Bill Ackman, the CEO of $18 billion hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, is hosting the 2015 Harbor Investment Conference at the AXA Equitable Building in Midtown Manhattan on Thursday.

The annual event brings together both well-known and lesser-known investors to share trade ideas, while raising money for the Boys & Girls' Harbor.

This year, the conference experienced its largest turnout since it began back in 2006.

All of the stock ideas shared at the private conference were embargoed until 4 p.m. EST today. 

Now, here's a quick rundown of the stock picks shared throughout the conference so far (You may have noticed a few of these moving today) : 

Larry Robbins (Glenview Capital Management)

Robbins, the founder of $11 billion long/short equity Glenview Capital, did a Q&A with Ackman where he tossed out a number of stock picks. One way Robbins constructs his portfolios is to take a concentrated approach. He added that they like to "act like owners" for their investments. He also told Ackman that he thinks equities are "exceedingly cheap" compared to other assets. 

1. Thermo Fisher Scientific (long, top holding)  

2. Monsanto (long, top holding) 

3. Flextronics

4. McDonald's (He hasn't publicly talked about this before.) 

5. Valeant (It's a "small position") 

Todd Sullivan (Rand Strategic Partners)

1. Howard Hughes Corporation (price target of $247 to $257)

Steve Errico (Locust Wood Capital Advisers)

Errico, who manages a $900 million fund, had the best pick at the 2014 Harbor Conference. Last year, he pitched NorthStar Realty, which rose more than 51% since then. His first pitch this year is a spinoff of that company. 

1. NorthStar Asset Management 

2. Liberty Media Corporation (He sees a 33% upside) 

3. Tesoro Logistics (It's an MLP. He says the way to buy it is through QEP Midstream Partners. TLLP owns a 55.8% LP interest in QEPM.)  

Here's how last year's stock picks from the Harbor Conference did: 

Ackman will be doing a Q&A later this afternoon with hedge fund god Ray Dalio, the founder of $160 billion Bridgewater Associates. Ackman will also be answering questions. Stay tuned.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 11 Mind-Blowing Facts About North Korea

Billionaire Ray Dalio, the founder of $160 billion hedge fund behemoth Bridgewater Associates, is doing a Q&A with Pershing Square's Bill Ackman at the Harbor Investment Conference. 

The conversation began with a macro focus.

Ackman asked Dalio how does he manage $160 billion in this environment (low interest rates, etc).

"First of I think it's because I could be long and short anything in the world," he said. "I'm long and short practically everything." 

He clarified later in the session that he has the ability to go long or short anything. 

Dalio said he uses a lot of "artificial intelligence" when approaching his portfolio. 

Before he could get into that, Dalio turned the questions toward Ackman.

"I think about the macro environment in 2008. I think about how asset prices are so much higher now than they were. And how returns are so much lower. And I wonder about how you [Bill Ackman] do it?" 

Ackman called that an "interesting interviewee approach." 

Ackman said that they look for quality businesses so commodity prices and interest rates can move up and down and that doesn't have an impact. He also looks for businesses that haven't been run well, so he can intervene and make changes from a management level and unlock value. 

Dalio asked him about price. 

"I thought I was interviewing him?" Ackman said. 

"When we think about a 2008, a 2008 could happen again...When I think about my job, you're finding good value...I try to find value. When I'm thinking about those macro influences, they can change. I just was curious when we exchanged thoughts. I'm not trying to say one approach is better. As we wrestle with the question, I would be worried over the next three years...How does it feel to be long only?" 

"We're not long only," Ackman said.

The conversation shifted to how Dalio invests and makes money. Dalio said that he invests in 120 different markets. 

"You're asking me how I make money. I take the bets that are logical...the only thing I would do different is I take that I write that rule down. I test that rule over all different environments... I stress test it." 

"I invest exactly the opposite of that," Ackman said. Ackman is short Herbalife. He also has an undisclosed short that's a hedge, Business Insider has learned. 

"So you have your criteria, my criteria is very similar to yours," Dalio said. "It was beautiful to hear how you choose the management--that whole description. You could write that rule down--what makes you buy or sell a company? Here are my criteria, those screens, and I imagine that I apply those screens through history...So you can go back in history and you doing it your way, you would know the track record of each decision rule. Now you have a framework." 

Dalio said he picks uncorrelated bets. 

Ackman asked him how he knows they're not correlated. 

"Fundamentally.... Correlation is an outcome, not a thing in and of itself." 

Ackman then asked Dalio about how he looks at risk. 

Dalio said they look at "risk of ruin," which is the most important thing. "I'm a very risk averse investor." 

Dalio employees 1500 people. Of that number, 300 are involved in the investment process in some way, Dalio said. He said they have teams that look at history and put together criteria (decision rules). 

"The same things happen over and over again in history. The problem that I've learned about that is we are very much biased by our own experiences," Dalio said. "I learned over the years was that everything that surprised me and lost me money hadn't happened in my lifetime, but happened in others' lifetimes." 

Ackman said that he couldn't invest the way Dalio does. He said he's much more qualitative.

Dalio went on to explain that Ackman could do it.

"How did you choose your wife?" Ackman joked.

"Passion." 

"Did you quantify it?" Ackman asked.

"Thought about it," Dalio said.

Dalio said you can quantify people. He said he's given personality tests to the greatest shapers in our time. Through questions and answers you can learn an enormous amount about those people and convert that to data, Dalio explained.

"My only point that I'm trying to convey is that as we look at people...there's more than we can imagine that's quantifiable," Dalio said. "The computer can process more than we have the capacity. It doesn't have the intuition. You have the intuition."

