John Paulson

  • 01 Apr 2010 at 1:45 PM

Hedge Fund Managers Able To Eke Out Semi-Respectable Paychecks After Abysmal ’08

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Absolute Return has published its annual list of the top hedge fund earners of the year and while you might’ve thought differently at the time, it turns out keeping a pair of brass testicles on your desk and rubbing them at various intervals throughout the day for good luck isn’t so silly or homoerotic afterall. (Kidding, of course it still is, but doing so might score you a $4 billion take-home so, perhaps its worth it.) Other takeaways: Paul Tudor Jones is gonna make it hailstorm chicken and someone just stuck an extra pin in the voo-doo doll shaped like her ex-husband.

10. Phil Falcone, Harbinger Capital, $825 million

9. John Arnold, Centaurus Advisors, $900 million

8. Ken Griffin, Citadel, $900 million

7. Eddie Lampert, ESL Investments, $1.3 billion

6. Carl Icahn, Icahn Capital, $1.3 billion

5. Steve Cohen, SAC Capital, $1.4 billion

4. John Paulson, Paulson&Co, $2.3 billion

3. James Simons, Renaissance Technologies, $2.5 billion

2. George Soros, Soros Fund Management, $3.3 billion

1. David Tepper, Appalossa Management $4 billion

Related: 2008′s Highest Earning Hedge Fund Managers
2008′s Top Losers (Lampert, Please Report To Clean Up In Aisle 8, Clean Up In Aisle 8 Please)

  • 10 Feb 2010 at 10:45 AM

John Paulson Doesn’t Care About People Who Don’t Want In On His Gold Fund

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The Journal reports today that John Paulson’s gold fund, which launched Jan. 1, is failing to attract investors. We’re told it’ ain’t so. While the fund did lose “about 10%” since it launched, JP is confident and “believes in this play.”

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  • 09 Dec 2009 at 10:57 AM

Clive Cap. Tells New Investors To Shove It

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John Paulson and Stanley Fink are dying to take your money and pour it into gold. Clive Capital is somewhat less enthusiastic.
The London-based hedge fund is certainly bullish on the shiny stuff, predicting that its value will continue to rise and even increasing its bet on it. But it doesn’t want your money, not anymore. Those looking to invest in commodities won’t have the world’s largest commodity hedge fund to kick around anymore.
At least, not until its “focus and scrutiny of market liquidity and portfolio diversity” make it change its mind.

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  • 30 Nov 2009 at 2:52 PM

Paolo Pellegrini Is Making Himself Smile Now

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pellegrini2.jpgWho needs John Paulson? Not Paolo Pellegrini.
Canned by JP for his bad attitude, this Italian Stallion knows that living well is the best revenge. And so far, Pellegrini’s PSQR Management is living very well, up almost 65% this year.

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  • 24 Nov 2009 at 10:53 AM

Flip Out On Someone Today

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Picture 28.pngYesterday it was suggested that one of the reasons John Paulson was able to make the leap from run of the mill rich guy/peasant by hedge fund manager standards to John motherfucking Paulson! was that he “became a grump.” In earlier times, he was known for his loft parties in SoHo, and as he approached the trillion dollar pay-days, began to do things like ream employees out for overusing the printer, and reprimand people for eating junk food, according to Greg Zuckerman’s new book, The Greatest Trade Ever.* A recently published study from the University of New South Wales says that “negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking paying greater attention to the external world” so, perhaps there’s a connection between between JP making people pay to replace their own inkjet cartridges and figuring out that maybe subprime wasn’t the can’t lose asset class everyone thought it was cracked up to be.
Today, a Swedish study notes that “men who bottle up their anger at being unfairly treated at work are up to five times more likely to suffer a heart attack, or even die from one.” And if you think being the just go with the flow guy who “lets thing pass without saying anything” would save you, think again. That tactic will get you killed to. So here’s what I’m thinking.

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  • 18 Nov 2009 at 10:21 AM

Paulson Thinks He Can Make Three Times His Money On Bank of America

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According to Paulson & Co internal documents John Paulson is thinking soon to be CEO-less BofA will be worth three times what he bought it for in two and a half years time. Yesterday, Bloomberg reported JP’s been telling his investors Bank of America still has considerable upside and room to double in value.
But according to documents we saw, JP started telling investors in July he got into this trade with the expectation the stock would more than triple by the end of 2011.
As first reported by Chris Gillick in the September issue of AR magazine, Paulson’s cost basis for his huge-ass BofA position was $9. Using a conservative P/E multiple of 10, and a 2011 earnings per share estimate of $3, Paulson’s analysis estimates $BAC should be worth $30 at the tail end of 2011. In other words, pay no attention to JP taking a mere 8.2 million shares off his 168 million position in the third quarter.
Given that some of you might make your own estimate off of JP $3 EPS prediction here’s how Team Paulson does the math via his marketing material:

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  • 04 Nov 2009 at 5:36 PM

John Paulson: NINTH GRADER

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Screen shot 2009-11-04 at 5.40.00 PM.pngDaily Intel got its hands on some amazing money shots of John Paulson, circa age 14. Click here to see him with the rest of the gang at Junior High 194. While we’re on the subject: if you happened to attend middle school in Great Neck 40ish years ago, and keep a scrapbook, CALL ME.

