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For investors around the world looking at Greece, there was but one question Sunday: What is going to happen when the markets open? On Sunday night, the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said in a televised address that Greece’s banks and stock market would be closed on Monday, as Athens tries to avert a financial collapse. But the question of what happens when the markets do open is particularly acute for the hedge fund investors — including luminaries like David Einhorn and John Paulson — who have collectively poured more than 10 billion euros, or $11 billion, into Greek government bonds,...

The average hedge fund has produced a worse investment performance in the first half of this year than a portfolio consisting of a savings account at your local bank and a random collection of stocks picked by a blindfolded monkey. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. According to the benchmark HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, tracked by Hedge Fund Research Inc., the average hedge fund has earned its investors just 2.4% so far this year net of fees. By contrast, the average stock in the MSCI World index of the developed countries’ equity markets is up 7.7%. Hedge-fund...

Reacting to the disclosure that Hillary Clinton exclusively used a private email account during her tenure as secretary of state, a federal judge agreed Friday to reopen a conservative group's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking details about the employment arrangements of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. However, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan declined — for now — to address claims from Judicial Watch that Clinton's use of the private account and server led State Department officials to commit a fraud on the court by certifying they had turned over all responsive records.

The hedge fund founded and, until recently, run by billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer was involved in a deal to sell a stake in a Russian oil company to a Russian oligarch who is the target of U.S. sanctions. Farallon Capital Management sold a part of its stake in Russian firm Geotech Oil Services to the Volga Group, a Luxembourg-based investment firm owned by Russian billionaire Gennady Timchenko, in 2010. Four years later, in April 2014, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it would target Timchenko, Volga, and a number of companies associated with them, in a round of sanctions aimed...

Hassan Nemazee, an Iranian-American businessman who raised money for the political campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for defrauding Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc and HSBC Holdings Plc out of $292 million. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein imposed the sentence on Thursday following Nemazee's March 18 guilty plea in Manhattan federal court to charges of bank fraud and wire fraud over loan transactions with the three major banks. Nemazee said he needed the money to pay debts arising from his dealings in hedge funds and properties.

General Motors agreed to buy back $5 billion in stock by the end of next year as part of a plan to return more cash to shareholders. In return, an activist shareholder decided to drop a potentially divisive bid for a seat on the company’s board. The move, announced Monday, is part of a deal with Harry Wilson, a former member of the government task force that restructured GM coming out of its 2009 bankruptcy.Wilson, who represents four hedge funds which own about 2 percent of the company, had previously accused GM of hoarding cash to the detriment of shareholders...

It was 8 degrees in Minneapolis on a recent January day, and out on Interstate 394, snow whipped against the windshields of drivers on their morning commutes. But inside the offices of Cargill, the food conglomerate, Greg Page, the company’s executive chairman, felt compelled to talk about global warming. Mr. Page is a member of the Risky Business Project, an unusual collection of business and policy leaders determined to prepare American companies for climate change. It’s a prestigious club, counting a former senator, five former White House cabinet members, two former mayors and two billionaires in the group. The 10...

Someone asked me for a list of winners and losers and what the unexpected move by the Swiss National Bank meant in the long term for Switzerland. I will address that later today. First, consider one of the big losers who was wiped out overnight.

Credit-ratings agency Moody's thinks Yeshiva, a private Jewish university located in New York City, will be broke by next year. Yeshiva lost an estimated $105 million losses with convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, who was also a trustee, but that's not why the university is running out of money. According to an extensive two-year investigation by TakePart's Steven Weiss and The Jewish Channel, the administration blew the school's financial future on bad hedge fund investments over the last decade. At one point before the 2008 financial crisis, the university became allocated 65% in hedge funds, which was the third-highest of...

An environmental advocacy group backed by hedge fund tycoon Tom Steyer is set to unleash a seven-state, $100 million offensive against Republican "science deniers" this year, a no-holds-barred campaign-style push from the green billionaire that could help decide which party controls the Senate and key statehouses come November. The Steyer-backed outside group, NextGen Climate, has billed itself as a progressive, pro-environment counterbalance to the wealthy oil and gas industry -- as well as the primary foil to the pro-business Koch brothers and their well-funded conservative donor network. The outfit, launched last year by the San Francisco billionaire, has already pledged...