Dalio said that there are many ways of playing the market.  He complimented Ackman on his success and said he's "fantastic." 

Ackman asked Dalio how many bets he makes and how long the duration is. 

He said the average holding period is six to eighteen months. As for the number of bets he makes, Dalio said the "best way to describe it is a little over 100." 

Ackman asked dalio about how much of what he does is judgment and how much is experience.

Dalio said 99% of what they do is systematic judgment. 

"They're my criteria, so I'm very comfortable," Dalio said. 

Ackman asked him if he could buy one stock, one currency, one asset, then where would he put his money.

"I don't do that," Dalio said. 

The Harbor Investment Conference is an annual event brings together investors to share trade ideas, while raising money for the Boys & Girls' Harbor.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 11 Mind-Blowing Facts About North Korea

Hedge fund manager David Einhorn has trimmed his Apple stake in the last quarter of 2014, according to his fund's latest 13F filing. 

During the fourth quarter, Greenlight Capital sold 566,500 shares of Apple. Still, the fund held just over 8.6 million shares even after the sales, according to the filing.

In his fourth quarter letter to investors, Einhorn wrote that Apple was one of the fund's "significant winners."

Apple remains one of Greenlight's top stock holdings.

Hedge funds only have to disclose their long equity holdings in 13Fs. These filings come out 45 days after the end of each quarter. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 11 Mind-Blowing Facts About North Korea

Hedge fund giant David Tepper cut his entire stake in Chinese ecommerce site Alibaba as well as his position in Facebook, according to his fund's 13F filing. 

Appaloosa's Q4 13F filing shows that they hold no position in Alibaba. In Q3, he held 725,000 shares, according to that filing.

Alibaba IPO'd back in September. Shares of Alibaba are down about 20% from their all time high. 

Tepper also dumped all of his Facebook shares in Q4. He held 3.58 million shares in Facebook, according to the Q3 13F.  

He also sold all of his Citigroup shares. He had held 8.3 million shares of Citi in Q3. He sold it all in Q4. 

Hedge funds are required to disclose their long equity holdings for each quarter in the 13Fs. They don't have to disclose their shorts. Also, keep in mind, these filings are 45 days old. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 11 Mind-Blowing Facts About North Korea

Hedge fund hot-shot Daniel Loeb, the founder of Third Point LLC, increased his Alibaba stake in the fourth quarter, according to his fund's latest 13F filing with the SEC. 

In the fourth quarter, Loeb added 2.8 million shares upping his Alibaba position to 10 million shares.

Alibaba's stock is trading about 20% off its all-time highs. 

The filing shows that Loeb also snapped up a new position in Allergan during the quarter. Loeb held 400,000 shares of the pharmaceutical stock at the end of the fourth quarter.

Loeb also held a new position in Citigroup at the end of the fourth quarter, the filing shows. 

Hedge funds only have to disclose their long stock holdings in these filings. These filings are also 45 days old. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 11 Mind-Blowing Facts About North Korea

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Soros Fund Management LLC took new positions in the energy sector in the fourth quarter, including stakes in Devon Energy Corp and Transocean Ltd, a regulatory filing showed Tuesday.

The hedge fund firm, which manages the investments of investor George Soros and his family, bought 385,497 shares of Devon Energy and 149,000 shares of Transocean in the fourth quarter, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The actions appear to be timely, as oil prices and energy stocks have rebounded this month after a months-long slump.

While Brent crude prices fell about 60 percent between June and January, they have rebounded more than 10 percent in February, with Brent crude hitting its highest this year on Tuesday at $63 a barrel. The S&P energy index, which had fallen about 20 percent between June and January, has rebounded more than 8 percent in February.

Soros's purchase of Transocean shares also came ahead of the company's announcement on Feb. 16 that its chief executive, Steven Newman, was stepping down. Transocean shares are up nearly 4 percent this year.

A Soros spokesman declined to comment.

The firm also dumped its stakes in technology companies Google Inc, Apple Inc and Intel Corp, while also liquidating positions in Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Netflix Inc during the quarter. By dumping the stake in Apple, the fund missed out on a 16 percent rally in the iPhone maker's shares this year.

Soros sold 17,142 class A Google shares and 67,572 class C shares, 1.1 million Apple shares and 3.9 million Intel shares. The fund, which disclosed a Yahoo Inc position in the third quarter, sold 3.2 million of its 5.1 million shares in the latest period.

Soros is not the only hedge fund to focus on Intel in recent months, as hedge fund manager Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates told cable television network CNBC in mid-January that he was betting against the company's shares.

Soros increased its General Motors Co. stake by 412,438 shares to 3.9 million shares, while also adding to its Herbalife Ltd position. General Motors shares have risen nearly 7 percent this year, while those of Herbalife have slumped 8.2 percent.

(Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Steve Orlofsky)

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

North Carolina-based hedge fund manager Mark Yusko, the founder of Morgan Creek Capital Management, revealed 10 things that he thinks could surprise the market in 2015.

He shared it in a presentation last week at the Cayman Alternatives Investment Summit on Grand Cayman.

Some of the surprises Yusko highlights are that the Fed will not raise rates in 2015 and that oil prices could go lower. He also thinks that China could enter a new bull market and stocks will rally. 

We've included the presentation in the slides that follow. 

(Reuters) - Unsecured creditors of RadioShack Corp said the electronics retailer timed its bankruptcy to benefit a hedge fund trading strategy even though it cost the company millions of dollars in added losses, according to a court filing.

