http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/10/news/companies/news_SAC.fortune/?postversion=2008111016 Just damage control? From the article it appears that SAC's losses on VW was limited to just one fund -- CR Intrinsic -- but how true is it? At any rate, it is a clear admission that they have flushed $2 billion down the toilet. If the problems had in fact been ring fenced, then SAC should still be sitting on more than $5 billion in cash. Why on earth are they raising money? Citadel and Greenlight are raising funds because they have both suffered losses and have loads of illiquid assets that are presently retardly undervalued. SAC went to cash and this makes their capital raising activities very puzzling.
There's definitely a campaign to take out many of the hedgies, as evidenced by the sudden short selling ban followed by the sick short squeeze. The hedges were separated from their short positions, then, had their long positions decimated by the crash and the increased margin requirements. This is why I think the losses were greater than what is being reported. Many hedges are in desperate need of a strong last quarter. So, it's not surprising that they would overweight a potentially big money making position. It's also why I think we're gonna go sideways for the rest of the year. The real financial establishment isn't gonna give the hedges a shot of jumping on a big trend one way or another.
just for the records, my short Porsche at 66.5 Euro is now at 52 Euro. Think some more people discovered Porsche has some problems, not only SAC.
VW Chief Scandal-hit Matthias Mueller is finally out as CEO at Volkswagen Group, which has installed in his place Herbert Diess, a noted cost-cutting advocate. Diess, who now controls VW as well as many other carmakers within the group, will retain his role as Volkswagen brand chief. The group is being restructured, with three new core divisions including "volume" (VW, Skoda, Seat), "premium" (Audi), and "super premium" (Porsche, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Bentley). Autocar
Most of the hedge fund billionaires who are blowing up AUM are "blowing up" are doing it mostly with OPM. In the meantime they keep collecting 2/20 and get richer. OK only collecting 2 if they are not profitable. This is very different from us full time small mom and pop retails who eat our own kills, or starve if no kills and let the market takes money from us. In my next life I want to be a hedge fund manager.