So farewell Crispin Odey, who is stepping down from the eponymous investment firm he founded almost three decades ago.
That seemed to be the line most of the national press focused on when it was announced earlier this week. And I guess it's not too surprising given the somewhat erractic performance of his Odey European Fund over the last decade and other, erm, issues...
Charming Crispin Odey told a former Telegraph colleague, Katherine Griffiths of The Times, yesterday that he now plans to sue the German regulator for introducing a short selling ban on Wirecard last year. Below is the link to Katherine's excellent piece:..
I thought I would let the venerable Financial Times bathe in the glory of its Wirecard investigation for a few days before publishing this post.
I have to admit the FT's series of articles on Wirecard is one of the finest pieces of financial journalism I have witnessed since I began my career on The Daily Telegraph's City desk all those years ago...
Intrepid hack Tom "Tommy" Teodorczuk has discovered Crispin Odey's flagship fund is down 9.5pc in April following the stockmarket rally over the month. Below is a link to Tom's piece in Financial News:
Was anybody aware that Sir Paul Marshall, one of Britain's most sucessful hedge fund managers, had written a book?
Well, Betaville certainly wasn't until intreprid hack Tom Teodorczuk at Financial News discovered the founder Marshall Wace, which manages about £40 billion, published the book a few weeks ago. Below is a link to Tom's scoop:..
Ping! HSBC's HedgeWeekly publication arrives with the performance figures of Europe's best and worst performing hedge funds.
Now, given Crispin Odey has been a big bear since 2015 and this weekend the old buffer told Betaville he had made £115 million in March you might expect his flagship fund to be the best performer...
Loyal readers might have noticed an interview piece with Crispin Odey written by yours truly in this weekend's Mail on Sunday. Well, below is a link in case you missed it:
So, according to Bloomberg, Crispin Odey's uber-bearishly positioned fund is already up by 20pc this month.
Now, it would be easy to take pop at the old cassandra for shorting the market into a public health crisis but the thing is he has been directionally short for the last four years and, as a result, suffered excruciating losses over the last five years...
When I interviewed Crispin Odey last month the old buffer said it was "highly probable" the FTSE 100 could end up at the 5000 level by the end of the year (I did have to ask him that question). Below is the link:..
Perhaps charming Crispin will be proved right after all?
Two weeks ago I interviewed the the veteran hedge fund manager and asked him whether he thought the FTSE 100 index could end up at 5000 by the end of the year.
Odey - whose predictions of a stockmarket crash over the last four years have so far been proved to be spectacularly wrong - said that the FTSE 100 at 5000 was "highly probable". Below is a link to the interview in the Mail on Sunday:..
It's seems Betaville was being a bit harsh in my last post on the charming old buffer when I wrote his fund was on course to finish as one of the worst performing European hedge funds of 2019. Below is the link to that article:
https://www.betaville.co.uk/news/is-the-tide-turning-for-odey-the-brexiteer-the-ser/..
Perhaps it isn't all bad news for Crispin Odey: his chum, British prime minister Boris Johnson, won a huge majority for the Tories on Friday.
That comes after Odey called on British business leaders to back Boris in an interview with yours truly for the Mail on Sunday's business section over the summer. Below is a link:..
Poor Crispin Odey - his flagship Odey European Fund is back at the top of HSBC's loserboard.
According the bank's hedge weekly review, charming Crispin is down 22pc as of the middle of November, leaving him at risk of finishing the year as the worst performing European hedgie for the second time in four years...
Ping! An email arrives with what hedgies dub the "sports pages".
These "sports pages" are also known as HSBC's Hedge Weekly, which is a performance review of European hedge funds.
Last year, charming Crispin Odey - a leading City Brexiteer who runs Odey Asset Management - topped the leaderboard but this year it seems to be populated by a bunch of funds nobody has ever heard of, such as Muirfield GSE Partners, Golden China Fund and Tonga Partners...
Oh look - it would appear Betaville's rivals over at Bloomberg are echoing last Sunday's piece by yours truly in the Mail on Sunday's business section.
Below is the link to yesterday's piece on Bloomberg:..
Yes! - seems to be the definitive answer to the question posited in the headline of this near 40 part series of stories.
In part, that's because Crispin's flagship Odey European fund finished the year top of the HSBC rankings with a gain of over 50pc.
Also, the charasmatic hedgie's "bear" thesis appears to now be playing out in world markets although not quite yet in its entirety of predicted doom...
...the next you're the feather duster".
