Debashis Basu points out the lessons for a trader in Amaranth’s $6 billion blow up

In late September and early October, Amaranth Advisors, a US-based hedge fund went under. It had a large exposure in the natural gas futures market and was wrong-footed when gas prices tumbled. The total loss? A humungous $6 billion. The hedge fund lost that money in just one week. The trader who took the firm...

The world’s second largest hedge fund is run on an interesting philosophy

Bridgewater Associates is probably the world’s second largest hedge fund group. Its single-manager fund had assets of $20.9 billion on June 30, 2006 according the magazine Alpha beaten narrowly by Goldman Sachs which had assets of $21 billion. In all, Bridegewater oversees some $141 billion of assets. Since it was...

Debashis Basu sketches how a mathematician runs the word’s most successful hedge fund

In our last issue we profiled Jim Simons, one of the most successful traders of the world, who remains virtually unknown even in his own country. His firm, Renaissance Technologies, is intensely secretive even though it manages $12 billion. It had a website showcasing basic facts about the firm. The site no...