Hedge Fund Manager Who Recently Dropped $300+ Million On Real Estate Is Worried About People Spending Too Much On Real Estate

Ken Griffin says y'all could get hurt (following in his footsteps).
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As those of you who keep up with the life and times of Kenneth C. Griffin know, in the last year alone, the Citadel founder has acquired two floors at the Waldorf Astoria in Chicago ($29.3 million), an 18,000 square foot pad on Central Park South ($200 million), a penthouse in Miami Beach ($60 million), plus another apartment in Chicago ($11.75 million), and a Palm Beach mansion ($15.25 million). But please, people! Do as Ken Griffin says, not as Ken Griffin does.

Griffin also warned about another favorite asset class among today's rich: Luxury real estate...While brokers and developers like to tout real estate as an investment, Griffin contends that it's more of a lifestyle purchase. "In the high-end real estate market there is that element of consumption. And that's different from just investing," he said. "So I think one must have to keep that in mind, that when people make a decision to buy a piece of high-end real estate, it's not just an investment. It's where they spend time with their families and their loved ones."

Griffin is also worried about civilians following in his footsteps re: art.

Griffin said he has "cause for concern" about soaring prices in the art market. Griffin, founder of the Citadel hedge fund and an avid art collector, told CNBC on Thursday that the art market has seen a rapid shift from one that was dominated by collectors and dealers, to one that is filled with people using it as an investment. "I think people should be very hesitant in thinking about art as an investment," he said. "I would have some cause for concern around that."

$80 million Jasper Johns and $60.5 million Paul Cézannes are for professionals only.

Ken Griffin warns art prices 'cause for concern' [CNBC]

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Let's Get One Thing Straight: Ken Griffin Only Accuses People Of Attempting to Gain A Competitive Advantage By Gaining Access To Proprietary Trading Strategies-- He Does Not Get Accused!

Back in October, a former Citadel employee, Yihao “Ben” Pu, was arrested and charged with "stealing trade secrets" from Ken Griffin (by "copying company data onto a removable storage device," and then attempting to sell it to Teza Technologies AKA the firm a bunch of ex-Citadel guys tried to join in 2009 before being sued for doing so by Griffin, as well as the the shop a former Goldman programmer, Sergey Aleynikov, went to jail for after giving it proprietary GS code). Now, because apparently people just can't help themselves, KG has been forced to levy another allegation of theft against some former employees who he believes took a piece of his property when they left for high-frequency trading firm Jump Trading. Does Griffin have actual evidence that they swindled him? No, not exactly. But he's got a hunch, and that hunch is based on the fact that since 2005, when people from Citadel's "tactical trading group" started leaving for Jump, "some of the strategies" employed by the TTG "have become less profitable" and are "behaving in a way consistent with their having been copied by rivals." So what KG would like a court to do is force Jump to turn over "personnel documents, strategy and trading records, and source code," which will prove him right and the Citadel defectors to be the plunderers he knows they are.  Evidence in hand, Griffin will then sue Jump and everyone named Ken Griffin will go home happy. The only issue that needs to be worked out is Jump Trading's cooperation, which so far is proving difficult to obtain. In fact, the firm is being downright unhelpful and not only that? Its legal team has accused Griffy-boy of being the thief, or at least trying to be. That's right: the way JT sees it, Citadel's new profitable algorithm development system is a two-step process that goes something like this: Step 1: Steal successful algorithms from rival firm. Step 2: Use them. In its response filing, Jump said that Citadel had no evidence that the algorithms had become less profitable because of any of Jump's actions. It said that any of the hundreds of other algorithmic trading firms could be at fault. "The petition is nothing more than a transparent attempt by Citadel to obtain a competitive advantage by gaining access to Jump's proprietary and confidential trading strategies," Jump's motion said. Your move, KG. Citadel Accuses Jump Employees Of Stealing Secrets [Reuters]