“In the best possible way”? Continue reading »
Archive for March 2011
What Was Carl Quintanilla Driving At When He Said Interviewing Sam Zell Is “Like Riding A Mechanical Bull”?
By Bess LevinMaybe This Story About An Investment Banker Biting A Subordinate’s Ear Off “Mike Tyson-Style” Isn’t As Bad As It Sounds?
By Bess Levin
Maybe it was intended to be a playful nibble that went awry? Continue reading »
Prior to the financial crisis, UBS was a highly profitable, if not tax-evading, bank. It was self-assured and knew its self-worth. The last few years, however, have taken a serious toll on the firm’s confidence and you know what’s not helping at all? Places like London fucking with UBS’s head re: how the government feels about it. In private, when they’re alone, UK officials are all, “We love you, you’re the one for us” and then in public it’s all, “Banks are evil! Down with banks! Sorry, whose number is this?” UBS Chief executive Oswald Grubel tried to play it cool for a while, acting like he didn’t care, but he’s officially hit his breaking point.
Oswald Grübel, the veteran banker who has led the Swiss bank back from the brink of collapse over the past two years, said: “The government is so quiet about [the City]. Only behind closed doors do they pay lip service to wanting to keep the City. If it is abandoned by the government one day, God help you.”
Enough is enough! Do you want UBS et al in your life or not? Grubel wants a commitment now. Not tomorrow, not in five years, now, today. Continue reading »
8:25 Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio will be on Squawk Box this morning. Let’s follow along.
8:32 Waiting for Ray.
8:35 He’s being patched in from LA, which is a disappointment but we’ll get through this.
8:36 Ray Dalio says he’s appearing on CNBC because he’s been getting too much attention from the press.
8:37 And we’re off to an awkward start: Joe Kernan tells Dalio the only reason people think his firm is “sinister” and “dark” because of the size of the fund and if it were smaller, no one would say that. Ray: “Uhh. I don’t know where you’re getting the sinister or dark part.” Continue reading »
Hedge Funds Scramble As Rivals Exit (WSJ)
Both Level Global Investors LP and Shumway Capital Partners, which have more than $12 billion in combined assets in trading strategies involving bets on and against stocks, are both giving back cash, albeit it for different reasons. Several investors in the funds as well as consultants close to the matter say some investors are looking to put their cash into funds that follow the same “long-short” investment style. “We will probably look for a firm that is a similar strategy to Level Global,” said Craig Slaughter, the executive director of the West Virginia Investment Management Board, which manages pensions and other investments for the state. It has nearly $12 billion under management and invested about $50 million with Level Global. Mr. Slaughter said his staff is working on a recommendation.
Mets Forward List Of Potential Buyers To MLB (MLB)
The list, which originally included about 30 potential buyers, includes David Heller, co-head of Goldman Sachs’ securities unit, who leads one potential group of buyers with other former and current Goldman partners. Heller has already met at least twice with Steve Greenberg, the managing director of Allen & Co., who has been hired by the Mets to find a buyer, the Post reported.
Bernanke Says Stronger Recovery Would Reduce State Woes (Bloomberg)
“If the economy continues to strengthen at about the pace projected by the Federal Reserve and many private forecasters, states and localities may start to get a little breathing space,” Bernanke said yesterday.
Guggenheim to Hire 150 Proprietary Traders Fleeing Banks (Bloomberg)
Loren M. Katzovitz and Patrick Hughes, 49-year-old managing partners who have worked together since 1993, are launching Guggenheim Global Trading LLC in Purchase, New York, with an initial investment of $500 million as soon as June 1, they said yesterday in an interview. The firm plans to hire 100 to 150 traders and manage as much as $2 billion, they said. Continue reading »
$$$ Falcone Allows ‘Direct Investments‘ In LightSquared [Reuters]
$$$ A Test Where The Banks Had The Questions And The Answers [Dealbook]
$$$ Long-Short Funds’ Exit Creates Void [WSJ]
$$$ Treasury Recoups $2.7 Billion in Ally Financial Sale [AP] Continue reading »
Julian Robertson: The US Would Rather Get Drunk On Egg Nog Than Solve Its Money Troubles
By Bess Levin
Looking at the US economy, Mr Robertson said: “We are broke, broker than all get out…We prefer to put on the Santa Claus suit and celebrate Christmas” rather than address underlying problems in the US economy such as the budget deficit. [Australian via BI]
Pro-Tip For Anyone Interviewing With Bridgewater Associates: Have Your Abortion Answers Ready
By Bess Levin
In a recent profile of Bridgewater Associates by AR Magazine, it’s noted that prospective employees must “take the Myers-Briggs personality test” and that “Bridgewater staffers…[go] through a rigorous screening process in which they are asked their views on such topics as abortion and God.” If we’ve learned one thing from the hedge fund’s guiding Principles, it’s that these questions don’t have a right or a wrong answer, per se. Rather, they are being posed to see if potential employees have the backbone to present and vigorously defend their ideas, which they will have to do on the regular as members of the staff. As there are presumably a great many of financial services employees out there who would kill for the opportunity to work at the fund, we’ve decided to do you a solid and conduct a mock interview session in which the abortion question comes up. Please note that we are not suggesting that Bridgewater is either pro-choice or pro-life. In fact, any answer is probably fine with them. Again, it’s how you lay it out that they care about. In this exercise, we’ll take the pro-life side. Feel free to use these responses verbatim. Continue reading »
Bridgewater Associates Determines Which Employees Opinions Are More Valuable Than Others Based On A “Believability Matrix”
By Bess Levin
The latest issue of AR Magazine features a lengthy profile of Ray Dalio’s mega-successful Bridgewater Associates, with much space devoted to the “culture” of the firm, as defined by Principles, a handbook of sorts written by Dalio, which we shared last May. In sum, the firm requires its employees, 30 percent of whom leave within two years of being hired, to “trust in truth” and to “pursue the truth” relentlessly, in everything they do. Criticism is “both welcomed and encouraged” and rather than “depersonalizing mistakes” or saying “we didn’t handle this well,” the staff are told to “connect specific mistakes to specific people.” It’s an environment unlike any other hedge fund and those who’ve experienced the program firsthand seem to be divided into two camps, at least among those interviewed by AR**: Dalio and the Bridgewater officials (senior staff are referred to as “culture carriers”) who think it’s great and former employees who describe the place as “cultlike,” “sinister,” “eerie” and something out of George Orwell’s 1984. Here’s what one former exec had to say:
My fundamental belief is that Bridgewater is a cult. It’s isolated, it has a charismatic leader and it has its own dogma.” It was so stressful, he recalls, that one employee couldn’t sleep all night and then, in the morning, threw up before meetings with Dalio. (The incident could not be confirmed.)
Another likened being an employee at Bridgewater to being an abused puppy. Continue reading »
Bill Gross suggests marking it down on your calendar– as D-Day, The Sequel. Continue reading »
Everybody flip out! (Sayeth SJ: “I just didn’t want to miss this.”)
