letters to investors

  • 21 Nov 2012 at 12:34 PM

Area Nonpartisan Hedge Fund Manager Still Working Out How People Could Cast Their Vote For President Based On A Little Rain

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“For years I kept these memos away from anything related to politics. But more recently I began to discuss issues facing the United States, and this has required some mention of policy and thus of politics. I’ve tried very hard to be non-partisan, with a goal of not having readers know my leanings…Because I found America’s recent presidential election – and especially the results – so fascinating, I’m going to move explicitly to the field of politics, but with the same goal of non-partisan expression…If you believe the exit polls, people who were positively influenced by the handling of Sandy could have made up all or more of Obama’s 2.8% margin of victory. If it’s true that Sandy was the deciding factor for 15% of the electorate, and if it caused just a fifth of those people to switch to Obama, that means without Sandy, Romney would have won. I find it shocking that the choice of a president for four years could turn on something as fickle as the weather.” [Howard Marks]

  • 01 Nov 2012 at 1:56 PM

Bill Gross Spent The Month Of October Fleshing Out A Flava-Flav Inspired Character For His November Letter To Investors

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The result is a multi-dimensional man who lives in a bottle, takes his sartorial cues from Flava Flav, and predicts election results “Mr. G” doesn’t even want. Read more »

If Ben Bernanke Is Going To Keep Printing Money, David Einhorn Is Going To Continue Stockpiling Gold Watches

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In other GL third quarter updates, sources at Brovada say the investment team has swung from two point underdogs to 13.5 point favorites in the annual interoffice basketball game and the Greenlight baby-making machine continues to around the clock. Read more »

Bill Ackman: Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads

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The principal weakness we share with most other money managers is the fact that our capital base is not permanent, and we therefore keep cash on hand and/or own passive liquid investments which we can sell to meet potential investor demands for capital. To address this weakness in our open end hedge fund structure, later this year, we intend to launch the private phase of Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd., which we expect to eventually list on the London Stock Exchange…In [the cases of Canadian Pacific, JC Penney, Justice Holdings and General Growth], we had the resources to effectuate the necessary change and the capital commitment from investors who were willing to wait for the changes to be implemented. During the course of each investment, however, there have been periods of enormous skepticism both from the investing public at large and, presumably, from some of you who are invested in the Funds…The Pershing Square funds have been a large beneficiary of our ability to take advantage of periodic market skepticism by increasing our ownership at more favorable prices. Volatility is the friend of the unleveraged long-term investor. We much prefer the bumpy road to higher rates of return than a smoother ride to more modest profits. Read more »

  • 30 May 2012 at 12:47 PM

Warren Buffett And David Einhorn Are In Agreement Re: The Frigidity Of Their Disfavored Investment Ideas

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Back in February, in his annual letter to investors, Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett spent a good bit of time discussing why one shouldn’t own gold. Beyond the fact that, according to WB, gold doesn’t “change in size and [is] incapable of producing anything,” and you’d be much better off buying farmland (which “a century from now will have produced staggering amounts of corn, wheat, cotton and other crops and will continue to produce that valuable bounty”) or shares of Exxon Mobil (which “will probably have delivered trillions of dollars in dividends to its owners”), the Oracle of Omaha had one incontrovertible, be all end all reason for eschewing the metal: its unfuckability. Oh sure, you can do things to a cube, you can fondle it, you can talk dirty to it, you can send nude pictures of yourself, you can even drill a hole in it and fuck it senseless, but, the thing is, the cube will not respond. No reciprocation, no gratitude, not even a sign it enjoyed itself.  For Buffett, no further argument was necessary as to the worthlessness of the commodity. (Silver, on the other hand, will make you feel like you’re 18 again.) Anyway, David Einhorn sort of feels the same way about the dollar. Read more »

John Paulson Is Sorry

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Hedge fund legend John Paulson apologized to investors for what he is calling a year that has been “the worst in the firm’s 17 year history.” “We are disappointed and apologize,” the Paulson Funds said in a letter to investors obtained by CNBC. Hedge fund legend John Paulson apologized to investors for what he is calling a year that has been “the worst in the firm’s 17 year history.” “For 17 years, we have been generally correct in these macro assessments. This year we were clearly wrong in our judgment regarding the potential for the negative conditions mentioned above to create a toxic mix of fear in the markets,” the report says. The hedge fund company is now “wholly focused” on returning investors to their high-water marks. The report says Paulson is confident that “many of our position will recover as fear subsides.” [NetNet]

David Einhorn Is Flattered By The Gesture But You’re Going To Have To Do A Lot Better Than That

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In related news, cat got your tongue? Read more »

Bill Gross Feels Fat

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And he wants to talk about it. Read more »

SJB Escrow Corp Would Like To Remind Investors This Was The Best 3% They’ve Ever Spent

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Real-estate developer Stephen Ross and his partners spent more than a year digging into U.S. banks, including more than 100 with loans to local bakeries, gas stations and amusement parks. They hoped to spend about $1.1 billion buying or investing in lenders. But the deeper they went, the worse things looked. As a result, Related Cos., the New York firm in which Mr. Ross is chief executive, gave back the money it raised from roughly 150 investors, including hedge-fund manager David Einhorn. The firm did find several investments it was interested in but was outbid. In a prospectus, SJB had told potential investors: “We believe the environment presents a significant opportunity for SJB to consummate an attractive acquisition of one or more institutions, whereas the current weakness in the banking sector and a potential long duration of any recovery create a favorable long-term environment to build a successful commercial bank.” Terms of the pool required SJB to invest the money within 18 months [but]…with the clock ticking on its 18-month deadline, Messrs. Ross, Blau and Beal sent a letter to investors Aug. 18 informing them that the fund would be liquidated. Investors received roughly 97 cents on the dollar after expenses. Mr. Blau, Related’s president, had led the effort to find potential investments for the fund [and] in many cases, didn’t liked what he saw, including loans that were secured by portable toilets and bowling balls. “It was a lot of work, and it was hard to make the numbers work,” he said. [WSJ]