That's the motto of Piers Morgan, former editor of The Daily Mirror. At times, Betaville's career in financial journalism has felt a bit like that. I went from being the star mergers & acquistions reporter on The Daily Telegraph's City desk at the tender age of 27 to now jobbing freelancer and bedroom blogger at the age of 39...
Wow - a year really can make a difference in hedge fund investing.
Crispin Odey's flagship was up 38pc as of the end of September, according to the latest HSBC ranking of top European hedge funds.
That means the old buffer is more than likely to finish the year as the top performing European hedgie in Europe...
Apparently, charming hedgie Crispin Odey, a vocal Brexiteer, is preparing to go into politics!
Well, that's according to a report in trade rag Financial News, which the publication splashed on earlier this week. Hat tip to intrepid FN hack Tom Teodorczuk for landing what would appear quite a scoop containing ON THE RECORD quotes. Below is a link:..
There is more good news for Crispin Odey in the latest HSBC hedge fund index rankings.
Odey's flaghsip fund is up almost 26pc year to date and currently tops the HSBC leaderboard for the best performing European hedge funds.
That's quite the turnaround for the contrarian hedgie, who Betaville understands has been holidaying in Provence, the South of France over the last few weeks...
Ping! A marketing document arrives from Odey Wealth, which as far as I can work out is the private client division for charming Crispin's hedge fund group.
Anyway, the letter is entitled: "The Tide is Turning". Does that ring any bells?
It goes on to say:..
After 31 instalments to this long-running saga it would appear Betaville is able to finally answer the question posed in headline: yes, the tide is turning for charming Crispin.
According to the sports pages (hedge fund parlance for the HSBC fund performance rankings), it would appear the flagship Odey European Fund is one of the best performers in Europe this year, rising 17.07pc so far...
It took just a few days into the New Year for a rival news organisation to give charming Crispin Odey another shoeing.
This time it was Bloomberg, which dug up his overall performance figures for 2017. According to the newswire, Crispin's flagship Odey European Fund was finished down 20pc in 2017 (see the link below)...
Poor old Crispin. Now, hacks and hackettes at The Times are sticking the boot in with a piece about profits and performance fees have "plunged" at Odey Asset Management following a torrid few years of terrible performance. I have pasted the link to Deidre Hipwell piece in today's business section below:..
Crispin Odey is falling in with the hedgies at Polygon by calling for a higher offer from 21st Century Fox or its new owner - the Walt Disney Company. Ben Martin, a former colleague from my time at The Daily Telegraph and now a reporter at Reuters, managed to get the old buffer to talk about it on the record today. I have pasted Ben's piece below in case you missed it...
Hacks at trade rag Financial News dug up a rare piece of good news from Odey Asset Management, the hedge fund firm run by charming Brexiteer Crispin Odey.
The Odey Absolute Return Fund - which is managed by a chap called James Hanbury - is actually doing rather well. According to the FN report, Hanbury's fund is up 11.2pc this year. Below is a link to the FN piece if you want to read all the detail:..
Ping! An email arrives from a retired City contact who is in a bit of grump about receiving a letter from Odey Wealth.
Betaville's chum hasn't heard from Odey Wealth for four years but suddenly the private client arm of Odey Asset Management has got in touch asking whether he would like invest in funds either managed or overseen by charming Crispin...
Betaville noticed the venerable Financial Times is today taking a pop at charming Crispin Odey, which must be rather galling for the old buffer.
In fact, the FT piece about Crispin's flagship fund losing assets was a rather good scoop by Miles Johnson, one of the best young financial hacks on the circuit.
There is a to the piece below in case you missed the tale and have an FT sub:..
Clearly, Crispin Odey is having a rather tough time after repeatedly mis-timing his bearish calls and seeing his flagship Odey European Fund perform terribly over the last few years (see part 23).
Still, Crispin's grim performance hasn't stopped colleagues having fun...
I see Crispin Odey is claiming the introduction of Mifid II regulations in early 2018 combined with US Federal Reserve selling assets bought via Quantitative Easing will trigger a market rout (see below).
Once again it would appear reports of a turnaround at Crispin Odey's fund might have been a tad premature.
The HSBC hedge fund performance index just hit Betaville's inbox and it shows that, perhaps, the August "revival" at Crispin's flagship Odey European Fund was just a blip.
Indeed, the Odey European Fund is back on the HSBC top 20 loserboard, showing a decline of 14pc in 2017 by the middle of this month...
