Brian Hunter left Amaranth

Quote from mschey:

Guys who can take shots with OPM, often can't take shots with their own money on the line. It's a whole different psychology when you are down on your own trades and faced with the decision to cut the loss or double down.

As for the interest discussion, some on here would be happy to have everything paid for, and earn a couple hundred k in a year from interest investments. They would be fine with 20 million in the bank and would never worry about. At that level, inflation doens't affect you, all your income is disposable.


Others, can't live below their means, make good investments, and manage their money well. The Mike Tysons of the world, they will end up broke. Brian Hunter probably falls in the category with Mike Tyson. His success in trading was due to a favorable market, a hurricane which wiped out a city in the US and had little to do with trading skill. A guy who took a shot in the right place at the right time, and when he tried to make that trade again, it wiped him out. How this escaped the risk managers at the fund is beyond me.
More...

I'm sure it didn't escape them. But over and over again I've seen that those that have had a huge run tend to get treated differently despite what prudence would suggest.

Let me add to that I'm sure everyone knew that they were in big trouble long before the actual blowup. There was just no out except a turn in the market. From what I have gathered from the news reports, other big buck groups shot their lights out betting against them once it was realized that they were overleveraged in a illiquid market.
 
Quote from eagle488:

He can live a very comfortable life doing nothing on the money that he earned.

Lets say he has left a cool 20 million. (Many of the rags put his worth several times that.) Take that cash and place it in a money market earning 5%, 1 million a year folks.

or

An aggressive mutual fund earning 8-10%

He could just kick back, do nothing and he will be fine for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, the pensioners of San Diego County are wondering what they are going to do. They spent their entire lives working for that retirement day and finally this guy Brian takes it from them and walks away a millionaire.

I am hoping some type of lawsuit is filed against the guy. This is simply unfair. . .
More...

you are forgetting to include $$ from his upcoming book
 
Quote from Rearden Metal:

Once again, the 'living off the interest' myth rears its ugly head...
________________________

OK, say you invest in T-bills. One year later, you've made a 5% return. Congratulations.

The government taxes away 35% of your 'profit', leaving you with a 3.25% 'gain'.
Over that year, the CPI rises 4.25%

I still can't understand why most people consider that a 'gain'.
More...

He could buy inflation-linked bonds, or just emigrate to the Bahamas.

Besides, when you have tens of millions, who cares about the interest? Live off the capital, baby.
 
Quote from eagle488:

If I had the Brian Hunter money, month long vacations to extravagant places would be an absolute must. Dates on Friday night would involve calling the local escort service. I did indeed see that happen last night at a NYC restaurant. Ferrari pulls up to the curb, middle aged man jumps out and a young early-20s all slutted out comes out with him. Buying the newest M5 every 1-2 years would be a requirement. Nope, I dont like Ferraris.
More...

Believe me, that gets boring after a few years.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote from eagle488:

...Ferrari pulls up to the curb, middle aged man jumps out and a young early-20s all slutted out comes out with him..



Quote from Cutten:

Believe me, that gets boring after a few years.
More...


sigh...I wish I could find out! :p
 
Amaranth’s Golden Goose That Laid An Egg
December 2006
DailyII.com

Amaranth Advisors has paid the price for putting a lot of its eggs in one basket in more ways than one. The Connecticut-based firm that famously lost $6.6 billion not only kept too much of its bets in energy at the wrong time, but now it is emerging that it handed over control of too much of its assets to just one person – Brian Hunter, according to Bloomberg News. Amaranth could have possibly avoided disaster, says BN, had founder Nicholas Mauonis let the energy whiz Hunter take a million-dollar bait cast in April 2005 by HF guru Steven Cohen to move to Greenwich, Conn.-based SAC Capital Advisors. To keep Hunter, BN reports, Mauonis made him co-head of Amaranth’s energy desk, let him control his own trades and then eventually entrusted half of the firm’s assets to his nimble brain. The beginning of the end for Amaranth, notes BN, came when the firm lost money from its credit bets after Standard & Poor’s cut General Motors and Ford Motors’ credit ratings. Maounis turned to Hunter to “do something,” since he was making money hand over fist from his natural-gas bets – especially after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita swept into the Southeast and Hunter’s investments made $1 billion as a result. Investors and some staffers saw a natural-gas bet disaster in the making, and tried to pull their money, but, as BN says, it was too late for many. “Amaranth’s demise is not due to some complicated quantitative reason,” Hank Higdon of New York-based recruiter Higdon Partners told Bloomberg News. “It’s about human failing and frailty.”
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top