A brother in need writes:
Dear Dealbreaker,
I’m an American living abroad in one of the few places where finance types aren’t still public enemy #1. I’m going to be back in the states for a few weeks over the holidays, armed with plenty of appreciating foreign currency, and a will to spend lots of money before governments around the world tax it or inflate it away from me. I’ve been at a well-known shop for just shy of a decade and bonuses this year are on track for the old killing it. Continue reading »
That’s the title of the presentation David Einhorn is giving at the Value Investing Congress, where he’s argued Florida real estate developer St. Joe will have to take impairment charges, and that the company’s Rivertown development “is a moonscape and it doesn’t appear anyone is living there.” [Bloomberg] Continue reading »
The Queen has a holiday surprise for her corgis. Ten percent of them are getting fired. Continue reading »
JPMorgan’s Profit Jumps 23% (MarketWatch)
JPM posted a profit of $4.42 billion, or $1.01 a share, in the quarter, compared with $3.55 billion, or 82 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue dropped to $23.8 billion from $26.6 billion. On a managed basis, revenue totaled $24.3 billion in the latest quarter. The bank was expected to earn 90 cents a share on revenue of $24.3 billion, according to a survey of analysts by FactSet Research.
D.E. Shaw Land Bet Proves a Quant’s Quagmire (WSJ)
For more than 300 years, a huge swath of land in what is now New Mexico endured the rise and fall of empires, the arrival of settlers and development of the surrounding area into the city of Albuquerque. But the Atrisco Land Grant, handed down by Spain’s king and queen in 1703, has never seen anything like the real-estate disaster now gripping hedge-fund firm D.E. Shaw. The firm surprised many real-estate deal makers in late 2006 by teaming up with developer SunCal Cos. to buy the 55,000-acre property—twice the size of Boston—for $250 million. The two companies planned to create a new town with residential, commercial and industrial areas. But the nationwide real-estate slump left the project stuck on the drawing board. Last month, lenders led by U.K. bank Barclays PLC foreclosed on the property. D.E. Shaw and SunCal have only a few weeks to come up with the money needed to pay off the lenders, or else the hedge-fund firm could see its roughly $100 million investment wiped out.
Hedge Fund Gains In September Highest In 16 Months (Reuters)
Eurekahedge said its hedge fund index was up 3.45 percent month-on-month at end-September, raising returns since the start of the year to 5.15 percent. “All regions and strategies posted positive returns in September, as Greater China hedge funds gained 7.02 percent during the month,” the Singapore-based firm said in a statement.
Geithner Signals China Causing Global Currency Interventions (Bloomberg)
“What’s happening is, as China holds its currency down, their currencies are moving up and they’re having to work very hard to make sure they’re not at an unfair disadvantage with China,” Geithner said in an interview with “Charlie Rose” scheduled to air on PBS yesterday and Bloomberg Television today. Continue reading »
$$$ Goldman, Morgan Stanley See Profits Falling [WSJ]
$$$ More Bullish Salary News [FINS] Continue reading »
“The worst is behind us, but the pain will be felt for a long time from what happened,” Buffett said in remarks played today at a conference outside Tel Aviv. “We’re inching forward, we’re not galloping forward.”
Then, on Disc 2 of his recording, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO continued… Continue reading »
Late last week, Bloomberg Markets profiled AQR founder Cliff Asness, who has continued his boyhood “obsession” with comic books and their characters into adulthood. His desk in Greenwich is home to Spiderman, Captain America, The Hulk and Iron Man, he has a Captain America shield on his right bicep and he “identifies with” many a super hero. In sum, Asness fancies himself one of them and to that end, is clearly dying for someone to make a character modeled after him. A very talented DB reader (and fellow hedge fund quant) did just that. As we were discussing possible sidekicks and a love interest for Quant Man, however, we realized there was a problem that needed rectifying. Before we can continue with Cliff, who is the one person who truly deserves her own action figure? Continue reading »
Growing up in Greenwich, with a father who works in finance, there were expectations placed on Matt McCarty. You know the ones. Prep school, followed by an Ivy or Ivy-esque college, a job on Wall Street, all that stuff. And in the beginning, those expectations were met. Matty attended the Brunswick school, then Vanderbilt, and did a summer internship at CRT Capital Group. But he always felt like there was something else he was meant to do. And one day, he got up the courage to go for it. Continue reading »
Oden
On Wednesday nights, money manager John Oden leaves his tailored suit and Hermes tie in the locker room at the New York Athletic Club and climbs into the boxing ring in red Everlast gloves and white high-top sneakers. The dignified principal at AllianceBernstein LP turns into 6-foot-4-inch, 210-pound, sweating, jabbing pugilist for five 3- minute rounds…Scores of bankers, lawyers and industrialists turn to boxing to boost adrenalin, build muscle and battle middle-age blues. At Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn, the 650 white-collar boxers make up more than half the clientele. The proportion in 1982 was 3 out of 400, according to Bruce Silverglade, Gleason’s president. Silverglade coined the term “white-collar boxing” in 1991 to create a niche for people who were too old to become amateur boxers and not talented enough to be professional boxers, he says. [Bloomberg]
