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Six Rules of Michael Steinhardt

Michael Steinhardt was one of the most successful hedge fund managers of all time. A dollar invested with Steinhardt Partners LP in 1967 was worth $481 when Steinhardt retired in 1995.

The following six rules were pulled out from a speech he gave:

1. Make all your mistakes early in life: The more tough lessons you learn early on, the fewer (bigger) errors you make later. A common mistake of all young investors is to be too trusting with brokers, analysts, and newsletters who are trying to sell you something.

2. Always make your living doing something you enjoy: Devote your full intensity for success over the long-term.

3. Be intellectually competitive: Do constant research on subjects that make you money. Plow through the data so as to be able to sense a major change coming in the macro situation.

4. Make good decisions even with incomplete information: Investors never have all the data they need before they put their money at risk. Investing is all about decision-making with imperfect information. You will never have all the info you need. What matters is what you do with the information you have. Do your homework and focus on the facts that matter most in any investing situation.

5. Always trust your intuition:  Intuition is more than just a hunch — it resembles a hidden supercomputer in the mind that you’re not even aware is there. It can help you do the right thing at the right time if you give it a chance. Over time, your own trading experience will help develop your intuition so that major pitfalls can be avoided.

6. Don’t make small investments: You only have so much time and energy so when you put your money in play. So, if you’re going to put money at risk, make sure the reward is high enough to justify it.

My Time at Lehman

I started at Lehman Brothers on June 1st, 2007 as a first year analyst. It was my first job out of college. Dick Fuld, the CEO at the time, publicly discussed “the road to two-hundred,” in which he would not retire until the stock reached $200 per share, almost three times the price when I arrived. Everyone at the firm believed this as though it were a fact – that there was something special about Lehman Brothers stock – it always went up.

I joined Lehman for a few reasons. The first was personal. My mother worked on Wall Street and passed away when I was a teenager. I felt, somewhat misguidedly, as though following in her footsteps would bring me closer to her. The other reasons were simpler. I had been interested in the stock market as a kid (though I went to work trading bonds and credit derivatives), I wanted to make good money, and I thought maybe, just maybe, it would be a bit of fun. (more…)

This Anti-Wall Street Film Isn’t Just for Michael Moore Fans

Independent filmmaker Danny Schecter would like to remind Wall Street that the disdain for bankers “is not coming from a bunch of lefties in some basement in the East Village. It is coming from mainstream America.”

Schecter hopes such mainstream angst can propel his latest film, “Plunder: The Crime Story of Our Time,” into the big leagues. Filmed on a budget of less than $50,000 and based on his book of the same title, the movie traces the roots of the financial crisis from the home owners who defaulted on their mortgages to the Wall Street banks loading up on mortgage investments.

The film sounds like the many books and made-for-television movies about the crisis. But Schecter, who has worked at ABC News and CNN, promises that his narrative is different because it approaches the subject like a crime story, not a mere financial story. (more…)

Quotes by Paul Tudor Jones II

Paul Tudor Jones II is one of the most successful hedge fund managers. He has never suffered a losing year. His fund has returned 23% annualized gain since its inception in 1986. Paul Tudor is a momentum trader, who believes that price move and trend unfold only because of investors’ behavior.

Markets have consistently experienced “100-year events” every five years. While I spend a significant amount of my time on analytics and collecting fundamental information, at the end of the day, I am a slave to the tape and proud of it.

I see the younger generation hampered by the need to understand and rationalize why something should go up or down. Usually, by the time that becomes self-evident, the move is already over.

There is no training — classroom or otherwise — that can prepare for trading the last third of a move, whether it’s the end of a bull market or the end of a bear market. There’s typically no logic to it; irrationality reigns supreme, and no class can teach what to do during that brief, volatile reign. The only way to learn how to trade during that last, exquisite third of a move is to do it, or, more precisely, live it.

Fundamentals might be good for the first third or first 50 or 60 percent of a move, but the last third of a great bull market is typically a blow-off, whereas the mania runs wild and prices go parabolic.

Quotes by Paul Tudor Jones II

Paul Tudor Jones II is one of the most successful hedge fund managers. He has never suffered a losing year. His fund has returned 23% annualized gain since its inception in 1986. Paul Tudor is a momentum trader, who believes that price move and trend unfold only because of investors’ behavior.

