greatest hedge fund disaster story?

[Scientist]

Quote from Cutten:

Niederhoffer was pretty spectacular.

Yeah. ~$100M in a day.

He wasn't such a bad trader, either. Just didn't cut his losses... Once...

 

[recluse]

Quote from Scientist:

Yeah. ~$100M in a day.

He wasn't such a bad trader, either. Just didn't cut his losses... Once...

What is he doing now?

 

[windward]

probably still counting his money- seems all it takes is one big run

 

[Scientist]

Quote from recluse:

What is he doing now?

Selling books. As they all do.

 

[Cutten]

Quote from Riskmanager:

Well, its a few years more back, but I guess the Hut brother' s failed attempt to corner the silver market in the 80's was a major disaster: within one decade, their status has changed from being among the 10 richest people in the world to being totally ruined.
Many arabs were involved, and even the fed was forced to intervene.

Haven't experienced it myself, but from what I've read so far the whole development of the story back then must really have been awesome, also by todays 'standards'...

"The Great Silver Bubble" by Stephen Fay has an excellent account of this affair.

 

[Specul8r]

Quote from Scientist:

Selling books. As they all do.

I'm pretty sure he is doing more than just "selling books" and wouldn't be surprised if he were once again swinging a decent sized line. The guy still has a lot of cheese from what I gather,

 

[Arnie]

Didn't Neiderhoffer blow by selling naked puts? I remember reading that shortly after it happened. It was right before a big decline. Also, I think the position he had on was huge.

 

[waggie945]

He was NAKED a few thousand S&P futures puts back in the Fall of 1998.

The market was getting hammered due to the Asian Currency Crisis and Niederhoffer refused to buy back the naked put position.

I recall that the WED, THUR, and FRIDAY of that week saw the Dow Jones register triple digit losses, going into the weekend. Yet, he still held his position.

The clearing firm took him out on Tuesday morning.
And of course, that was the low.

A guy on the equity-derivatives desk at Deutsche Bank took the other side of much of Niederhoffer's option position, sold thousands of the puts and made $45 million that week!

True.

 

[riskarb]

Quote from waggie945:

He was NAKED a few thousand S&P futures puts back in the Fall of 1998.

The market was getting hammered due to the Asian Currency Crisis and Niederhoffer refused to buy back the naked put position.

I recall that the WED, THUR, and FRIDAY of that week saw the Dow Jones register triple digit losses, going into the weekend. Yet, he still held his position.

The clearing firm took him out on Tuesday morning.
And of course, that was the low.

A guy on the equity-derivatives desk at Deutsche Bank took the other side of much of Niederhoffer's option position, sold thousands of the puts and made $45 million that week!

It was more than a few thousand, something like 20k puts, no hedge. Fool and his money.

I hear Specul8or is short a sh*tload of puts...

arb.

True.

 

[riskarb]

Quote from waggie945:

He was NAKED a few thousand S&P futures puts back in the Fall of 1998.

The market was getting hammered due to the Asian Currency Crisis and Niederhoffer refused to buy back the naked put position.

I recall that the WED, THUR, and FRIDAY of that week saw the Dow Jones register triple digit losses, going into the weekend. Yet, he still held his position.

The clearing firm took him out on Tuesday morning.
And of course, that was the low.

A guy on the equity-derivatives desk at Deutsche Bank took the other side of much of Niederhoffer's option position, sold thousands of the puts and made $45 million that week!



True.

It was more than a few thousand, something like 20k puts with no hedge Roughly $2.5MM $delta. Fool and his money.

I hear Specul8or is short a sh*tload of puts...

arb.