The old thread got closed, but did anybody notice that he launched a new fund and deleted all mention of the old one from his site? Too funny - if one fund blows up sweep it under the rug and start a new one
This is not a comment directed towards Schindler - all funds do this. Mutual funds especially are very, very good at this. As a broker that used to sell them, I can't tell you how many times the bad ones just up and vanished... It's apparently an acceptable part of the game.
Most of the time this makes sense. A majority of funds enjoy initial profitability. So what happens if they suffer a 20% loss? -Keep going, try to beat high water mark: Not much incentive for manager considering he's not getting paid, and the investor may be worried because of bad positions that may go worse. -Close, and start a new fund: Many times the fund closes at a gain (gross) since inception, so the investor isn't too pissed. The manager has incentive to perform once again. The fund can enter new positions or strategies without relying on the troubled ones that got them into the mess as in scenario A. The proof is in the pudding...very often the money for these new funds comes from the investors of the previous fund. There is a reason for that.
His old fund is still running. It's only closed to new investors. He decided to stop making the numbers public. I really don't blame him. The schadenfreude on this site is off the charts.
I never understood how this practice is allowed to exist. It's so easy to just wipe the slate clean. I guess when the big funds have huge budges for lobbying and political campaigns, you can slide this through w/o much fuss.