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These Are The 50 Top Hedge Fund Long And Short Positions
Nobody has "suffered" more under central planning than billionaire hedge fund managers.
As we have shown year after year, the centrally-planned "New Paranormal" has been a total disaster for traditional alpha generation, since with all traditional fundamental relationships flipped upside down thanks to the Fed, the only way to generate outsized returns for one's investors (and one's offshore bank account) is to be massively levered beta, or merely wrong (for a great example of how the bigger the fraud, the higher the stock price goes before it crashes one last time read the case study of Hanergy).
Recall that it was in 2012 when we first showed that the best strategy in this so-called market is to be long the most hated/shorted stocks in hopes of generating a short squeeze among the hedge funds who still expect rationality and fundamentals to eventually prevail over zero-cost money. That "strategy" has outperformed materially since 2012.
To be sure, some hedge fund managers such as Icahn and Ackman have become experts at black (or green) mailing management teams to issue massive amounts of debt and using the proceeds to buy back stock or engage in long-term value destroying roll ups, an extortion strategy known in polite circles as "activism." But the vast majority of hedge fund managers continue to underperform.
And, with over a third of 2015 already in the history books, Goldman reports that "the low dispersion market continues to challenge stock-pickers as the average hedge fund lags the S&P 500 for the seventh straight year (2% vs. 4% YTD)." Cue countless insulted paper traders screaming how the S&P is never the benchmark for any one hedge fund. Which in theory is correct. In practice, however, any hedge fund which has underperformed the S&P for 7 years even if beating some arbitrarily chosen benchmark has likely been redeemed into oblivion long ago.
There is some good news for hedgies: their Sharpe ratio is better than the S&P500, which however is hardly a consideration for anyone who would rather avoid paying 2 and 20 and just buy the SPY: after all in this rigged market, any time even a hint of a correction appears, some Fed president jawbones stocks right up. From Goldman:
The average hedge fund returned 2% YTD through mid-May. The average equity long/short hedge fund has returned 2.8%, lagging the S&P 500 (+3.9%) modestly in absolute return, but with a much higher Sharpe ratio (1.2 vs. 0.5) due to volatility of fund portfolios less than half that of the broad market index. Global macro funds are the exception, posting a poor -0.5% YTD return as the cross-asset trend reversal in interest rates, FX, and equity markets that began in mid-April unwound what had been a strong start to the year for fund performance.
Ironically, in 2015 even barbaric relics are generating a better return than the smartest money in the room.. with a higher Sharpe.
And yet, despite their now chronic underperformance, for some increasingly inexplicable reason, everyone still obssesses with hedge fund holdings, even though on average the universe of smart money has shown beyond a doubt it is unable to outperform the market, or rather "market."
So for all those who still care what hedge funds are buying, here from Goldman, is a list of the 50 most widely held hedge fund stocks. No surprise, for the 4th year in a row, AAPL is on top. And yes, despite what pundits say, with 191 holders, there is little "smart money on the sidelines" that isn't already fully allocated to AAPL. Which is also why the Carl Icahns of the world are desperate for AAPL management to buy back as much (and as fast) of these hedge funds' shares as possible. Because without management backstopping the market bid, the Hanergy sub-second collapse case study may quickly come to the US.
As usual the most valuable information comes not form the most popular stocks, but the most shorted. Because it is here that as is now usual under the New Paranormal - which won't change as long as the Fed and its money distorting peers are around - that the biggest outperformance will come from: by being long the most shorted stocks, stocks which will be squeezed until the max pain threshold for most is reached and breached, sending the underlying stock soaring. In fact, the more worthless, fraudulent or corrupt the stock, the higher its price will likely shoot up (once again, see Hanergy).
So without further ado, here is Goldman's list of the 50 stocks that represent the largest hedge fund short positions.
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Hold on, that list won't fit on my iWatch. j/k (I'd never buy such a useless piece of shit)
Can you use the iWatch to take a photo and then send it to your iPhone?
Now you've got me thinking of this:
http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-05-10
Tyler- where is short as % of float?? I doubt ATT will generate much movement in a short squeeze
Of course AT&T won't get caught in any meaningfully short squeeze.
But more importantly, how on God's green earth do you make money from shorting T?? I'd love to hear a semi-rational investment thesis.. The cost of borrowing the stock + the dividend alone create a significant breakeven hurdle, and then there's the teeny tiny problem of stock buybacks.
Even if you get get past those issues, there is the problem of people like me. T is one of my largest holdings because if it goes down the toilet, then I have bigger issues to worry about than whether I'm losing money in equity markets. Basically World War III will have broken out. And if T were to dip to $30, $28 or whatever, then I'd be backing up a rented 18-wheeler to load up on the shares.
Quick! Long the shorts and short the longs!
When the rigged casino aims for maximum theft, you wanna be the little guy betting where no-one else is betting. When all the money is on red, go black. When the big money is on black, go red.
Just try and be discrete so the casino doesn't realize you're there. Otherwise they might take your stuff just to piss you off. The big muppets will still be playing there next week.
... errrr, and ignore my advice about shorting the longs. It's not a good idea to let a rigged casino know when you're planning on leaving.
The best way not to lose, is to not participate. Just keep the marbles you already have and be happy. Meanwhile, keep accumulating more marbles. (Works for me)
As a retired offshore tax-haven professional of advanced years, I can assure readers that all of the offshore havens will be doing land-office business these days. As I've noted in my blog [Barlow's Cayman] on several occasions, I am a strong opponent of Income Tax - but I have never approved of the diversion of stolen money to offshore trusts and companies. Much of the stolen money of course comes from the manipulation of markets, which is an especially nasty way of thieving.
They just showed you why the precious metals and other commodities are manipulated. Can you even imagine what would happen to APPL stock if they had to pay REAL prices for their raw materials. Apple will say it's immaterial to the overall picture. If that's true, why not pay honest prices for honest materials produced by honest men and women at honest wages? Why do they have to lie, cheat and steal?
Now iKnow.
OT:
China’s Richest Man Bet On His Own Company’s Stock Crashinghttp://thehigherlearning.com/2015/05/23/update-chinas-richest-man-bet-on...
That is the WTF of the day. The guy OWNS 80 % of the stock and Shorts it? I give on the logic - but like I said. WTF?
Gee, I wish I had predicted that.
Goldman is providing free service for us all who have deep pocket to engineer a short squueze against the hedge funds.
In defromed markets, the shakeouts are inevitable for even the supposedly bright HFs that still believe fundamentals are in place.
Just play with the CBs with far greater firepower than the HFs
Harry Dent said it's all going to crash soon worse than ever so that means Dow 20K by October?
Pronosticos matematicos sin comentarios de tecto.
http://www.aseperfi.com/inf/infpopulares.htm