Hugh Hendry

Last updated

Hugh Hendry in Paris, June 2020. HDhfk1-A.jpg
Hugh Hendry in Paris, June 2020.

Hugh Hendry (born 16th March 1969) is a Scottish hedge fund manager and podcaster.

Contents

He was the founding partner and chief investment officer of the now defunct hedge fund firm, Eclectica Asset Management. Despite returning 50 per cent in his fund's first calendar year, from the revival in the gold price back in 2003, it was not until 5 years later that he began to attract media attention when his fund achieved a 31.2 per cent positive return in 2008 during the depths of the financial crisis, earning him a reputation as a contrarian investor. Hendry has been referred to as "the most high-profile Scot" in the hedge fund sector. [2]

Background and career

Hendry was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1969; he grew up in the city's Castlemilk district and graduated from Strathclyde University in 1990 with a BA in economics and finance. [3] [4]

In 1991, Hendry joined the Edinburgh investment management firm, Baillie Gifford. He has been highly critical of EU regulatory policy. [2]

After Baillie Gifford he worked briefly for Credit Suisse Asset Management. Following a chance meeting with Crispin Odey, Hendry joined Odey Asset Management in 1999. "It was a meeting of minds," Hendry said. "He checked my references, got the message that I was a troublemaker, and said, 'You're one of us, you're one of the pirates'." [5]

He learned the art of "momentum investing" [6] [7] and was responsible for managing a range of funds from the Eclectica Fund to more than a $1 billion of long-only European mandates, including the award-winning Odey Continental European Fund. [8] "(Odey) taught me how to manage money," Hendry said. "More than that, he taught me how to misbehave. Misbehaviour is all about curiosity, how you invoke and think about change, which is very necessary in the management of money." [9]

Hendry once said to an interviewer: "To my mind, the three most important principles when it comes to investing are Albert Camus's principles of ethics: God is dead, life is absurd and there are no rules." He suggested that a great fund manager was defined by "an ability to establish a contentious premise outside the existing belief system, and have it go on and be adopted by the rest of the financial community". [10]

Eclectica Asset Management

Eclectica Asset Management was founded in 2005 [11] when Hendry and another ex-Odey partner purchased the management contract of the Eclectica Fund from Crispin Odey to establish themselves as a stand-alone fund manager group. [5] "A lot of people define investors as value or growth. We are neither. We are time investors," Hendry said at the time. [7]

Despite his reputation as a contrarian, Hendry explained to the Financial Times in July 2012 that his approach continued to be based in taking advantage of market momentum. "Our ideas are harshly disciplined by market trends. You will never see us pursue a homegrown idea when it is to the detriment of the prevailing trend," he said. [12]

The hedge fund announced its closure in late 2017. [13]

Eclectica Fund Performance Summary Eclectica Fund Performance Summary.jpg
Eclectica Fund Performance Summary

Media appearances

Hendry has become known in the United Kingdom for his outspoken commentary on the financial crisis which began in 2007-2008. On an episode of the BBC's Newsnight programme aired on 9 April 2010, Hendry began his response to comments by the Nobel Prize–winning economist Joseph Stiglitz on the financial position of Greece by saying, "Erm, hello. Can I tell you about the real world?" [4] [14] On the same programme in May 2010, Hendry responded to a question from host Jeremy Paxman about the current European economic situation and the possibility of a Greek sovereign debt default with the comment, "I would recommend you panic". [15] [16] An outspoken appearance on the BBC's Question Time followed in October 2010. [17]

At the LSE Alternative Investments Conference in 2011, during a discussion with Steven Drobny, Hendry joked that his clients have banned him from further media appearances. [18] Hendry is the anonymous 'Plasticine Man' in Drobny's book on hedge fund managers 'Invisible Hands: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Bubbles, Crashes, and Real Money'. [19]

Related Research Articles

A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that holds liquid assets and that makes use of complex trading and risk management techniques to improve investment performance and insulate returns from market risk. Among these portfolio techniques are short selling and the use of leverage and derivative instruments. In the United States, financial regulations require that hedge funds be marketed only to institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals.

