Goldman Sachs Will Indeed Lose Billions Of Dollars (Just Not Its Own Billions Of Dollars)
It allegedly won’t be announcing any multi-billion writedowns this quarter but Goldman Sachs’s Global Alpha is probably going to lose about $6 billion in assets this year and that’s got to count for something. The 60 percent decline (from an ’07 start of $10 billion) is the result of a confluence of factors including some trades that were meant to come off as ironic (investors asking for their $2billion and counting back apparently didn’t get the joke) and the weather. The good news is that no matter how much money the fund loses, pride in the face of mounting failure--GA lost 9 percent last year--will prevent it from being shuttered. ``Goldman as a firm would like not to have the reputation of shutting things down,'' Geoffrey Bobroff, an independent investment consultant told Bloomberg. ``Smaller isn't necessarily bad.'' Anyone have the letter Mark Carhart and Raymond Iwanowski sent to investors using this "Global Alpha voluntarily lost money because we decided it was getting too big too manage" logic? Send it here.
Goldman's Global Alpha May End 2007 With Assets Down $6 Billion [Bloomberg]
Comments
my trades are ironic too!
Posted by: Anonymous | November 19, 2007 12:56 PM
My life is ironic
Posted by: LL Cool J | November 19, 2007 01:09 PM
Oy Vey!! Did you think any of 'My people' would lose $$$$$$
Posted by: Schlomo Weinberg | November 19, 2007 01:15 PM
So size really does not matter huh?? i'm confused
Posted by: CPW | November 19, 2007 03:57 PM
So that's Goldman's secret to success: rewarding gross incompetence and making excuses for it.
Posted by: Lumbergh | November 19, 2007 04:14 PM
A credit crisis when you're already leveraged
A no-bid on your book
It's like ten thousand versions of beta when all you need is alpha
It's meeting the fund of my dreams
And then meeting its fees
And isn't it ironic...don't you think
A little too ironic...and, yeah, I really do think...
Posted by: J Aron | November 20, 2007 10:29 AM