Unprecedented volatility and record trading volume is one sign of capital markets gone wild. Another one is when the central banks fire up the printing presses and start pumping liquidity into the markets. But perhaps our favorite is the increased volume of rumors.
We hear rumors all the time, and most of them we don’t publish. But with all the uncertainty in the capital markets, widespread rumors themselves can move markets regardless of their accuracy. In short, while they might not necessarily be true themselves, they start creating their own truth.
Hedge fund stories have been flying faster than we can check them. All of these are totally unconfirmed, unsubstantiated and even unchecked stories that have been making the rounds of Wall Street email inboxes. Exercise the greatest of caution while reading below.
Quant Bloodbath Continues: Here are the whispered latest whispered numbers. AQR’s Global Stock Selection HiVol fund said to be down as much as: -33%. Tykhe’s results as of yesterday: down 27%. Rennaissance’s new fund, Institutional Equity Fund, down 8.7% as of yesterday. Caxton shutting all of its quant strategies.
Bloodbath, Bloodbath, Bloodbath: They keep going. DE Shaw is said to be taking serious losses, some are saying as much as 20%. SAC is supposedly running "running algorithms in reverse" to profit from the confusion.
Merger Arb Bloodbath: Rumors and price movements in big buyout targets suggest that a huge event driven, merger arbitrage fund is selling off it’s positions. No names yet.
Internal Subprime Investigations: Several Wall Street banks are said to have set their internal financial control and risk management teams to work to get a better handle on subprime and credit derivative exposure following the move by
Goldman De-Listing: Has the Goldman Sachs Total GTAA Strategy Fund been delisted from the Irish Stock Exchange? That’s what we’re hearing.
Still not had enough? Check out FT Alphaville for even more rumors.
We’ll make this an open rumors thread. Post what you are hearing in the comments section below. Or email us at tips@dealbreaker.com.
Posted by Surfing Chris, Aug 10, 2007 10:35AM
Glad to hear those pricks at ART-Advisors (One of Caxton's quant shops) are being shut down. Good luck guys, you acted like arrogant, superior douche-bags to everybody on the street; now what are you gonna do?