Phil Falcone: Powered By Rigatoni and Meatballs
Peter Thiel is not the only hedge fund manager following up last year’s success with a solid follow through. Harbinger Capital’s Philip Falcone is in the zone as well, up nearly 43% in the first half and leaving his peers in the dust:
- Harbinger Capital up 42.8%
- Renaissance Technologies (Futures fund) up 7.75%
- Paulson & Co (Advantage fund) up 20.58%
- Daniel Loeb’s Third Point fund up 2.49%
- Carl Icahn’s fund down -9.44%
- Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital (Multistrat fund) up 1.92%
- Bristol LP up 28.14%
Market Folly Blog
The Market Folly blog is doing a nice job keeping track of the winners and losers in Hedgistan, and even sniffed out a little noticed article from the land of 10,000 Lakes:
At Valentini’s Supper Club, a half-dozen longtime residents reflect on their native son. Philip Falcone was a hockey standout, dubbed “the phantom” for his uncanny ability to cruise—untouched—legs barely pumping, past defenders.
He was the youngest of nine, who grew up in his brothers’ hand-me-downs; the quiet, inquisitive kid with a sheepish grin who worried about his grades or making the hockey team, even after it was clear that he was one of the best players in the state. He was the one most deeply affected when the father he worshiped walked out on his family, leaving his mother to raise them on an 80-cent-an-hour job at the local shirt factory.
When word creeped out this spring that Falcone, now a New York hedge fund manager, made more than $1.5 billion by gambling against the housing market, and recently used part of his wealth to buy a minority stake in the Minnesota Wild, many in this Iron Range town of 5,000 could scarcely believe it.
Even his 86-year-old mother, Caroline, who feeds him rigatoni and meatballs when he comes home and keeps his phone number taped to a lamp next to her living-room chair, said she never imagined that Philip would be so successful.
Harbinger is up to $26 billion in assets under management; lets see if he can crack the $35 billion barrier, which has seemed to present a ceiling for several managers, who seem to run out of steam as they approach it.
For those of you launching funds, just make sure you can scale to $35 billion.
Skate on over to read the Star-Tribune’s article on Falcone, particularly if you are a hockey fan.
Good luck with that position at the New York Times, Phil, I wish you would throw the bums out. But it might be easier to ramp up the Wild’s offense.
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How is the new townhouse treating you, Philip?
Jason DeCrow, Special to the Star Tribune
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Hedge Fund Performance Updates
Market Folly
From Iron Range hockey hero to Wall Street star
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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The content contained represent the opinions of 1440 Wall Street. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.
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