A "fund of funds" (FOF) is an investment strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing directly in stocks, bonds or other securities. This type of investing is often referred to as multi-manager investment. A fund of funds may be "fettered", meaning that it invests only in funds managed by the same investment company, or "unfettered", meaning that it can invest in external funds run by other managers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BlackRock</span> American multinational investment management corporation

BlackRock, Inc. is an American multinational investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with US$9.42 trillion in assets under management as of June 30, 2023. BlackRock operates globally with 70 offices in 30 countries, and clients in 100 countries. BlackRock is the manager of the iShares group of exchange-traded funds, and along with The Vanguard Group and State Street, it is considered to be one of the Big Three index fund managers. Its Aladdin software keeps track of investment portfolios for many major financial institutions and its BlackRock Solutions division provides financial risk management services. BlackRock is ranked 184th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridgewater Associates</span> U.S. based investment management firm

Tiger Management Corp., also known as "The Tiger Fund", is an American hedge fund and family office founded by Julian Robertson. The fund began investing in 1980 and closed in March 2000/01. It continues to operate today in direct public equity investments and seeding new investment funds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global macro</span>

Global macro is an investment strategy that leverages macroeconomic and geopolitical data to analyze and predict moves in financial markets. Large-scale or "macro" political and economic events can disproportionately impact certain sectors, such as the energy, commodity, and currency markets, over others. The strategy typically employs forecasts and analysis of interest rate trends, international trade and payments, political changes, government policies, international relations, and other broad systemic factors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allianz Global Investors</span> Global investment management firm

Allianz Global Investors, is a global investment management firm with offices in over 20 locations worldwide. It is owned by the global financial services group Allianz. Employing nearly 3,000, it manages over EUR 500 billion in assets on behalf of institutional, retail clients and also of Allianz itself. AGI became known for one of the biggest fraud cases in which its Structured Alpha fund lost over 6 billion dollars in the 2020 market sell-off. As the risk profile of the fund was missold to the investors it led to charges against the company and its managers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commodities Corporation</span>

Commodities Corporation was a financial services company, based in Princeton, New Jersey that traded actively across various commodities. The firm was noted as one of the leading commodity and futures trading firms. CC is credited for launching the careers of many notable hedge fund investors and for its influence on global macro investing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alternative investment</span> Investments other than stocks, bonds and cash

An alternative investment, also known as an alternative asset or alternative investment fund (AIF), is an investment in any asset class excluding capital stocks, bonds, and cash. The term is a relatively loose one and includes tangible assets such as precious metals, collectibles and some financial assets such as real estate, commodities, private equity, distressed securities, hedge funds, exchange funds, carbon credits, venture capital, film production, financial derivatives, cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens, and Tax Receivable Agreements. Investments in real estate, forestry and shipping are also often termed "alternative" despite the ancient use of such real assets to enhance and preserve wealth. Alternative investments are to be contrasted with traditional investments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caxton Associates</span> London-based hedge fund

Caxton Associates is a global macro hedge fund founded by Bruce Kovner in 1983 in New York City. The firm's headquarters are located in London, and also has offices in New York, Sydney, Australia and Princeton, New Jersey. Caxton Associates identifies investments according to their research of global markets and analysis of worldwide economic trends.

Man GLG is a discretionary investment manager and a wholly owned subsidiary of British alternative investment manager Man Group plc. It is a diversified and multi-strategy fund manager that operates strategies including equity long-short funds, convertible arbitrage funds, emerging market funds and long-only mutual funds. The firm is also a founding member of the Hedge Fund Standards Board and a signatory of the Principles for Responsible investment. As of 2022, Man GLG had $35.4 billion assets under management.

Robin Crispin William Odey is a British hedge fund manager and founder of Odey Asset Management. According to Bloomberg in November 2017, he is "known for his bearish outlook" on the markets.

Brevan Howard is a European hedge fund management company based in Jersey with its funds domiciled in the Cayman Islands. Brevan Howard was founded in 2002 by Alan Howard, alongside four other co-founders including Chris Rokos, and is widely considered to be one of the top global macro hedge funds.

