We never really like to see hedge funds close. Ok, that's a total lie. Some hedge funds (Global Alpha, we're looking at you) send us into giddy heights when they stagger. This is directly in proportion to the cocky swagger with which their snotty professionals stalk the streets. So, we don't particularly have a reason to enjoy the unfolding demise of Highland Capital Management, once a giant with nearly $40 billion in assets under management, except maybe the way they flout the general rule that making your firm logo an impenetrable shield and posting your many awards from Credit Flux and Absolute Return on your website is a little suggestive of taunting the gods of risk. It seems to have cost them To wit:
Highland, which had $37 billion in assets under management as of June 30, will wind down its Highland Credit Strategies Fund and the Highland Crusader Fund, said the person, who declined to be named because the decision isn't public.
Officials privately admitted to Dealbreaker that "Ok, maybe headquartering the Highland Crusader Fund in Dubai wasn't the best idea after all."*
Highland to Close Hedge Funds Amid `Unprecedented' Disruption [Bloomberg]
*Ok, ok... they didn't say anything like that.
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 10:12AM
save me?
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 10:13AM
There Can Only Be One!
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 10:13AM
"flout," not "flaunt."
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 10:14AM
There actually IS a Highlander- might want to clarify....
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 10:17AM
Couldn't happen to a bigger group of backslapping texas assholes.
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 10:18AM
"There can be only one"
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 10:20AM
Couldn't happen to a bigger group of backslapping texas assholes.
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 10:25AM
zoolander capital up 30% on ridiculously good looks.
-retail
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 10:28AM
Magnum Capital up like a billion %
Blue Steel Financial up more billions
Posted by ep , Oct 16, 2008 10:37AM
@3
"flout," not "flaunt."
Quite right. Thanks!
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 10:48AM
This would not have happened if they did not hire Peter Chung.
Homey is the pimp of Korea
Posted by Henry Ryecroft , Oct 16, 2008 10:49AM
Hedge funds aren't the only ones having a meltdown. Check out Roubini's facebook tirade:
http://gawker.com/5064429/nick-denton-is-an-anti+semite-with-a-nazi-mind
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 10:52AM
Well, it's better to burn out... than to fade away. Ha! HOOO AHHHHH
-Kurgen
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 11:04AM
They bought Toyota Highlanders and then couldn't pay for them??????
Posted by Anal_yst , Oct 16, 2008 11:13AM
@ 12
That is incredible, jebus that guy is a stupid schmuck (roubini), honestly, has he just discovered teh interwebs?
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 11:16AM
OMG! How can DB miss this? Post it post it! Roubini is a total whore!
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http://gawker.com/5063986/credit-crunchs-dr-doom-is-a-facebook-stalker
Ciao bella. How are you fashionista glitterata glamorata?
I am in decadent St Trop now vacationing with Arab Sheiks, Russian oligarchs and assorted aristocratic Euro trash. More silicon here than in Silicon Valley...lol
I had to escape NYC as my Barron's interview (http://www.rgemonitor.com/roubini-monitor/253240/) on $2 trillion of losses made the markets swoon last week and angry mobs of investors were chasing me.
So life is a beach here and am studying Beach Economics and the IELs (International Elites of Leisure) with a grant from the Institute for Advanced Vacations; hard job but somebody gotta do it.
This coming Sunday August 17th the New York Times Magazine (http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/index.html) will publish a long profile article (4 pages and 3000 words) about me. So beware of markets shivering the next day.
Want to come visit here in St Trop? I would be too lucky.
I will be back this weekend to NYC but off then to Brazil, UK and Sweden. But I will have parties over the coming weekends.
I hope to see you in nyc if not in St Trop. A drink some time too?
xoxo
Nouriel
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 11:18AM
Arrogant SOBs...they make you take a test that they claim takes 40 hours as the decision making criteria for hiring people. I guess they need to revise the test?
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 11:37AM
Sounds like this is a list of responses from people that applied at Highland but didn't get called back or didn't pass the "test." I'm sure the Life Insurance exam was much easier.
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 12:11PM
@18- Guess again. Didnt necessarily want to live in that brown stain they call Dallas. Part of the genius recruiting was how great the airport was, with flights to all the hot spots. So, in order to have fun in Dallas, you had to LEAVE Dallas. Maybe I can hang a mountain goat head on my wall and be a hitter, too.
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 12:17PM
@ #19 - I'm sure the view from the ground floor condo in Scranton is much better than living in one of the country's largest, most prosperous cities.
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 12:22PM
19 Not a fan of Dallas at all, but I could see how it would be attractive to a certain type of person. (Big, dumb, and Republican). Its affluent, housing is not that expensive, people are stylish. Re the airport comment: that's a common one. Think of taking a job in say CHARLOTTE!!, where many trips of consequence will require a plane change in Atlanta and will therefore be even a bigger pain in the rear than usual. In that context, being near a busy world class airport is a big plus in terms of job satisfaction.
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 12:27PM
Dallas is all about football, ,country clubs, hot women, flash of a refined sort. Culture is totally second rate, but shopping is second to none. Only a certain type would like living there. And most of them have pied a terres in NY.
Posted by guest , Oct 16, 2008 12:40PM
@20
Do you know what the associate numbers are like at Dunder Mifflin?
Posted by guest , Oct 24, 2008 4:32AM
Dondero is not a Texan, but a transplanted New Yorker, but I agree with the asshole comment.