"Bullied" Trader Offers Managers Everywhere Genius New Excuse For Poor Performance

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One of the hardest parts of being a hedge fund manager is coming up with new ideas. Not investment ideas but those related to explaining to clients, via letter, why last month/quarter/year went ass-bleedingly bad. There's the challenge of generating new ways to describe the massacre (Sac-ripping, clown-facing, donkey punching, etc), the silver-lining ("Now hear the great news: we've turned every dollar you invested in the beginning of the year into 15 cents"), and, of course, the rationale.

The last couple years have made all of these tasks but the third in particular an extremely difficult enterprise. Stuff like "We lost it all but you can take solace in knowing it’s not us, it’s the market. The global financial markets are wrong, and we happy few at [insert your firm here] are correct, in a way that has yet to reveal itself but rest assured, is coming" is good stuff but at this point stale. Those taking pride in their missives re: what it feels like to be worked over with the spreader and truss bar for 85 straight trading sessions know new material is necessary but what? Think, damn it, think, they say as they sit at their desks, knee high in redemption requests.

If you currently find yourself looking for some fresh ideas/excuses for upcoming love notes re: July losses, consider this one, courtesy of Patrick Evershed, which is really not half bad.

Patrick Evershed, a former New Star Asset Management Holdings Inc. fund manager, can proceed with a lawsuit over claims he was bullied by company founder John Duffield, a London court said. Evershed, 69, can pursue whistleblowing and unfair dismissal claims against the fund, a London appeals court ruled today. New Star had sought to dismiss the whistleblowing claim, which allows him to seek unlimited damages. Most U.K. unfair dismissal claims are capped at about 65,000 pounds ($101,000). Duffield “has been most vile to most of the fund managers for several years and bullying us,” Evershed said in a letter. “In particular he bullied me into reopening my fund. This destroyed the performance of the fund and my reputation.”

Former New Star Fund Manager Evershed Can Sue Over `Bullying,' Court Says [Bloomberg]

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