A committee of the company's landlords, suppliers and bondholders asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware for subpoena power to investigate their suspicions.

They want access to nonpublic information they say could confirm that RadioShack's bankruptcy was an "assisted suicide" led by its largest shareholders, the Standard General hedge fund and LiteSpeed Management.

"The problem is, there’s no suicide note, and there are too many unanswered questions," said the filing by the RadioShack's official committee of unsecured creditors, who will only get paid after more senior creditors are paid in full.

RadioShack filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this month. It plans to close 1,700 stores this month and sell 2,400 stores to Standard General, which is also the chain's leading lender.

The unsecured creditors said RadioShack should have filed for bankruptcy in May, when it first planned to close more than 1,000 unprofitable stores. That plan was blocked by lenders, and the chain continued to pile up $1 million a day in losses.

The unsecured creditors want to know if Standard General and LiteSpeed used nonpublic information and a financing agreement in October to delay the company's bankruptcy until 2015. The committee asked to take discovery from former directors, officers, advisors and Standard General and LiteSpeed.

The filing says the creditors suspect the hedge funds were working with Standard General, and that if RadioShack had filed for bankruptcy before Dec. 20, the hedge funds would have had to pay out on credit default swaps, a type of credit insurance.

Standard General said the allegations were without merit and it was disappointed the company filed for bankruptcy.

"Our recent proposal to acquire approximately half of the store base is the best chance to preserve the business as a going concern, thereby preserving more than 10,000 jobs and resulting in creditor recoveries substantially above liquidation," said a statement from the hedge fund.

RadioShack did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case is In re RadioShack Corp, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 15-10197

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by David Gregorio)

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

Business Insider recently asked the smartest people in finance for what they considered to be the "most important charts in the world" right now. 

Former global macro fund manager Raoul Pal sent us a chart of the Chinese currency as represented by the offshore RMB (inverted). 

Pal, who is author of The Global Macro Investor, thinks that China will have to devalue the Renminbi (RMB) against the dollar or face a major economic slowdown. 

"Essentially the Chinese RMB has appreciated over 50% versus the Japanese yen (JPY) and the euro (EUR) due to its dollar peg and the general strength over the last few years (which was encouraged by authorities and led to the $3 trillion carry trade as Chinese borrowed dollars and played the currency strength)," Pal wrote in an email to Business Insider. 

Pal can't reconcile why China continues to peg its currency to the dollar, which has been strengthening. China's economy is weak. It's an export-led economy, and exports are falling. The economy needs a weaker currency to make its exports cheaper for its international customers.

Here's the RMB surging against the euro.

Here it is surging against the yen.

"The RMB's peg to the USD now does not make sense as Chinese exports are falling (due to the lack of competitiveness–wages in China have gone up significantly too), GDP is falling (because of exports and the debt burden caused by the massive over investment boom) and thus the Chinese are having to cut interest rates."

Here's Chinese exports tumbling.

Here's GDP.

He continued: "It would be more realistic for the Chinese to unpeg from the dollar and let their currency fall in line with the JPY, EUR, AUD and the other major currencies to regain competitiveness and lessen the deflationary impacts of their strong currency." 

Perhaps this is the big policy move that'll get China's slowing economy growing more robustly again.

SEE ALSO: Wall Street's brightest minds share the most important charts in the world

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This massive outdoor escalator in China is 10 stories high

According to one former hedge fund titan, finding the best talent is the most difficult part of running your own firm. 

Arthur "Art" Samberg, the former CEO of Pequot Capital, described his assessment process in an interview with OneWire's Skiddy von Stade.

At one point, Pequot Capital was the biggest hedge fund in the world, managing $15 billion in assets at its peak. 

Although Samberg said intelligence is the first trait he looked for when making a hire, he emphasized perseverance more. Samberg also said passion is just as important.

"Somebody once told me early in my career: 'Don’t confuse bull markets with brains,'" he said in the interview. "There are times when you just feel you’re the stupidest person in the world and you’ve got to persevere through it."

Samberg said that's who he'd look for – someone with the ability to weather the storm.

"I like to sense whether a person is that kind of person, whether they’re just going to shrink and fold when they’re just on a cold streak or if they’re going to rise to the occasion, work harder, maintain their composure, and overcome.”

Samberg's career has seen its own share of bad days. He launched Pequot Capital an 1986, and the fund was down 20 percent in its first year. He described the first 18 months as "gut-wrenching," before the firm started taking off. 

In 2010, the SEC charged Samberg and Pequot with insider trading. Samberg paid a settlement of $28 million and closed the firm. Now he runs his own family holding company, Hawkes Financial.

You can watch the full interview here >>

Join the conversation about this story »

According to data compiled by Goldman Sachs, the average hedge fund is up 1% in 2015, lagging the S&P 500 by about one percentage point.

"Hedge fund performance is off to a respectable start in 2015 after a poor 2014," Goldman Sachs Ben Snider said. "Global macro funds have been the strongest performers (2%) as volatility in oil, FX, and rates continue to dominate the investing landscape."

There are a few caveats to note. Importantly, many hedge funds aren't trying to necessarily beat the S&P 500, so we shouldn't assume that it's an appropriate benchmark.

But having said that, this information will nevertheless have hedge fund investors asking themselves why they're paying such high fees to underperform or just match what they can get cheaply at Vanguard or some other low-cost, index fund provider.

Goldman, however, does note that a basket of hedge funds' favorite short positions would've beaten the S&P 500. Among the most heavily shorted stocks are AT&T, Comcast, Intel, Visa, Walt Disney, Exxon Mobil, and Kinder Morgan.

