion, noticeably up from the firm’s previous mark of $19.9 billion. Last year’s number two, Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, fell a couple of notches down to number four with $24.6 billion.

Last year, only 5 of the top 10 hedge funds on the list managed more than $10 billion in equity assets. Notably, all 10 of the hedge funds on this year’s list managed more than $11.5 billion. Newcomers to the top 10 hedge fund list include: #5 Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, #6 Steven A. Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, #9 Clifford Asness’ AQR Capital Management LLC and #10 Carl Icahn’s Icahn Associates .

Rank	Institution	Assets ($MM)
1	Paulson & Co.	$29,271
2	D.E. Shaw & Co	$25,846
3	Adage Capital Partners	$25,559
4	Renaissance Technologies	$24,617
5	Citadel Investment Group	$18,287
6	SAC Capital Advisors	$12,286
7	Viking Global Investors	$12,057
8	Lone Pine Capital	$11,463
9	AQR Capital Management LLC	$11,275
10	Icahn Associates	$11,514

See rest of article.

London remains center of European Hedge Fund universe despite higher taxes

London is the second largest hedge fund money center in the world, behind only New York. According to an article by Reuters, this position of power will not change in the face of rising taxes. Despite its 50% tax rate on high earners, 63 hedge funds with over $1billion in assets under management are headquartered in London, compared to just 3 such hedge funds in Paris and Stockholm, the next largest European money centers.

Large firms such as Brevan Howard Asset Management and Bluecrest Capital Management retain offices in Switzerland; Brevan Howard even has senior executives Alan Howard and Nagi Kawkabani situated there. However, smaller hedge fund managers seem drawn to London – former Brevan Howard trader Frederic Denjoy, of the Geneva office, left to set up his own hedge fund Denjoy Capital Partners in London.

It seems that smaller hedge fund managers may be drawn by the lifestyle and comfort of London, and to them higher taxes are a mere inconvenience. Larger hedge funds, on the other hand, are forced to retain their London presence to compete for talent with emerging boutique and recently launched hedge funds.

Top Hong Kong Hedge Funds

Here is a new list of the top hedge funds in Hong Kong. Great resource for job seekers and IR professionals in the Hong Kong area!

Top Hong Kong Hedge Funds

Hedge funds flat in March, Fortress Investment Group & BlueGold Capital outperform

Hennessee Group LLC announced yesterday that its hedge fund index was up just 0.23% in March and 2.35% year-to-date. In comparison, the Standard & Poor’s index was up 5.43% during the same period in 2011, but down 0.10% in March. Also, Hedge Fund Research, another Hedge fund research firm which aggregates data on over 2,200 hedge funds for its Hedge Fund Research Index, said its average hedge fund was up 0.31% in March and 1.99% YTD.

The strongest performers in the Hennessee index were technology (+5.2%) and healthcare-focused (+1.7%) hedge funds, while overall long/short equity funds were up 0.23%.


Poor performance was largely attributed to volatility caused by the earthquake in Japan and the widespread unrest and instability in the Middle East. Hennessee’s Global/Macro Index was up 0.32% but the Macro Index fell -1.33% in March and -1.29% YTD. Furthermore, The Hennessee International Index fell 0.50% in March, though was still up 1.32% YTD.

However, Fortress Investment Group was one winner in March, with its Asia Macro Fund up 3.5% in March. Fortress Investment Group’s Global Macro Fund was also up 1.8% and its commodities fund rose 1.5% in March. Notably, according to reports, all of Fortress Investment’s hedge funds recorded gains in March.

Another big winner is Pierre Andurand’s BlueGold Capital, which specializes in energy investments. BlueGold was up 5.5% for the quarter, far outstripping the average energy hedge fund, which was down almost -3% for the quarter.

Some notable losers include John Paulson’s Advantage Fund, down 3.10% in March and 1.24% YTD. Paulson & Co. ’s Advantage Plus Fund fared even worse, losing 4.4% in March, bringing its YTD performance down to -1.74%. Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor BVI Global fund also fell -0.47%, and even Dan Loeb’s Third Point Offshore fund, one of the year’s top performers at a 6.78% gain over the first quarter, fell in March.

$100mm+ Hedge Fund Launches by Indaba Capital & Ionic Capital

A couple of hedge fund managers are proving that the fund raising environment for new launches is improving. Earlier this month, newly formed Indaba Capital launched its first hedge fund with a reported $150 million in assets under management, while Ionic Capital Management has reportedly raised more than $100 million for its newly launched convertible bond focused hedge fund.

Indaba Capital, which employs an event-driven strategy, was founded last year by Farallon Capital veteran Derek Schrier. While at Farrallon, Schrier was responsible for managing credit investments. Indaba only targeted a limited number of investors for the launch and hopes to double its assets during the second quarter when it opens up to outside investors.

To view HedgeTracker’s lists of Top Hedge Fund Launches, please click below:

Top Hedge Fund Launches of 2011
Top Hedge Fund Launches of 2010
Top Hedge Fund Launches of 2009

For Detailed Investor Profiles on these Investors, click below
Indaba Capital Management

Ionic Capital Management LLC

Hedge Fund Jobs

Here are some recent hedge fund job postings that I thought were of particular interest:

• High Yield/Distress/Credit Arb Analyst - Third Avenue Management, New York, NY


• Sustainability Research Analyst - Pax World Management Corporation, Portsmouth, NH


• Hedge Fund Analyst - Confidential, New York, NY


• Buyside Technology Analyst - Balyasny Asset Management , New York, NY


• Corporate Securities Analyst - Fortress Investment Group, New York, NY