• 16 Nov 2009 at 12:17 PM

Maybe Citi Doesn’t Suck So Much

By John Shazar

It’s been a pretty rough couple of years for Citigroup. But a couple of the world’s biggest hedge fund managers seem to think Vikram and Co. have something going.
Paulson & Co. bought up a $1.2 billion stake in Citi during the third quarter, while Renaissance Technologies took a more modest $90 million slice. RenTech has been somewhat schizophrenic about Citi, selling off 21.5 million shares in the second quarter, only to rebuild its stake to–you guessed it–21.5 million shares last quarter.
Renaissance, at least, is a good deal less bullish on our friends at Bank of America. The Long Island quant fund rid itself of almost all of its shares in the soon-to-be-CEO-less firm, which keeps finding ways to make The Worst Job on Wall Street even worse.


John Paulson still believes in Ken Lewis, Inc., holding on to his $2.7 billion stake in Charlotte’s economy. But he’s soured on God’s favorite firm, dumping his entire stake in Scrooge Blankfein. Apparantly, the subprime savant only likes subsidiaries of the Treasury and Federal Reserve.
Paulson also slashed his stake in JPMorgan Chase while betting on Hartford Financial Services Group and First Horizon National Corp. RenTech, which is losing founder James Simons at the end of the year, slightly reduced its stake in HSBC.
Paulson, RenTech Invest In Citi [FINalternatives]
Hedge fund Renaissance slashes BoA stake, ups Citi [Reuters]
Paulson Takes Citigroup Stake, Sells Goldman Sachs Shares [Bloomberg]

Comments (15)

  1. 1
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 12:27 PM

    Lower Beta.

  2. 2
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 12:29 PM

    these are boring posts. rentec is purely quant, if they picked up citi it was due to some attribute that put it into favor within the quant models for the moment, it could get puked back out tomorrow…

  3. 3
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 12:29 PM

    -@1
    gear up then.

  4. 4
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 12:31 PM

    free handjobs
    -dennis k

  5. 5
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 12:34 PM

    This post blows.
    – Greg’s Fluffer

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 12:34 PM

    @3 8:1 is the new 30:1 -1

  7. 7
    Posted by Investorcluzo | November 16, 2009 at 12:48 PM

    not taking anything away from the “greatest trade ever,” but mr. paulson was just another hedgie before his cds call. what makes everyone think he can repeat the feat? caution: past performance is not an indication of future results…just sayin’

  8. 8
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 12:56 PM

    RenTech is sooo tired. They should employ Mary Quant, Carnaby Street. Much better model than the ones they’ve got

  9. 9
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 12:59 PM

    Shazbo! Pick it up son before I rap you upside your head with my whistle.
    Coach

  10. 10
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 1:44 PM

    In fairness to Rennaisance they didn’t get the insider trading tip until after they dumped the shares, ergo they had to buy them back…….

  11. 11
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 1:45 PM

    Citi still sucks shit.

  12. 12
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 1:45 PM

    Hey Shazzam, your use of 58 links in each of you posts isn’t winning any fans.
    Either learn to express your thoughts with your own writing or step back and fetch Bess coffee and learn something.

  13. 13
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 3:32 PM

    Hey @12, STFU

  14. 14
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 6:19 PM

    Sorry I hit a nerve Greg, I mean Jon….

  15. 15
    Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 9:04 PM

    when citi starts a running it will run like the wind

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