Hedge funds have used the last week to again exit their favorite crowded trades. While Reuters may think that hedge funds are still bullish on peso and are maintaining their longs, the holdings in CFTC futures says otherwise. Yet again leveraged funds are cutting their long bets in MXN—longs in peso futures and options were slashed by 26 percent to 59,441 contracts between the period of June 5 to June 11 . This is...
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Opportunities often come with a degree of ambiguity and it is mostly difficult to tell cheese from chalk. Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:QCOR), Lululemon Athletica Inc (NASDAQ:LULU) (TSE:LLL), and Bazaarvoice Inc (NASDAQ:BV) are three examples. Here is some sense out of the noise: Questcor’s Shares Surged After New Drug Development Shares of California based specialty biopharmaceutical company Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:QCOR) surged after it announced an agreement with Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) to develop anti-inflammatory Synacthen and Synacthen...
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Data from CFTC shows that investors took the week ending on June 4 to reduce their crowded bets in financial futures. One of the most significant reversals was seen in long exposures in the Mexican peso by hedge funds and CTAs, which are categorized as ‘leveraged funds’ by CFTC. Investors pulled long contracts in MXN futures and options from 113,830 positions to 80,873 contracts, roughly a 30 percent cut. As we have noted before, MXN...
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Steve Cohen is easily the most popular/notorious hedge fund manager right now. The insider trading scandal, which especially stands out because of Cohen’s successful track record and the size of his firm, sprung rumors that SAC Capital Advisors is shutting down and turning into a family office. All untrue apparently as Steve Cohen has an adamant personality and does not want all his great ideas and brilliant returns to go to waste so he will...
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It seems all hell is breaking loose as all crowded trades get punished. Mixed employment, manufacturing and export data from US, Shinzo Abe’s unexciting structural reforms and Draghi’s cagey comments about fiscal stimulus did not help matters. The current showcase example of dizzy market behavior is the appreciation in Japanese yen, a currency that everybody had buried in their trades. Today’s fall of USD by over -2 percent against JPY marks the largest single...
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Apparently investors are just lining up to get the Australian dollar off their hands, according to the view of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)’s managing director Michael Trudel. While speaking to the Wall Street Journal’s James Glynn, Trudel said that there is rarely anyone they have met recently who has shown any inclination to go long AUD. We have been following the AUD short story ever since news broke that George Soros could be shorting the Aussie. AUD:...
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Elon Musk tweeted the following (posting here in order to revisit at some later point): Forgot to say one thing at Tesla annual shareholders meeting: just as my money was the first in, it will be the last out. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2013 I respect and admire CEOs and other executives who eat their own cooking, and align their incentives with shareholders’ interests. They are to be applauded and encouraged....
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For many investors, the term “ultra-short” fund would bring in memories of a not-too-pleasant period at the peak of the 2008 economic downturn when their plans of pocketing high returns on very short term investments saw them incurring heavy losses. Once seen as a lucrative alternative to money-market funds, ultra-short funds which invest in high quality bonds maturing within two year fell out of favor with investors almost overnight, following the collapse of the...
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R. G. Niederhoffer Capital’s flagship Diversified Program with $527 million under management is up 27.7 percent for the year through May. The Niederhoffer Capital fund was up 5.6 percent in April but detracted 0.7 percent in May, breaking the streak of positive returns the was maintained in the last six months. Other smaller allocations of R. G. Niederhoffer Capital, also called programs, have shown mixed performance. The most notable of them is Optimal Alpha Program with...
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A former classmate of mine (who was fairly popular) seems to be the ultimate short idea generator (all his employers ended up being exceptionally great shorts). If you look at his resume, he looks like the guy you’d want to hire… I’ll let the world (and the all-knowing head-hunters) believe that. As far as I’m concerned, he’s an incredible idea generator. For short ideas… Employment history 2006-2008 – Bulge-bracket, “too big to fail” investment...
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The shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) have rallied close to 30% in 2013 and are currently in the range of $360-370. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG)’s stock went as high as $440 in the first half of 2012, but after a couple of disappointing earnings in a row, it tanked to $240. However, the stock has consolidated since then helped by solid earnings in the last two quarters. The company released its first quarter results...
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