The median short position in Goldman's "Very Important Short Position" list of 50 stocks would've returned 3% year-to-date.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is what separates the Excel masters from the wannabes

Hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson, who runs Kase Capital, wrote in a group email on Monday that he thinks SodaStream's shares are about to "skyrocket." 

"...mark my words. I wouldn’t change a word of my presentation on SODA at the Robin Hood Investors Conference last [October]." 

Tilson is long the stock. Shares of SodaStream have tumbled more than 14% since Tilson gave his presentation.

On Sunday, the New York Times published an article about how sales have fallen at SodaStream. The article also pointed out that it's a hassle to replace the SodaStream canister when you can just buy a ready-to-drink soda.   

"A) The article focuses on what a hassle it is to replace the SodaStream canister, but I’ve found it to be really easy – just bring it in to any one of 60,000+ stores and walk out with a new one. And what about the hassle of schlepping a bulky, heavy container of soda water bottles through the supermarket, to the car, to your home/apartment, and putting it away?" Tilson wrote in his email. 

He continued: "B) Sure, you can buy a liter of sparkling water for 89 cents – but that’s more than TRIPLE the 23-27 cents per liter if you have a SodaStream machine." 

It sounds like Tilson is a big fan of the product, too.

We've included his slide deck from the Robin Hood Conference, which was closed to the media, in the slides that follow. 

Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin claims that his soon-to-be-ex-wife is requesting $1 million per month in living expenses/child support, CNBC's Robert Frank reports citing court documents. 

According to CNBC, some of the alleged expenses Dias-Griffin is requesting include $6,800 on groceries, $7,200 for meals and $8,000 for gifts. The monthly expenses also include $300,000 intercontinental private jet travel and $60,000 for private staff, the report said.

Griffin also claims that Dias-Griffin wanted $450,000 for a St. Bart's vacation over winter break. He forked over $45,000 for that vacation instead, the report said. 

Dias-Griffin's attorney didn't deny those expenses, CNBC pointed out. 

Last July, Griffin filed for divorce from his wife of 11 years, Dias-Griffin, while she was on summer vacation with their three children.

Griffin, 46, is the founder of hedge fund giant Citadel LLC. Dias-Griffin, 44, was born in France. She is the founder of the hedge fund firm Aragon Global Management.

Dias-Griffin later filed a petition seeking equitable division of their assets and sole custody of their children. She asked for their prenup thrown out.

Under the terms of the prenup, Dias-Griffin said that she will receive 1 percent of Griffin's assets. Griffin has an estimated net worth of $6.5 billion, according to Forbes.

Griffin and Dias-Griffin were married in Versailles in July 2003. This is the second divorce for Griffin. He divorced his first wife in 1994.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is what separates the Excel masters from the wannabes

Wall Street has been buzzing about this since last spring — the return of iconic show "Wall Street Week", revamped by Anthony Scaramucci's SkyBridge Capital and featuring an all-star roster of guests.

Now, after months of speculation, we finally have a premier date.

The first episode will air on Sunday morning, April 19th on local television stations in major U.S. markets including New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago and San Francisco. Anyone outside those areas will be able to stream the show from anywhere in the world on WallStreetWeek.com. 

"We're controlling the show from start to finish," Scaramucci said in the phone call with Business Insider. "The goal is to be very new age... to distribute and develop the information the way people digest it. It's a must-see weekly, and however you want to see it we'll make it available to you."

When "Wall Street Week" aired on PBS from 1970 to 2005 and it was a must-watch. Originally hosted by Louis Rukeyser, it featured discussions on the most important financial news of the day with investors, CEOs and policy-makers. 

SkyBridge's new version will use Scaramucci's storied Rolodex to do the same thing, with a modern, digital twist.

From the beginning SkyBridge's vision was to make this iteration of "Wall Street Week" a meeting of new media ideas — like making content available on demand and distributing it digitally — and a classic format of high level production and star guests.

This approach has ruffled some feathers in the world of money media. SkyBridge nabbed former CNBC producers Raymond Borelli and Susan Krakower to build Wall Street Week in-house. At CNBC, Krakower developed popular shows "Mad Money with Jim Cramer" and "Fast Money".

After the news that Krakower would leave CNBC for SkyBridge came out in May, CNBC and Scaramucci — who was a contributor on the network and gave it exclusive rights to his massive SALT Conference in Las Vegas — parted ways. 

"If you see what Susan’s done, she really broke the mold," Scaramucci said. "Her programming sensibilities have forged new ground."

And while the show's guest list won't be made public for a few weeks, SkyBridge has released the names of the executives and investors on its advisory board. In a word, the list is stacked. It includes Leon Cooperman, Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Omega Advisors; Mario Gabelli, Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Gabelli Asset Management; Marc Lasry, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Avenue Capital Group; Gary Kaminsky, Vice Chairman, Morgan Stanley; Mary Callahan Erdoes, Chief Executive Officer, J.P. Morgan Asset Management; and more.

"The reason why people are interested is because there's a lot of history with the show, there's nostalgia," Scaramucci said, adding that his advisory board would certainly have stints on the half hour program as guests.

Maybe SkyBridge will even keep the theme music.

Watch the throw-back Wall Street Week intro below:

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is what separates the Excel masters from the wannabes

What does it take be manager of the best-returning hedge fund in the world? For Ralph Kruger, the Arcstone Capital managing director who holds that title, the answer is courage and independence.

Kruger, who took the No. 1 spot in 2014 with a 225% annual return, according to hedge fund researcher Preqin, spent seven years in the Air Force and flew for American Airlines as captain of a Boeing 767 before turning to finance.

