Caffeinated Trader Sets New Record for Portfolio Turnover

by StockJockey

Monday, August 11, 2008 - 1:55 pm

I might have to revise my dire outlook for the SellSide...even at 2 cents a share they could make a killing from servicing Greg Coffey…

Greg Coffey, emerging markets manager at $23.7bn (€15.7bn) London hedge fund GLG Partners (GLG-NYSE), turned over the portfolio of his flagship $5bn fund 56 times in May.

Investors have dubbed this an extreme example of a trend this year for hedge funds to trade more actively in a volatile environment. They said average turnover rates had almost doubled, but one investor said Coffey changing his portfolio on average 2.8 times daily was “an extraordinary example”.

The trading data is contained in reports to investors seen by Financial News. They showed Coffey traded $254.6bn of emerging market securities for the fund in May, ending the month up 5.1%. He made estimated returns of 1% in June to end the first half down 13.5%, according to the documents.

I thought Mary Lisanti and some of the growthstock jockey’s were a little extreme earlier this decade when they essentially held a position an average of 30-40 trading days, constantly flipping stocks around while underperforming their peers and relevant benchmarks. Those numbers, which approximated 600% annualized turnover, were extreme for mutual fund managers.

But this turnover is insane, even if Coffey and GLG were re-positioning the portfolio ahead of his looming departure. Is he currying favor with the SellSide ahead of his new gig? Do the clients care? Brokers need to eat too, but this is ridiculous.

There has gotta be an easier way to make 5% in a month.

Heartthrob? Sure..his institutional equity salespeople and the dark pools love him.
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No time for a haircut....too busy trading..

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City heartthrob gives up £160million bonus at hedge fund to be his own boss
Mail Online
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