I think Pirate Capital will come to symbolize the "hedge fund era". I remember the New Yorker article about some douche named Zak I think that worked for them. I remember it made it seem like these guys had a gift of being able to "run money". It is called karma
Proof ALL traders lose. Maybe their pirates were gunned down by the navy off somalia coasts? Or their pirate CDs and DVDs got confiscated?
Wow 1.8 billion, 2008 = 375 million, 2007 Founder Thomas R. Hudson Jr (fired from Goldman Sachs, distressed bank debt dep., 1999, and then fired from some other investment firm in 2001.... result = start up own hedge fund! Strategy: "Tom Hudson, 41, who founded Pirate in 2002, is known for acquiring stakes in companies and pushing management to make changes to boost their stock prices." He probably dabbled in small cap stocks in order to have influence over management... with the cashflow going out of the stock market in 2007, it makes total sense that small caps got it worse. It would be interesting if he was pursuing certain industries, perhaps ones involved in financial services. Could've been worse had he been insanely leveraged. Source is wikipedia, so information may be inaccurate.