"If you get it wrong, there's no one around" to blame, he told Business Insider. "If you're a fighter pilot, you're pretty independent anyway."

Today, Kruger splits his time between Mauritius, where he's headquartered, Maryland, where his children live, and India, where his $25 million "Passage to India Opportunity Fund" makes its investments. Business Insider caught up with him by phone while he was on a recent visit to Mumbai.

Unusual beginnings

Anyone surprised that an India-focused hedge fund became the top performer in 2014 should take a look at the Sensex, the Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark index, which rose about 30% throughout the year. While that can largely be chalked up to investor excitement over last year's election of pro-business Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kruger got into India long before the trend began.

A SUNY graduate, Kruger flew in the Air Force from 1980 to 1987, first as a fighter pilot and then as support for an SR-71 spy plane. He said the experience gave him "very good insight on how governments interact."

Then he joined American Airlines as a commercial captain and flew to Rio, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, Bogota, and throughout Europe. He also joined the Air National Guard and, from 1989 to 1991, attended the Columbia Business School full-time for his MBA.

Jet-setting around the world taught Kruger a lot about emerging markets, and what to look out for as an investor, things like how inflation looks on the ground.

"In Argentina and in Venezuela, how it looks is on the menu," he said — restaurant menu prices he saw were written in pencil because they changed so regularly.

But one place Kruger never traveled to as a pilot was India. It was not until later, while working as a portfolio manager at Maryland-based Marathon Capital Management, that he began reading about the investment opportunities there.

When Kruger did pay the country a visit, in 2005, he said, "I wanted to invest my own money in India."

He was attracted by the market's untapped potential combined with a surprising resemblance to US markets. For one thing, the BSE is well established (the oldest in Asia, it opened in 1875); then there is the huge number of listed companies in India (some 5,000 total); plus the Securities and Exchange Board of India, which monitors insider trading and fraud; and the fact that India is an English-speaking democracy.

'The only guy in the room'

Sold on India, Kruger opened Arcstone Capital with a rough start: It was 2008, the peak of the market, and he'd raised only $1.5 million. ("The idea of starting an international fund that invests in India with $1.5 million is not a good idea," he said. "It's just not.")

Though he struggled to gain investors during the financial crisis and in its aftermath, he survived. Now he manages about $25 million for small family offices and private banks, and high-net-worth people. Kruger's investors all have some international travel experience, which gives them a bigger, more global perspective, and helps them better understand each other. Unlike most institutional investors in India, he spends time traveling long distances to meet with virtually unknown companies. In fact, the majority of stocks he buys have no other institutional investors, domestic or international.

"That's why it's inefficient down there," he said.

Arcstone does its own research and looks for those inefficiencies in lesser-known stocks below the top 100 companies. In his words: "I'm not the smartest guy in the room, but I'll tell you what — I like it when I'm the only guy in the room."

Right now, Kruger's portfolio consists of about 20 small- and mid-cap companies, each with top-line growth of roughly 20%, bottom-line growth of about 30%, and very little debt. (About a third of the portfolio has no debt at all, he said.)

And it's going well. Passage to India became the top-performing Indian fund in 2012, and in 2014 it completely stole the show.

'I read a lot'

Kruger runs shop from his remote Le Morne, Mauritius, home overlooking the Indian Ocean. There, he likes to get in his morning market research early, over a cup of coffee, before going for a run or a swim.

It's a nice escape from the information overload that he says can drag money managers down — lengthy talks with broker-dealers and meetings with investors and managers.

"When I’m sitting in Mauritius, it’s all good information. It’s very little noise," he said.

He has other thoughts on how to best use his time. "I read a lot. For me, if you wanna be a good investor, read."

His syllabus ranges from 16th- and 17th-century European history ("This war, that war, this king, that king – they all had unsustainable debt," as he says), to contemporary Indian politics. And on that front, Kruger sees positive change. A fan of both Modi and Central Bank Gov. Raghuram Rajan, he likens those men to Ronald Reagan and Paul Volcker. "Both those guys are long-term thinkers and doers," Kruger said.

He applauds Rajan for reducing inflation to levels safe enough for rate cuts. And while Modi critics say the prime minister is acting too slowly on reforms, Kruger believes he's "getting down in the nitty-gritty, the nuts and bolts, the slow, methodical marathon that real reform needs that isn't necessarily visible."

Kruger predicts at least nine years of accelerated growth for India, but admits things are not yet perfect there.

"I mean, India is totally mismanaged," he said. "There is so much inefficiency – and that's the opportunity."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'Shark Tank' Investor Daymond John Reveals The Key To A Good Business

We already knew that Leda Braga, the most powerful lady hedge fund manager in the world with the most assets under management, is a rockstar.

Her computer-driven Systematica Investments, recently spun off from BlueCrest Capital, is on fire and its biggest fund earned 9.5 percent returns last month.

But today we discovered a few new things about the 48-year-old Brazilian-born boss, thanks to Bloomberg's Lindsay Fortado.

1. She used to ride a motorcycle.

Braga used a car metaphor to describe her computer-driven strategy with Systematica's BlueTrend and BlueMatrix funds: “We tend not to intervene with the car itself,” she told Bloomberg. “But the engine gets fine-tuned.”

That's interesting because Braga herself used to ride a Ducati Monster 700 motorcycle. Try to keep up, boys.

2. She's cold as ice and she likes her investments to be made the same way.

There's a reason Braga likes her funds to trade based on computer algorithms: she doesn't want any screw-ups due to unnecessary feelings.

