• 12 Aug 2008 at 9:54 AM

Ron Insana Is Legendary No Longer

By John Carney

When CNBC commentator Ron Insana went into hedge fund management nearly two years ago, there was a lot of snickering that this signaled “irrational exuberance” in the market. David Weidner at Market Watch wrote that “it’s probably time for everyone else to get out.”
Insana’s fund, called the Legends Fund, was structured as a fund of funds. Its business plan was to give investors exposure to hedge funds they might otherwise be shut out of. Specifically, Insana offered investors access to SAC Capital Advisors, Renaissance Technologies Corp., Perry Corp. Third Point, Omega Advisors and Icahn Management.
But with hedge fund investment drying up, Insana’s fund seems to have run into trouble. Yesterday CNBC’s Melissa Lee reported that Insana Capital Partners, which ran legends, was closing up shop.
Over at Naked Shorts, our friend Greg Newton runs the numbers on Insana’s forray into hedge fund management. At one point the Legends Fund had $116.3 million under management, and it charged a 1.5% annual fee. That means Insana Capital Partners might have taken in around $2 million during its brief stint. The fund was down 5.4% through July 31st, according to Newton. Coupled with a 2.5% “sales charge,” Newtown figures Insana’s investors are out roughly 10 per cent over the fund’s life.
So does the close of the Legends Fund mean that it’s time to get back into hedge funds? Not so fast. Apparently Insana has taken a job with SAC Capital.

Insana upgrades, from Fort Lee to Scamford [Naked Shorts]
Insana Capital doesn’t leave ‘em laughing [Naked Shorts]

Comments (12)

  1. 1
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 10:10 AM

    You usin the whole fist doc?
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/health/12well.html?8dpc

  2. 2
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 10:50 AM

    I am absolutely SHOCKED to learn that a talking head wasn’t actually an expert in the world of leveraged finance.
    Now that we have the one impostor weeded out, we can all go back to being wowed by the various financial television offerings.

  3. 3
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 11:18 AM

    I hear Gasbag is close to leaving CNBC to launch Stugats and Oogats Management LLC…

  4. 4
    Posted by Lowly Assistant | August 12, 2008 at 11:37 AM

    haha

  5. 5
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 12:09 PM

    Paging Mr. Kudlow, Mr. Larry Kudlow…Please raise your pinky fingered, Princeton “attended” (but not graduated) hand…

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 12:52 PM

    Renaissance is up some 48% through the first half, how low was Insana’s weighting in that fund to have a net loss? Wow..

  7. 7
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 12:56 PM

    He’s insana in the membrane.

  8. 8
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 1:05 PM

    does insana have to take female hormones and start wearing a dress within two weeks or two months of start date?

  9. 9
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 1:36 PM

    @8: I’d assume two weeks.

  10. 10
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 2:18 PM

    @5: nobody takes him seriously anyway

  11. 11
    Posted by miami | August 12, 2008 at 2:52 PM

    6 – I’d assume he wasn’t in Medallion, which has been closed to outsiders for several years.
    And let’s not pretend there was ‘snickering’ some of us were wholesale ROFLMAOing when DB called pitching this nonsense.

  12. 12
    Posted by guest | August 19, 2008 at 5:19 PM

    I’m waiting for Dennis Kneale to start a fund.

Leave a comment

You can log in with your account or comment as a guest below.

   or