Replies to post #299093 on $Stock*Shop*Charts*News*Option$

[Stock Lobster]

Amazing, eh? One day of 'conciliation', and then the next day, he comes out blazing with all guns. Seems like a knee-jerk reaction fueled by his own wounded ego and pride. Apparently he didn't run this schlerotic plan by Volcker by his own people, or allies in the UK.

I guess he's The Decider...now who does that remind me of?

However, how is he going to explain to the country that he's just triggered a new major stock market crash? What a great campaign slogan for 2010!

Don't get me started either. Notice that Europe is NOT going to follow his plan....they're overjoyed he's just given their banks a big competitive advantage.

For us, personally, it means any future jobs will be either in US hedge funds unaffected by this crap (providing they don't go after them either), or overseas in Singapore or Hong Kong. Good thing I was already prepared to move overseas...

btw, Ash got interest from 2 MS prop trading desks last year, and I vetoed those, thank gawd. It's sad when you can't be optimistic or have faith things will 'just work out', because the odds are (in our business at least) they won't.

...sigh

[Stock Lobster]

China's Hedge Funds: Will benefit from Obama Plan?

New Hong Kong Firm Adds To Growing Phalanx Of New China Hedge Funds

January 21, 2010

Add another new firm to those taking aim at the red-hot hedge fund market in Asia. Pangu Capital is readying its first fund for launch this quarter; the Greater China vehicle will debut with at least US$12 million in initial capital, seeded by Penjing Asset Management.

Hong Kong-based Pangu will use a fundamental-research driven approach to stock-picking in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Bloomberg News reports. In particular, the firm plans to comb credit markets for cues about opportunities in equities. Most of its assets will be deployed in its home city as it seeks to profit from China’s economic growth. Pangu will also invest in convertible bonds and fixed-income.

“One of the lessons we’ve learned from the financial crisis is that it’s very important to stay nimble in the market,” Simon Hwang, the new firm’s chief investment officer, told Bloomberg. “Nimble in terms of the market segments and the asset classes we’re looking at so we will be able to generate the best risk-adjusted return based on the environment at the time.”

The new firm is the brainchild of Hwang, formerly of Ludgate Hill Investment Management, and Anthony Tse, a former analyst at Gandhara Capital. The two have known each other since their college days at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Before joining Gandhara, which closed last year, Tse worked at TPG Capital; Hwang spend time at Ramius Capital Group and JPMorgan Chase before taking over the convertible arbitrage portfolio at Ludgate Hill in 2008.

Pangu is targeting 15% annual returns.

http://www.finalternatives.com/node/11024

[Stock Lobster]

IPS hires ex-Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager

By Drazen Jorgic | 09:30:00 | 22 January 2010

Wealth management boutique IPS Capital has hired former Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager Chris Brown as co-chief investment officer.

Brown, who was an actuary by profession before moving into banking, will also join the IPS board as a partner.

He began his investment career with spells at Commerzbank and Citibank before moving to Goldman Sachs as a credit trader within the European Special Situations team. Most recently he set up and invested in his own niche credit hedge fund.

IPS founder and former Citywire Wealth Manager cover star Jonathan Blain said the appointment of Brown was a strong addition for the firm given his past experience.

He said: ‘Chris brings a highly analytic set of skills, which is enhancing the investment management process and knits well with my trading background.’

Brown officially joined IPS on 1 January but has already spent several months working at the firm. He has helped develop IPS’s ART system, a proprietary in-house risk and trading software.

The system gives IPS daily risk, trading and portfolio analysis tools similar to those that Brown used during his investment banking and hedge fund career.

Blain added: ‘The system allows portfolio-wide trading for clients as well as running risk metrics and downside scenario analysis on a client-by-client basis

Brown, meanwhile, said the way IPS ran money appealed to him as a portfolio manager and he joined the company to boost the growth of the business.

