Who in their right mind would continue to give John Meriwether money? He seems to have the anti-Midas touch. I wish I could be that horrible of a money manager and still raise a Billion dollars with the snap of my fingers. Maybe the third time will truly be the charm. http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/10/22/meriwether-is-back-and-so-is-risk/
It is odd he is marketing a same or similar strategy. I guess he might push the idea on prospective investors that he knows what to look out for now as his funds have fallen down holes twice and will be able to ‘foresee’ future market traps.
Yeah, personally I prefer someone who’s seen the ups and the downs first hand in leadership positions. I like to ride motorcycles and they have a saying among riders that, “There are those who’ve crashed and those who haven’t crashed yet.”
I met Meriwether at an event back in '04. Nice guy, very smart. I wouldn’t give him a dime.
I am in the school of thought ‘Once bitten, twice shy’. Applies to a lot of HF managers these days though, but fk em.
He’s not worse than a lot of the money managers out there. Sure, he blew up a hedge fund 10 years ago, but he was also beating the market for many years before that.
um, he also blew up a fund last year too… I guess you are doubling up on him. Or quadrupling up now…
well if u liked him when he was up 10 u got to practically love the guy now …its called doiubling down buddy and its what the smart people do…
Muddahudda Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > um, he also blew up a fund last year too… I > guess you are doubling up on him. Or quadrupling > up now… Some 1/3 of all hedge funds also blew up last year. It wasn’t really a normal year for the market, as you might recall.
Black Swan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Yeah, personally I prefer someone who’s seen the > ups and the downs first hand in leadership > positions. I like to ride motorcycles and they > have a saying among riders that, “There are those > who’ve crashed and those who haven’t crashed yet.” What do you ride?
Hello Mister Walrus Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Muddahudda Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > um, he also blew up a fund last year too… I > > guess you are doubling up on him. Or > quadrupling > > up now… > > > Some 1/3 of all hedge funds also blew up last > year. It wasn’t really a normal year for the > market, as you might recall. 1/3? Dont think so. And correct me if my memory serves me wrong, but JWM went down at the start of the year. Japanese linkers in Jan and Mar. Off the top of my head.
He reminds me of Bob Nardelli. Has a knack for drawing a huge salary while destroying shareholder value. Yet smart people continue to give him money. I assume Nardelli and Meriwether must have photos or something.
I’ve written about his strategy (fixed income arbitrage) before and I will write about it again. First of all, I’d like to say that blowing up (even once) is an event that should not happen PERIOD. Second, fixed income arbitrage strategies are inherently unattractive, since they represent capped gains and ‘unlimited’ losses. The strategy relies on leverage to magnify small gains. In a good year, you can earn 10-15%. In a bad year, you are out of business. The rub is that the investments within the portfolio barely amount to 2% annualized gains ex-leverage. The use of leverage obviously varies with the fund, but it can be anywhere from 10x to 30x so I am not going to comment on his use of leverage. A true investor can achieve returns without the use of leverage. To borrow from WEB, I’d rather not engage in the practice of picking up pennies in front of a steam roller. Meriweather has lost more money than he’s earned over his career. How’s that for a track record.