John "Edward" Horner Chancellor, is a British financial historian, finance journalist, and former hedge fund investment strategist and a former investment banker. In 2016, the Financial Analysts Journal called him "one of the great financial writers of our era", and in 2022, Fortune called him "one of the greatest financial historians alive". Chancellor is noted for his prescient warnings of the last three major economic bubbles in his published works: Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation, Crunch-Time for Credit?, and The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LSE Alternative Investment Conference</span>

The LSE SU Alternative Investments Conference is an international conference on hedge funds, private equity and venture capital held annually in London, United Kingdom by the LSE Alternative Investments Society (AIC), a Student’s Union society at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Pierre Andurand is a French businessman and hedge fund manager. His funds have approximately $2bn in assets under management and have produced cumulative returns of between 900-1300% for investors since 2008. He is also the majority shareholder of the international kickboxing league Glory.

Scott Bessent is a American investor, philanthropist, and educator. He is the founder of Key Square Group, a global macro investment firm.

Steven Edward Drobny is an American hedge fund advisor and published author. He is the founder of Clocktower Group, a consulting and investment advisory business focused on fundamental discretionary global macro and commodity hedge fund strategies. Drobny is the author of The Invisible Hands: Top Hedge Funds on Bubbles, Crashes and Rethinking Real Money and Inside the House of Money: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets

Nichola Pease is a British fund manager.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garda Capital Partners</span> Investment management firm based in Wayzata, Minnesota

Garda Capital Partners (Garda) is an American investment management firm based in Wayzata, Minnesota that focuses on investments in fixed income securities. The firm originated from Black River Asset Management, an investment management unit of Cargill.

References

  1. ↑ Sweeney, Chris. "Hugh Hendry: Wit and wisdom of ex-financier turned YouTube star". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  2. 1 2 Sharp, Tim. "Scottish hedge fund king: I’m heading offshore to avoid Brussels", The Herald , 20 December 2009. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  3. ↑ Glasgow financier Hugh Hendry tells how Castlemilk gave him tools to become a global high roller, Amanda Keenan, Glasgow Times, 31 October 2022
  4. 1 2 Werdigier, Julia. "An Outspoken Man in a Secretive Trade", The New York Times , 19 July 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  5. 1 2 Usborne, Simon. "Master of the universe: Can Hugh Hendry teach us to love hedge funds?", The Independent, 28 May 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  6. ↑ "Hugh Hendry Bio", Valueslots. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  7. 1 2 Fieldhouse, Stuart."Focus In the Eye of the Storm: Choppy waters are meat and drink for Eclectica's Hugh Hendry", The Hedge Fund Journal, May 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  8. ↑ "Eclectica Asset Management: People" [ permanent dead link ], Eclectica Asset Management website. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  9. ↑ Blackhurst, Chris. "The MT Interview: Crispin Odey of Odey Asset Management", Management Today, 1 April 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
  10. ↑ Norton, Leslie P. "Barron's Interview: Keeping an Eye on Wealth Creation", Barron's, 20 December 2009. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
  11. ↑ "Eclectica Asset Management: Home", Eclectica Asset Management website. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  12. ↑ Cookson, Robert. "Hendry – ‘Bad things are going to happen’", Financial Times , 17 July 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
  13. ↑ Scottish hedge fund manager Hendry calls time on Eclectica Reuters
  14. ↑ "Euro currency crumbling?, discussion on BBC Newsnight", Newsnight, 9 April 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  15. ↑ "I Would Recommend You Stop Going Skiing And Panic", Business Insider, 27 May 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  16. ↑ "Greece, discussion on BBC Newsnight", Newsnight, 27 May 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  17. ↑ Kaso, Hysni. "Hendry on Question Time: The economy, MI6 and 'bogeyman' bankers", Investment Week , 29 October 2010. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
  18. ↑ "LSE AIC 2011 Invisible Hands Unveiled: A Keynote Dialogue Between the Plasticine Macro Trader and Author", London School of Economics conference recording on Vimeo, September 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  19. ↑ "Hugh Hendry Explains His "Self Loathing" And The "Voices Inside His Head", Business Insider , 31 January 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.