The Internal Revenue Service audits fewer than 1 percent of large business partnerships, according to a government report released Tuesday. That means some of Wall Street’s largest hedge funds and private equity firms are largely escaping close scrutiny by the IRS, said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. The Government Accountability Office says the number of large businesses organized as partnerships has more than tripled since 2002, yet hardly any get audited. In 2012, only 0.8 percent were subjected to field exams in which agents do a thorough review of books and records. …

Hedge Funds Haven't Owned This Much Of The Stock Market Since Right Before The Crash In 2008 Matthew Boesler June 8, 2013, 3:27 PM Two interesting stats on hedge fund exposure to the market via BofA Merrill Lynch analysts Stephen Suttmeier, Jue Xiong, and MacNeil Curry: 1.In the first quarter of 2013, net exposure (the difference between long and short positions in stocks) rose to match the previous peak (made in the second quarter of 2007). 2.The percentage of the stock market (specifically, the Russell 2000 float) owned by hedge funds is now the highest since the second quarter of...

Wall Street investors hungry for advance information on upcoming federal health-care decisions repeatedly held private discussions with Obama administration officials, including a top White House adviser helping to implement the Affordable Care Act. The private conversations show that the increasingly urgent race to acquire“political intelligence” goes beyond the communications with congressional staffers that have become the focus of heightened scrutiny in recent weeks. White House records show that Elizabeth Fowler, then a top ­health-policy adviser to President Obama, met with executives from half a dozen investment firms in 2011 and 2012. Among them was Kris Jenner, a stock picker with...

His show's called The Daily Rundown. And sure enough, Chuck Todd ran down Rick Santorum this morning as just another "flavor of the day" who "probably won't be the nominee." Apparently, trouncing Mitt Romney in three contests last week, and leading by a reportedly huge margin in Romney's native state of Michigan, isn't enough to impress Chuck. But Todd totally swerved around Anita Dunn, failing to question his guest about the story of her big-money hypocrisy making today's news. As Obama's White House communications director, Dunn regularly went after hedge funds. But now as a PR consultant, as the Washington...

A California billionaire is pledging to spend as much of his fortune as necessary to make climate change “the defining issue of our generation.” Tom Steyer, who made his riches as a hedge fund manager, told The Hill on Tuesday that he wants to make climate change a campaign issue for years to come and Democratic support for environmental protections as widespread as support for gay marriage and immigration reform. “The goal here is not to win. The goal here is to destroy these people. We want a smashing victory,” Steyer said of candidates he judges to be on the...

New York Hedge Funds Are Annoyed That Cyprus Isn't Blowing Up Markets And Making Gold Surge Joe WeisenthalMar. 20, 2013, 8:19 PMSo the Cyprus drama makes for a fascinating story. But as of yet, the crisis hasn't leaked into broader markets. Even Bernanke noted that today, during his press conference. And it seems that some are annoyed by the market resilience. SocGen's currency wizard Kit Juckes tweeted this evening: Kit Juckes Via email, we asked him to expand on what he meant. Basically, in his latest swing through New York City meeting with hedge fund clients, he talked with a...

DAVID TEPPER: 'This Country Is On The Verge Of An Explosion Of Greatness' Julia La RocheJan. 22, 2013, 11:13 AMDavid Tepper, who runs $12 billion distressed debt hedge fund Appaloosa Management, was on Bloomberg TV "Market Makers" with Stephanie Ruhle moments ago. It was a tremendous interview and it showed a very relaxed and funny side of Tepper. Tepper, who has one of the best long-term track records, told Bloomberg TV that his fund was up 30% in 2012. He's said he's "going to come out of the closet" as being bullish in 2013. The reason, he explained, is there...

Goldman Sachs And The Big Hedge Funds Are Pushing Leverage To Ridiculous Extremes By Michael, on January 14th, 2013 As stocks have risen in recent years, the big hedge funds and the "too big to fail" banks have used borrowed money to make absolutely enormous profits. But when you use debt to potentially multiply your profits, you also create the possibility that your losses will be multiplied if the markets turn against you. When the next stock market crash happens, and the gigantic pyramid of risk, debt and leverage on Wall Street comes tumbling down, will highly leveraged banks...

Hedge Fund Presents Massive, Bearish Outlook On The State Of US Markets Lucas KawaJan. 3, 2013, 2:51 PMMorgan Creek Capital Management, an investment management firm with offices around the world, released its 2013 market outlook, entitled "Peering Over the Precipice." The presentation was delivered at the North Carolina Bankers Association yesterday. The slideshow presentation focuses on the three big risks facing the market: the Euro crisis, possibility of a downturn in China, and fallout from the Fiscal Cliff. Of these three, the firm is most bearish on the U.S. economy -- to the point of predicting a recession starting in...

Hedge fund managers don’t have much to be thankful for these holidays, as failure to beat low-fee index funds will likely infuriate investors shelling out hefty fees for their services. Just 13 percent of the so-called smartest money on the Street are outperforming the S&P 500, and a fifth of all hedge funds are actually in the red during 2012, according to Goldman Sachs data. To make matters worse, hedge fund managers have crowded into the same trades, with turnover at a record low, according to Goldman. Translation: Hedge fund investors are paying 2 percent fees up front and 20...