Opening Bell: 9.25.17

Steve Cohen just took a big step forward in his comeback with a massive new hedge fund (BI)
Steve Cohen, the billionaire hedge-fund manager briefly banned from the industry after an insider-trading investigation, this week sent investors documents pitching his new fund, Stamford Harbor Capital, a person who has reviewed the deck told Business Insider. Investors will have to agree to steep terms to put their money with the famed investor — including a minimum investment of $100 million and an annual management fee of over 2.5% of those assets.

Merkel faces complex coalition talks as grip on power weakens (FT)
The SPD, Ms Merkel’s current coalition partner, said bluntly that it wanted to be in opposition to rebuild after a chastening defeat. That leaves the chancellor considering a rare three-way coalition with a pair of smaller parties — the Free Democrats and the Greens — to form a government. Hinting that she would still be open for an alliance with the SPD, she said she would be starting coalition talks in the coming days with all sides. She has already ruled out leading any coalition involving the AfD, the first substantial rightwing populist party in parliament since the Nazis.

The return of the stock picker (FT)
Through June, over half of all US equity mutual funds outperformed their benchmarks, according to the latest SPDJI scorecard. Equity hedge funds are also enjoying a welcome hot streak. On average they have gained 8.6 per cent this year, according to HFR, making this the strongest run in four years. “While passive strategies clearly have had the upper hand from 2009-2016, historically there has been a clear cyclicality in the leadership between the two,” Andrew Folsom, a senior investment analyst at Wells Fargo wrote in a recent report. “We could be in the early stages of an ‘active versus passive’ regime change.”

Hedgie says SEC is ‘very wrong-footed in what they do’ (NYP)
“I told them to go F themselves,” Cooperman said of the SEC’s initial offer, the Post reports. Cooperman, who provides college scholarships to Essex County, NJ, students, said there were better things he could do with the money. “I tell the government, what you guys are costing me, I could send 2,500 kids to college. They didn’t give a damn,” Cooperman said. “They use taxpayer money to fund their peccadillos.”

Funds that exclude LGBT backers miss fundraising goal (FT)
Inspire Investing had expected the “biblically responsible” products aimed at conservative evangelical Christians to attract “hundreds of millions of dollars” in the months since their launch in February. By September 21 they had combined assets of just under $70m. BUT: “Attempt to slam Bible ETF for 'only' getting $70m in 6mo, but that's actually amazing feat for indie, specialty ETF”

Nothing Is Too Strange for Cities Wooing Amazon to Build There (NYT)
Business leaders in Tucson, Ariz., have tried to mail Amazon’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, a 21-foot cactus. The largest conference room in the Tulsa, Okla., mayor’s office has been converted to a war room, with 50 volunteers poring over videos of Mr. Bezos. In Philadelphia, hundreds of Wharton Business School students have a new fall semester assignment: pitch the city to Amazon. And the mayor of Ottawa flew to Seattle last week to walk as close to Amazon’s headquarters as is publicly accessible.

Eight Things Cryptocurrency Enthusiasts Probably Won’t Tell You (Great Wall of Numbers)
Some entrepreneurs and investors in this space make extraordinary claims without providing extraordinary evidence. Such as, using cryptocurrency networks are cheaper to send money overseas than Western Union. No, it probably is not. But those who make these unfounded, feel-good claims are not held accountable or fact-checked by the market because many market participants are solely interested in the value of coins appreciating. Anything is fair game so as long as prices go up-and-to-the-right, even if it means hiring a troll army or two to influence market sentiment.

Ray Dalio and the Market’s Pulse (WSJ)
Too much capital is often a burden. There are only so many good investment ideas out there, and it’s late in this cycle. Mr. Dalio’s principles are unique but probably not applicable to many other businesses. As he says: “Truth—more precisely, an accurate understanding of reality—is the essential foundation for any good outcomes.” Here’s a truth: If Bridgewater has lost its mojo, Mr. Dalio would be smart to manage a much smaller pot of money rather than torture his employees.

U.S. Households Are Loaded Up With Stocks (Dana Lyons)
There are no doubt many investors who are still wary of returning to the stock market due to the two cyclical bear markets in the past dozen years. However, while there may be a certain level of investor mistrust, the moniker of “most hated bull market of all-time” does not seem appropriate. It should not be lost on investors that we are at the second highest level of stock investment ever, behind only the most speculative stock blowoff in U.S. history.

Don’t buy the idea teens are having less sex until you take a closer look at the data (Qz)
It’s true because the question the CDC asks is “Have you ever had sexual intercourse?” This is (basically) the same question that Gail Dines, a professor of sociology and women’s studies, told me she posed to a group of young women at a private high school recently, while giving a talk about the impact of porn on sexual health. Dines asked them “Have you ever had sex?” The response in the majority was, “No.” Dines, however, followed up with another question: “I asked them, ‘So what do you do at parties then?’ and the answer was,‘Oh! …Blowjobs.’”