He added: ‘I felt there was a real opportunity for me to add value to the business and investing process.’

http://www.citywire.co.uk/professional/-/news/wealth-management/content.aspx?ID=378161

[Stock Lobster]

Chair of Goldman Hedge Fund Group Said to Retire

January 22, 2010, 1:33 pm

The chairman of Goldman Sachs’s quantitative hedge fund group, whose funds run off of complex computer trading algorithms, plans to step down at the end of the month, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing unnamed sources.

The plans by Robert Litterman, who played an advisory role and didn’t manage money, were not tied to President Obama’s proposal to separate proprietary trading and commercial banking, Bloomberg said. Nor were they related to Goldman’s reported decision to shut down the unit’s Global Equities Opportunities fund, which required a bailout from the firm.

A Goldman spokeswoman confirmed Mr. Litterman’s plans to Bloomberg.

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/chair-of-goldman-hedge-fund-group-said-to-retire/

[Stock Lobster]

“I predict Goldman will go private by the end of the year”

There's a fair chance that Barclays would move its legal home to Dublin or Amsterdam, Standard Chartered would up sticks to Singapore and HSBC could relocate to Hong Kong. (BBC)


22 January 2010
eFinancialCareers UK

Becoming a private partnership suddenly looks more appealing. Not only would it allow Goldman to escape the Volcker Ruke (which applies only to “banks” as defined in US law), it could deflect public attention and remove the need for bomb sniffing dogs to check the premises while results are being announced.

Douglas Kass, general partner of hedge-fund firm Seabreeze Partners Management predicts a return to privacy is imminent: “Sick of the unrelenting compensation outcry, government jawboning and associated populist pressures, Warren Buffett teams up with Goldman Sachs to take the investment firm private. The deal is completed by year end,” he suggests.

In reality, a return to private partnership could starve Goldman of capital. So too, as Zero Hedge points out, could a move away from becoming a bank holding company.

In the absence of any clever moves, analysts at KBW think that $8.4bn of Goldman’s revenues are at risk (19% of KBW’s 2010 estimate), along with $3.7bn (21.6%) of pre-tax earnings, and about $4.27/share (23.1% of “core” estimate) of earnings.

Until Obama’s bomb, Goldman was sounding quite chirpy. In yesterday’s conference call David Viniar suggested the firm would be increasing headcount by up to 10% this year, with predictable emphasis on “emerging economies.”

No real indication that France and Germany will follow the Obama plan. (Financial Times)

The lack of global co-ordination potentially opens up the prospect of widespread future regulatory arbitrage. (Reuters)

In the fall of 2008, Lehman Brothers wasn't a bank. Neither was Bear Stearns. Or Goldman, Morgan, or Merrill Lynch. Or Fannie or Freddie. Or AIG. (Business Insider)

The White House background briefing is that their proposals would freeze biggest bank size “as is.” (Baseline Scenario)

Several financial executives are contemplating attempting to buy out Merrill Lynch, (Business Insider)

In our view, dedicated prop trading historically could have been as much as 20% of trading revenues at investment banks. (Alphaville)

TARP was nothing, TGLP is the real deal. (Pragmatic Capitalist)

Some Democratic funders have threatened to start demonstrating with “pitchforks (plastic!)” – unless the government showed that it was willing to take on the banks. (Financial Times)

Foreign banks with proprietary trading operations would be caught by the US reforms. (Financial Times)

The single best thing we could do for financial reform: Triple the budgets of all financial regulatory agencies. Immediately. (Economics of Contempt)

Negative incentives to earn more at BofA Merrill. (Dealbreaker)

Average Goldman pay in 2009 was $498,246. That’s down from the record $661,490 in 2007. (Bloomberg)

A small group including co-chief executives, Richard Gnodde and Michael Sherwood, are understood to have taken most of the hit for the UK bonus tax. (The Times)

Goldman Sachs – lifestyles of the subsidized and anonymous. (Gawker)

Women rate an incredible 80% of guys as worse-looking than medium. (OKCupid)

http://news.efinancialcareers.co.uk/newsandviews_item/newsItemId-23346