"Systematic trading takes the emotion out of trading,” she told Bloomberg. “A black box doesn’t care" – but a trader who's forced to make tough decisions "takes that home with him."

3. She has a bad singing voice, but that doesn't stop her.

Braga is a true leader in every sense of the word. At a recent conference in Geneva, where Systematica is based, she tried to amp up employees by singing Pharrell's "Happy." Few people joined in, but that didn't stop her.

“I believe in leading from the front, so despite my lack of talent, I did sing,” she told Bloomberg.

Read the full story from Bloomberg>>

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Hugh Hefner's Son Has A Surprising And Inspiring Attitude Toward Women

The topic of getting hired at a hedge fund directly out of undergraduate compels many students. The response to the question: “Is it possible to get hired at a hedge fund directly out of undergraduate?” typically goes along the lines of “it’s a shot in the dark, but yes [insert cliché explanation]”. I hope through this post, I can offer undergraduate students more specific insight into the process of how it can be done through sharing my own personal experience, as well as provide a beacon of hope to those desiring a hedge fund job directly out of undergraduate.

To start-off, let me tell you a little about my background. I am a 22 year old who recently completed his undergraduate degree who dedicates the majority of my time and effort to researching and finding compelling investment ideas because I simply love doing so. Not too long ago, during my sophomore year, I was a frat boy who focused his time and attention on partying. The summer going into my junior year I read The Intelligent Investor merely out of boredom. A light turned on in my head afterwards. In the semesters to follow, I went down an aggressive path of self-education, reading countless value investing and finance books and applying that knowledge in the theses I published on Seeking Alpha and my personal website.

During this time, I sacrificed my social life and school came second. I knew I wanted to work at a hedge fund out of undergraduate but I was aware I do not fit the mold of what hedge funds look for. I went to a non-target school in the Southeast, had an okay GPA, never completed an internship and didn’t have a single connection in the industry. But screw it, YOLO, right?! Despite all of the adversity, I managed to obtain a position as a part-time analyst for a value-oriented long-short equity hedge fund based in New York [run] by two Columbia grads, a job I started while still completing my last semester as an undergrad not too long ago. I also garnered a lot of attention from other hedge funds during my application process. Here are the individual steps of the process I followed that enabled me to get my foot into the door and ultimately get a job.

The first step is gathering a list of funds that you personally feel can fit into. To do this, ask yourself, what is my personal investment strategy? Value? Growth? Macro? I’ve focused the majority of my learning efforts in teaching myself the fundamentals of value investing, so I gathered a list of 25 small value funds to cold call. Establishing the list was fairly easy as all I did was compile a list of funds/fund managers referenced in the many books I read or those who pitched at investor conferences. At this point, I didn’t know, or care, whether these funds hired or not.

The second step is creating leverage for yourself. Why do hedge funds almost exclusively hire individuals with years of [investment banking] experience? Because funds know they understand and can apply the fundamentals, eliminating the cost of training and minimizing risk on their part. For me, I’ve never even done an internship at an IB, but that didn’t really matter because I was able to showcase the same knowledge and skillset sought after in seasoned IB professionals. How did I do that? I had a compelling cover letter, resume, as well as two research notes on both the long-side and short-side that demonstrated my ability to finding alpha-generating ideas.

Let’s begin with the cover letter. My friend Tom Beevers, a former PM at Newton Investment Management and current CEO of Stockviews.com, told me a fund manager will be most interested in three things:
1. Does this candidate have the drive and passion necessary to help me? Will he spend his days endlessly searching out great ideas that I can put into my fund?
2. Has he shown a keen interest in investment and does he have a willingness to learn? Would he fit with my personal investment philosophy?
3. Is he smart?

I had a generic cover letter template that answered all those questions. I then personalized my cover letter template for the type of fund manager and his/her philosophy. This tells them you’ve made the effort to understand their philosophy and flatters them at the same time, and allows you to pitch your skills as being complementary to their fund/process. Also, avoid convoluted or clichéd business terms as small fund managers tend to value straightforwardness. Lastly, emphasize your passion and your interest. For me, I wrote articles for Seeking Alpha, incorporated an investment research firm my junior year of college, and was a member of my school’s investment club.

Here is a link to my SA Profile: http://seekingalpha.com/author/david-tristan-liu
Here is a link to my firm’s website: http://www.metalogiccapital.com/

For my resume, I used WSO’s resume service. It’s a good service and I recommend it to all.
Next, perhaps the most important component of your cold call package are the research notes. Well written reports will enable differentiation. Prepare two research notes, one idea on the long side another on the short side. An actionable idea is preferred, but an old idea that worked out well is fine. If possible, find industry professionals to proofread. I was lucky to have a great friend and mentor in Tom Beevers. Here is a link to Tom’s blog on what fund managers look for in research notes.
http://blog.stockviews.com/2014/07/10/5-qualities-...

Here are the links to the two notes I sent as part of my application.
Long Idea: http://metalogiccapital.com/uploads/VCRevisedLongI...
Short Idea: http://metalogiccapital.com/uploads/YODShortIdeaFi...

After sending off my application to my list of funds, the interviews began rolling in the next couple of days (yes, days! smaller funds tend to respond quickly.) Out of the 25 funds I applied to, I interviewed with 4 (not bad). The first question most commonly asked pertains to your background. Then comes the question they ALL ask: “What are you currently looking at in markets?” I just pitched them a special situation idea I just so happened to be working on. Finally, they end the conversation with: “Let’s keep in touch”, implying to continue finding ideas and sending them those ideas. 2 of the funds requested I do specific tasks to gauge my abilities. One asked me to do an aptitude test, which I bombed…never heard from them since lol. The other, the one I currently work for, asked me to do a 5 page write-up of a company they assigned.

