The most disturbing thing to me is that he did the interview from Monaco. I thought they were based in Vienna? I don't know about you but I don't want my money with a manager who spends his time tanning in Monaco while his fund is blowing up. The only thing I can think of is that he has offices in Monaco, but even so, I'd still rather have them in Vienna. I have been to Monaco and let me tell you trading is not one of the easiest things to concentrate on while in Monaco.
He lives in Monaco because tax level is 0%. His company is based in Austria because that was also the best choice. About his trading: I read that Christian was asked by a bank to write a program that could automate trading. He wrote it and kept it for himself. The program does the trading, so he can sun on the beach.
The Superfund Group was founded in 1995 by Christian J. Baha and Christian Halper. They started by developing an innovative program to provide technical analysis of the financial market for Austrian clients. Within two years, the software program was the leading provider of market information in Austria. This success led to the development of the Superfund Group. PS the beach at Monaco is fairly flat.
not to change the topic here ... but maybe AARON or someone else can speculate why John Henry futures funds got clobbered YTD ? I mean they most likely did not have monies in GM bonds or stock :eek:
The trend followers like Quadriga, John Henry, and Meyer Capital Management have been having a tough 2005 because all the major markets have been going in one direction just long enough for the trend followers to get aboard, and then they reverse and go the other direction for about a month and reverse again. The trend followers try to diversify across uncorrelated commodities, but these monthly reversals have been happening in all the currencies, the energies, the debt markets, and even the equity markets -- there hasn't been any shelter from the whipsaws. I don't think trend following is dead, though. It is one of the few strategies that has withstood the test of time. It'll come back and so will Quadriga, John Henry, etc.
Long Term Trend Following (or LTTF) funds are down this year, as much as 20-30%. Faders rule until the market truly has something to worry about.
are there any hedge funds that fade all the trend following ones ? they should be up then this yr for sure