Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Global Alpha hedge fund fell 22.5 percent in August, its biggest monthly decline, on losses from currency and stock trades, according to an update sent to investors. The fund, managed by Mark Carhart and Raymond Iwanowski, dropped by a third in 2007 and 44 percent from its March 2006 peak. Investors notified New York-based Goldman last month that they plan to withdraw $1.6 billion from the fund, or almost a fifth of its assets as of July 31. The month's biggest loss was an 8.9 percent decline in currencies, mostly from the fund's decision to sell Japanese yen and buy Australian dollars. The so-called carry trade unraveled when the Australian dollar fell 6 percent against the yen in August. The managers lost 4.7 percent in equities, including stocks in the U.S., Norway and Finland. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aVGq2Ll9Lntw&refer=home What a mess !
oh what a shame. nobody likes to see the likes of goldman losing. just proves one thing. no matter how big your company. how clever you think you are. how well connected your company is to the senior figures of the market. the fact that you can out spend most organisations on I.T. and quant development and research. the bottom line is this: the market will go ultimately where it wants it to. most traders with none of the above all have the ability to get out of a losing trade because we know we are wrong. the guys at goldman and all the other similar outfits all believe they are better and cleverer and are never wrong. looks like they are getting the arse kicking they deserve.
The managers of the fund will only get a 7-figure bonus instead of an 8-figure bonus this year. It sucks to be them.
Drawdown of 44% since last year? These guys are no better than some guy trading large cap tech stocks in march 2000. How can the managers of this fund still be employed by GS? My wife would boot me if I had half of that % drawndown!
lets see, if I make 25% the first year, and then 35% the second year, and I'm up 40% the third year, and then I'm down 100% the fourth year... what's my 4 year rate of return? hint: I will remain a wealthy (but unemployed) fund manager but my investors will have lost everything. c'est la vie.
Makes you wonder where their "uncle" point is. Kind of strange to keep trading a fund when it's off 40%+ - unless of course their positions are too large to exit in an orderly fashion, a la LTCM.