I think I did fairly well considering I got a job! As a side note, during this period, I found a greater appreciation for value investors after some fund managers who weren't hiring took time from their busy days to reach out to me and complement my theses and/or offer advice, something I hold dear to my heart. I had an excellent 30-minute phone conversation with one manager about value investing. Others responded to my emails with suggestions on how to improve my theses and simple words of encouragement. One even sent me a well written two page email offering advice and resources including an article written by Whitney Tilson of Kase Capital on how to break into the industry. Here is the link:

http://www.fool.com/news/foth/2003/foth030122.htm

While the process is fairly straightforward, don't expect a job if your knowledge of investing only encompasses what you learned in school. For me, the means to the end were the result of long nights spent learning investing, economic, finance and business fundamentals that they don’t teach you in school and applying the knowledge in my analysis. During your journey, adversity is a given seeing how the hedge fund industry is arguably the most competitive industry full of Ivy-League educated individuals. One fund told me not to get my hopes up as I was the first undergrad they’ve reached out to and hiring me was a long shot due to my lack of experience on paper. The PM that hired me told me he worked part-time for 9-months at the fund after completing his MBA at Columbia before getting hired full time.

So, I will continue working hard and learn until I can get hired full time. Ultimately, through this post, I hope to give students interested in working at a hedge funds both inspiration and valuable insight into the hedge fund job application process from the point of view of an individual who doesn’t quite fit the mold, but somehow still got his foot into the door. Please come to me with any questions.

UPDATE (Feb. 22, 2015):
As of Feb 1, 2015, I was no longer working at the NYC based HF mentioned in the post as the portfolio manager couldn't offer me a full time position. Nevertheless, I left on good terms with him and my experience working there was a tremendous resume and cover letter booster. I sent a second wave of applications (using the same process) to 40 or so funds and received compelling offers from 3 in less than 2 weeks. Thus, as of mid-February, I'm currently in the process of evaluating my new offers and will most likely become a research analyst at a $300M+ hedge fund based in California. I'll keep you guys updated. PS: Thanks for all your kind words throughout this thread!

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

CNBC will not be covering SALT Las Vegas this year, the hedge fund conference that has become a must-attend event on Wall Street since investment firm SkyBridge capital launched it 7 years ago.

"We have no plans to cover SALT," said a source with knowledge of the situation.

CNBC used to have an exclusive deal to cover the conference on television. Set up just outside the main conference room, the biggest names on Wall Street could just drop by CNBC's set and chat between talks given by a star studded list of speakers ranging from former President Bill Clinton, to Third Point LLC founder Dan Loeb and actor Kevin Spacey. Last year Lenny Kravitz gave a concert.

But this year there will be none of that. SkyBridge founder Anthony Scaramucci parted ways with CNBC last summer. A former contributor to the network, his contract was left to lapse after he announced that he'd purchased the rights to re-air "Wall Street Week", a weekly financial news show that aired on PBS from 1970 to 2005.

Sources say that CNBC was upset that Scaramucci didn't disclose that he had purchased the rights to the show, even though he signed a non-disclosure agreement during the deal. It probably didn't help that he poached star CNBC producers Susan Krakower and Raymond Borelli to produce "Wall Street Week" either. Krakower created CNBC's "Fast Money" shows as well as "Mad Money with Jim Cramer."

"I can't comment on CNBC's executive decisions as it is sometimes hard to know what they are thinking," Scaramucci told Business Insider. "We will miss them but welcome Bloomberg and Fox Business to SALT and look forward to breaking news there."

This year SALT will take place at the Bellagio in Las Vegas from May 5th to May 8th. Speakers include former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and more.

A source familiar with CNBC's thinking seemed nonplussed: "CNBC receives requests to cover conferences that happen around the globe every day."

SEE ALSO: Now we know when the most iconic Wall Street show in decades is coming back on air

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is what separates the Excel masters from the wannabes

Controversial nutritional supplements seller Herbalife reported fourth quarter earnings results that beat analysts' expectations. 

For the fourth quarter, adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.41 versus analysts' estimates of $1.22. 

Revenue for Q4 came in at $1.13 billion. 

The stock briefly surged about 6% in the after-hours session. It was last trading up 1.9%. 

In the earnings report, Herbalife said that it had lowered guidance for 2015 citing currency headwinds, particularly in Venezuela. The company said that it sees 2015 EPS in a range of $4.10 to $4.50. It previously saw a range of $6.10 to $6.40, Bloomberg pointed out. 

"Our revised guidance reflects the currency landscape faced by all global companies and the short-term volume impact of the enhancements we are making. We believe we are executing the right long-term strategy and are confident in our ability to create sustainable value for our shareholders and the millions of Herbalife members and their customers worldwide," CEO Michael Johnson said in the release. 

Herbalife is the company that hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is infamously short. For more than two years, Ackman has been on a crusade against Herbalife–a maker of nutritional shakes he believes is operating as a "pyramid scheme" that targets poor people. It's his contention that regulators, specifically the Federal Trade Commission, will shut the company down. The FTC opened an investigation into Herbalife in March 2014.

Herbalife has denied and continues to deny Ackman's allegations. 

A number of fund managers, most notably Carl Icahn, are long Herbalife's stock.

