I agree with those others who think he is being prudent and yes, conservative with the bulk of his funds. He has billions so can afford to sit in cash and ride out an uncertain period. It is tough to trade with that kind of dough and the recent volatility. If I were him, I would do the same thing. Take a vacation, play smaller. No reason to be a hero. Of course I realize that makes too much sense to appeal to most of those on little trader, err, I mean elite trader. Good trading BM
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aexqRa84wZJs&refer=us Tudor, SAC Capital Raised Cash as Markets Tumbled (Update1) By Katherine Burton Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Hedge fund managers Paul Tudor Jones and Steven Cohen sold assets to raise cash this month as credit markets seized up and stock prices dropped. Jones, who has been running Tudor Investment Corp.'s biggest fund for 22 years, made his move after watching the Mexican peso tumble 16 percent since the start of October, said two people with knowledge of the decisions by the Greenwich, Connecticut-based firm. Tudor manages $18 billion. Cohen, who oversees $16 billion at his SAC Capital Advisors LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, ordered traders to sell amid the worst equity rout since the 1930s, a person familiar with the firm said. The firm now holds about 50 percent of assets in cash. === I am a long term equity position trader. I remember selling most of my positions within the past two weeks as my trend following system showed sell signals. I suspect these billion dollar funds are long term trend followers also. They seem to sell at about the same time that I sell.
Funny how some people here talk about Cohen as if he does not know what he is doing. For your info Cohen was also featured on Market Wizards and he has proven himself to be a supertrader he has beeen trading for a long long time. There is absolutely nothing wrong with moving into cash. As long as you have your trading capital there will always be an opportunity. No capital = No trading that's what happens to most Elite Trader trolls who are good only at criticizing others. Wonder why they do not show their performance ? They don't have anything to show, just words.
The thread title "At the bottom" suggests Cohen had a significant net long exposure. For all we know his traders go both long and short. Being close to a bottom bears little significance when closing out a long/short book and going to cash.
true. he could have gone to cash because of the vix at 70, news coming from everywhere good or bad and ES liquidity dried up
Oh yes he's rubbish that Steve Cohen - man doesn't have a clue what to do. Just look at a segment of his Wikipedia below: Wall Street fame In March 2005, the New York Times referred to Cohen as "A New Prince of Wall Street" [4]. In 2006 Cohen granted a rare interview to the Wall Street Journal; the article's title referred to him as "the hedge fund king" [5]. [edit] Wealth With a fortune estimated by Forbes at $8 billion, Cohen is the 36th richest American[6]. His $15 million house is 31,000 square feet (2,900 m2) and sits on 14 acres in Greenwich, Connecticut.[7] His 2005 compensation was reportedly $1 billion,[7] considerably higher than his 2004 compensation ($450 million) [8], 2001 compensation ($428 million)[2], and 2003 compensation ($350 million) [9]. In addition, Cohen owns 7% of search engine Baidu [10]. You see? Rubbish. $15m house? Pah - we've all got those Stevie boy! Well done OP for spotting Cohen is a fake - one trusts your ability to spot opportunities in the market is equally impressive. You mug.
Sometimes, you need to look away from all of us to get a true look at what is going on. My neighbor and I were talking about this, oh, 8 months ago. I still sounded 'out there' at that time, as to opposed to , 'My God, this is what you've been telling me.' Anyway, this is what he told me. "I figured it out reading the paper one day. Two hedgefund managers on LI, who lived in 40,000,000 mansions were suing each other over easement to the beach. Now, they may be smarter than me, but they aren't that much smarter............" I 've said it before, and I'll say it again. They are willing to do things I won't do. And that will be proven here very shortly.
Don't know the backgrounds of either one of them. With all that money standing on the sidelines, the market will get a heck of a boost coming back in.
There's been lots of cash on the sidelines in money market funds for the last year or so, but that hasn't equated with a strong market, now has it? Given the $70 trillion in CDS exposure, a lot of that recent selling will never see its way back into the equity markets . . . Instead, it's going to pay off bad bets on bad bank debt ( LEH, WM, WB, AIG, etc ) in a cash settlement. LEH CDS auction was last Friday. We've still got about 5 more of these CDS auctions to go.