Brexit-supporting Crispin Odey might think that Betaville has got it in for him as this website has run a 20-part series highlighting the veteran hedgie's travails with his flagship Odey European Fund...
Crispin Odey just can't keep out of the headlines at the moment.
If it's not the terrible performance of his flagship Odey European fund then it's his controversial views on his own investments that keep grabbing attenion of City scribblers (or should I say "typers" these days?)...
The Wall Street Journal reports that Crispin's letter to investors show his flagship long/short European Fund is down 10pc for July. Below is the link the WSJ piece:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hedge-fund-managers-bearish-bets-backfire-again-1502111864..
Things are looking up for Crispin Odey, the charming hedge fund manager and leading City Brexiteer.
Since little old Betaville's last update the old buffer's flaghsip Odey European fund has recovered slightly and is no longer on HSBC's top 20 hedge fund loserboard (which came out earlier this week)...
Stockmarket cassandras at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan were out in force yesterday, warning of impending market crash.
So, several leading British newspapers, such as The Times, took those warnings seriously by splashing their business sections on the strategists' gloomy predictions. Here is a link to today's piece in the The Times: ..
The football scores are in (also known as the HSBC Hedge weekly returns). And it would appear the Odey European Fund has crept back onto the top 20 loserboard - Crispin's flagship fund is now down 7.82pc for the year to April 21, 2017, according to HSBC.
The news comes after The Sunday Times Rich List, compiled by the excellent Robert Watts, revealed last weekend that the charming buffer had slipped down that particular league table, losing £125 million last year...
Charming hedgie Crispin Odey is still struggling to turn things around at his Odey European Fund. According to the latest hedge fund rankings from HSBC, the Brexiteer's flagship fund is down just over 6.19pc for the year to date...
Has Crispin Odey stopped publishing a monthly letter to investors?
The old buffer's monthly report containing (terrible?) performance and his predictions of doom would normally have leaked into the media by now but it would appear nobody can get hold of the hedge fund manager's latest mutterings...
Will 2017 be a better year for Crispin Odey, one of Britain's best-known hedge fund managers?
Well, in the some respects things are on the up for the charasmatic buffer, who once spent over £150,000 on a Palladian style mansion for his pet chickens...
It struck me while looking over the coverage of the spreadbetting industry over the last 48 hours that none of the mainstream press picked up on the fact that charming Crispin Odey is one of largest shareholders in Plus 500...
Below is what the charming Crispin Odey wrote in his latest report to investors.
It's rather short (typically his missives are at least a 1000 words longer) and somewhat abstract. I guess that's what happens when you have a terrible year (last time I checked poor old Crispin was down around 43pc year to date)...
It's not often Crispin Odey appears on TV but yesterday he was a pundit on the BBC programme - Brexit: a very British coup. In case you missed it, here is the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07wsg23/brexit-a-very-british-coup..
It really does appear Crispin has been caught short - above is an image (courtsey of Bloomberg) showing the Odey European flagship fund covering many of the fund's short positions.
Or, perhaps the bear is finally capitulating.....
Things have gone from bad to worse for the charasmatic Crispin this year. It's clear the Brexit bounce (following the market sell off) for his flagship European fund was only temporary and now he is down 29.2pc (according to the latest investment letter seen by little old Betaville).
Still, what's impressive is that rather than capitulating Odey is backing his overall bearish outlook by sticking most of his fund in gold. Punchy!..
It turns out Brexit has in fact be rather painful for Crispin Odey, the charming fund manager who campaigned for Britain the leave the European Union.
Stock markets might have crashed the days after the referendum result but since then equity and bond markets have rallied substantially. In particular, London-listed equities that generate earnings abroad have been in serious demand, driving the FTSE 100 to an 11-month high this week...
Strolling down Mount Street (which is in the heart of Mayfair, one of the most salubrious parts of London) at 16:45 yesterday I spotted the charasmatic Crispin Odey chatting to a grey-haired friend (or business contact?).
Dressed in a blue (linen?) suit the fund manager from the upper eschelons of British society appeared to be on top form, laughing and smiling during his roadside chat with the grey haired bloke...
So, it would appear Crispin Odey hasn't done as well as one might have expected from Brexit.
Mayfair types tell me Odey's flagship European fund is only up 6.8pc for the month of June.
I guess the 10pc market move higher since the post Brexit sell off hasn't helped Odey's short positioning based on his extremely bearish outlook.
That means year to date Crispin's fund is still down 26.5pc, according to one chap familiar with figures...