Here's the earnings release:

Herbalife Ltd. Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2014 Results, and 2015 Earnings Guidance

• Fourth quarter adjusted1 EPS increased 10% to $1.41 per diluted share compared to $1.28 per diluted share for the prior year comparable quarter. Reported EPS increased 5% to $1.21 per diluted share compared to $1.15 per diluted share in the prior year.
• Fourth quarter worldwide net sales of $1.1 billion, down 11% due to an unfavorable impact from currency; net sales excluding currency impact were flat compared to the prior year period.
• Annual sales leader retention of approximately 54.2% percent.
• FY'15 adjusted EPS guidance to a range of $4.10 to $4.50.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

David Ganek, the founder of the hedge fund Level Global, is suing the FBI and Southern District prosecutors in New York after the government's 2010 raid resulted in the shutting down of his $4 billion firm.

Back in December, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which covers New York City, tossed the insider-trading convictions of two hedge fund managers, including Level Global cofounder Anthony Chiasson.

At the time, Ganek called the court's decision "vindication" for the dozens of Level Global employees who lost their jobs.

And now he is taking the government to court.

"The government's reckless search of Level Global needlessly damaged my reputation and the reputations of dozens of other good, honest people," Ganek said in a statement.

He continued: "The action filed today makes clear that the government's search of my office was based upon a fabrication. The government has known about this misconduct for years, yet has taken no action to correct it. A responsible Justice Department would sanction the people who made the decision that had such predictably calamitous consequences for a respected business and its employees."

The case against Level Global's Chiasson and Todd Newman, a former portfolio manager at Diamondback, was really high profile. The codefendants had been accused of trading on inside information in Dell and Nvidia stocks. The two hedge funders were arrested in January 2012 and convicted in May 2013.

Level Global, which Chiasson and Ganek cofounded in 2003, was a Connecticut-based hedge fund that once managed about $4 billion in assets. The firm became a casualty of the government's massive crackdown on insider trading.

In November 2010, the FBI raided Level Global and Diamondback. One source present at the Level Global office during the raid described it to Business Insider as "surreal."

Level Global closed its doors in 2011, and roughly 65 of the fund's employees lost their jobs.

In 2013, Level Global agreed to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $20.5 million to settle insider-trading charges.

One former Level Global employee, who will remain anonymous, had told us it had been difficult for many of the former employees to find a job, or at least one equal to theirs at Level Global.

Here's the release about the lawsuit:

David Ganek today filed a lawsuit regarding the prosecutorial misconduct that culminated with the improper search of his office at the Level Global hedge fund, including the use of fabricated information in the process of seeking judicial approval for the November 2010 search.

Reporters were tipped off in advance to be present during the high-profile search, one of the only instances ever when FBI agents have raided a financial services organization without simultaneously making arrests or filing charges. That raid directly and predictably led to the closing of Level Global and cost nearly 60 innocent people their jobs and reputations.

Ganek stated: "The government's reckless search of Level Global needlessly damaged my reputation and the reputations of dozens of other good, honest people. The action filed today makes clear that the government's search of my office was based upon a fabrication. The government has known about this misconduct for years, yet has taken no action to correct it. A responsible Justice Department would sanction the people who made the decision that had such predictably calamitous consequences for a respected business and its employees."

The Level Global search was based on a fabricated claim falsely attributed to a government informant. The government affidavit supporting the search warrant request, written by an FBI special agent and supposedly reviewed by seasoned prosecutors, included a material false statement.

But Ganek was never actually implicated in any wrongdoing at the time the warrant was issued, as acknowledged in courtroom testimony in the Anthony Chiasson/Todd Newman trial by both the informant and the lead FBI special agent:

Of course, Ganek knew all along he was innocent. Immediately following the raid on Level Global he hired a law firm to conduct an independent investigation, which verified he had not engaged in wrongdoing. The firm’s attorney then asked prosecutors to acknowledge the raid improperly targeted Ganek. But United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara personally refused to do that, saying that the office had not authorized the raid without considering the consequences, including the potential for closing the firm, and that they stood by their actions.

That was the final opportunity to save the $4 billion hedge fund because Ganek was the principal owner, and his sophisticated investors understandably were unwilling to invest in a fund whose founder was the target of an unprecedented government raid based on allegations of criminal activity. Bharara has since acknowledged that the closure of Level Global was a predictable response to the search, stating during a July 18, 2012 appearance on CNBC:

“...firefighters, just like prosecutors in my office and other regulators, they are conditioned and they’re trained to make sure that you don’t do undue damage. But you’ve got to figure out whether or not there’s a fire. And firefighters sometimes will go into a building to make sure they’re saving lives and putting out the fire, and it turns out it was just smoke, but damage occurs to the building. And damage occurs, as I understand it, and as people in my office are sensitized to understanding it, to business organizations, even from the mere opening of an investigation. And we know that.”

Adding insult to injury, prosecutors did not use any evidence gathered from the raid during the trial of Chiasson, a co-founder of the firm. That trial was based on information gathered through the standard use of subpoenas rather than the unprecedented and high-stakes public search. Chiasson’s conviction was recently reversed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on the grounds that there was no evidence of his guilt.

An entire firm was destroyed because of reckless prosecutorial misconduct that was justified by a fabrication. The only Level Global employee who engaged in wrongdoing was Adondakis, a former low-level employee the firm actually fired months before FBI agents raided the firm.

The lawsuit filed today based on violations of Ganek's right to due process under the Fifth Amendment and right to be free from unlawful searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment. The suit names Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, along with the individual prosecutors and FBI supervisors and agents who are believed to have been involved in approving the improper search of Ganek's office at Level Global.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is what separates the Excel masters from the wannabes