Markets have consistently experienced “100-year events” every five years. While I spend a significant amount of my time on analytics and collecting fundamental information, at the end of the day, I am a slave to the tape and proud of it.

I see the younger generation hampered by the need to understand and rationalize why something should go up or down. Usually, by the time that becomes self-evident, the move is already over.

There is no training — classroom or otherwise — that can prepare for trading the last third of a move, whether it’s the end of a bull market or the end of a bear market. There’s typically no logic to it; irrationality reigns supreme, and no class can teach what to do during that brief, volatile reign. The only way to learn how to trade during that last, exquisite third of a move is to do it, or, more precisely, live it.

Fundamentals might be good for the first third or first 50 or 60 percent of a move, but the last third of a great bull market is typically a blow-off, whereas the mania runs wild and prices go parabolic.

You don't even need to beat the market to make a billion

Forbes on 2016 hedge fund performance


The average hedge fund returned 5.6% last year compared to 12% for the S&P 500 but that doesn’t mean the managers of the SPY ETF earned the most.
Forbes put together a list of the hedge fund managers who earned the most in 2016 and the results probably won’t surprise you. The familiar names are there and the paychecks are out-of-sight.

  1. James Simons – Renaissance Technologies $1.5 billion
  2. Michael Platt – BlueCrest $1.5 billion
  3. Ray Dalio – Bridgewater $1.4 billion
  4. David Tepper – Appaloosa $750 million
  5. Ken Griffith – Citadel $500 million
  6. Dan Loeb – Third Point $400 million
  7. Paul Singer – Elliott $400 million
  8. David Shaw – DE Shaw $400 million
  9. John Overdeck – Two Sigman $375 million
  10. David Sieger – Two Sigman $375 million
  11. Michael Hintze CQS $325 million
  12. San Druckenmillier – Duquesne $300 million
  13. Brett Ichan – Ichan Capital $280 million

(more…)

Six Rules of Michael Steinhardt

Michael Steinhardt was one of the most successful hedge fund managers of all time. A dollar invested with Steinhardt Partners LP in 1967 was worth $481 when Steinhardt retired in 1995.

The following six rules were pulled out from a speech he gave:

1. Make all your mistakes early in life: The more tough lessons you learn early on, the fewer (bigger) errors you make later. A common mistake of all young investors is to be too trusting with brokers, analysts, and newsletters who are trying to sell you something.

2. Always make your living doing something you enjoy: Devote your full intensity for success over the long-term.

3. Be intellectually competitive: Do constant research on subjects that make you money. Plow through the data so as to be able to sense a major change coming in the macro situation.

4. Make good decisions even with incomplete information: Investors never have all the data they need before they put their money at risk. Investing is all about decision-making with imperfect information. You will never have all the info you need. What matters is what you do with the information you have. Do your homework and focus on the facts that matter most in any investing situation. (more…)

Hedge Fund Legends with Their Humble Beginnings

While the hedge fund industry may be mostly comprised of professionals from privileged upbringings, some of the world’s most successful hedge fund managers actually come from more humble beginnings. 
Hedge fund legends such as George Soros, Ray Dalio, and sibling duo Marc Lasry and Sonia Gardner are just some of the recognizable names in the industry from middle-class backgrounds who worked their way up the corporate ladder to become some of the most successful leaders in the financial world.
According to Soros’ official biography, the Hungary native and founder of New York-based Soros Fund Management, immigrated to England when he was 17 to attend the London School of Economics. His uncle paid his living expenses while he attended the business school. 
Nowdays, Soros, also known to many in the industry as “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England” for his $1 billion investment profit for his bet during the 1992 currency crisis that struck the United Kingdom, is one of the richest people in the world. He came in at No. 15 in this year Forbes’ 400 List of Richest Americans with a net worth of about $19 billion.
Bridgewater Associates founder Dalio runs one of the largest and most successful hedge funds in the world, but the Queens native grew up in the middle-class neighborhood of Jackson Heights. He also spent part of his childhood years catering to the needs of rich businessmen. 
According to Maneet Ahuja’s The Alpha Masters, Dalio, the son of a jazz musician and a homemaker, began caddying at the age of 12 at a Long Island golf club to make extra money.  (more…)

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