  • 05 Oct 2009 at 6:22 PM

Paolo Pellegrini Made John Paulson Smile Once

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Screen shot 2009-10-05 at 6.22.41 PM.pngThis would not be the time he asked for more money to do less work but rather when he pulled John into a room to show his former boss how he was going to make a metric fuck-ton of money for the firm, which Bloomberg gets into in a profile of P-squared (which, awesomely, is actually what he calls himself):

“After hearing a lot of arguments for and against the presence of the bubble, we had a simple and clear insight of our own to go by,” Pellegrini says.
He recalls that Paulson broke into a smile when he showed him the proof that houses were overpriced. “John doesn’t smile,” Pellegrini says. “It felt great.”

Careful analysis shows that this statement is not exactly true. Paulson JP practically grins when seated next to Jack Welch’s German doppelgänger. No matter– Pellegs made Paulson smile once and then the two got back to making money and taking money, only occasionally glancing up to motion to a life-size cutout of Alan Greenspan and go “look at this idiot” to each other.
Fast-forward to the end of 2008 (and a bunch of dollars later) and Pellegrini, by several accounts, proposed to Paulson and Pals that his new purview permit him to indulge himself a bit more. Basically Pellegs wanted the go-ahead to spends his days waxing poetic on larger geopolitical issues that required constant consultations with peers like Henry Kissenger, David H. Petraeus, Tila Tequila, etc, and to spend less of his time slicing numbers to figure out if Ben Bernanke was going to survive the next option arm reset (he also wanted more money to do so). The two parties diverged from there, with P-squared being more encouraged to leave the building (as opposed to leaving on his own terms) than is necessarily suggested here. It’s not that JP and Pals were opposed to P^2 drastically redefining what he did for the firm but apparently the attitude that came with the demand that ‘Legs have a red phone to Putin installed in his office and be referred to as “The Talent” in front of the Limited Partners was rubbing people the wrong way.
And now you’re all going to potentially benefit! P.Legs struck out on his own with PSQR Management, which returned 80 percent through July and will be marketed to outsiders (for now it’s all his money) in 2010. Presumably he’ll be looking to hire a few more man boys to help run the the place sometime soon. Let’s try Pellegs on for size. If you like what you see, if it’s all you ever wanted (superficially) in a boss, considering shooting a res.

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  • 25 Mar 2009 at 2:38 PM

Why Does John Paulson Hate The Safecracker?

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Picture 979.pngConsidering he has apparently transformed into a mortgage backed securities bull (in selective cases) it’s interesting to hear that John Paulson doesn’t seem interested in using cheap government leverage and guarantees to participate in the public-private plan to pick up legacy assets, as he told the Times. Why not? We actually have no idea, given Paulson’s soft spoken treatment of the subject, but it is great fun to speculate.
Perhaps the prospect of an ever-changing regulatory morass or retroactive witch-hunts turned off our hero? Or perhaps Paulson would simply prefer to cherry pick his own hit-list of prospective value plays, avoid the gamble of an auction and the spectacle of banks trying to game the system? Lots of buyer’s regret potential here. Leveraged buyer’s regret, actually. It is also not particularly hard to imagine that anything the banks want to sell might be less attractive than a few carefully picked distressed assets from better motivated sellers.
Is Paulson alone? We would like to find out. Dealbreaker is going to keep a running tally of who decides to opt out and in. So far:
Bridgewater: Considering it.
Citadel (according to sources): Considering it.
Paulson: No.
Let us know as you hear. Share: tips at dealbreaker dot com.
Top Hedge Fund Managers Do Well in a Down Year [The New York Times]

John Paulson Falls On Hard Times

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paulsonhamptonscityfile.jpg
His home wasn’t foreclosed on so I’m not sure this technically falls under the category of “ironic” but I think we can definitely consider it rich: John Paulson, who made a killing shorting the individual mortgages of down-on-luck friends out East, has been forced to slash the asking price of his Southampton home. The 6,800 square foot house is now going for the bargain basement price of $16.9 million, after sitting on the market for four months at $19.5.
John Paulson’s Southhampton Price Cut [City File]