Bloomberg.com: News — This just keeps getting better and better.
Andrew Lahde, the hedge-fund manager who quit after posting an 870 percent gain last year, said farewell to clients in a letter that thanks stupid traders for making him rich and ends with a plea to legalize marijuana.
Lahde, head of Santa Monica, California-based Lahde Capital Management LLC, told investors last month he was returning their cash because the risk of using credit derivatives — his means of betting on the falling value of bonds and loans, including subprime mortgages — was too risky given the weakness of the banks he was trading with.
“I was in this game for money,” Lahde, 37, wrote in a two-page letter today in which he said he had come to hate the hedge-fund business. “The low-hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government.
“All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other sides of my trades. God Bless America.”
Read this for background on this guy.
Found by Will Hearst.
Crackpot? Maybe pothead, but not an idiot.
In fact, after reading the articles, it looks like he called it as he saw it, and he saw it right.
“Lahde Capital made the money by shorting US subprime home loans, which Andrew Lahde correctly predicted was a ticking time bomb. … Lahde says that he is putting most of the profits into gold and other precious metals, and also said that he expects there will be a collapse in the value of bonds backed by commercial property loans.”
So we wonder who profited from the market crash? Those few smart enough to see it coming.
Yup sums it up.
Is he open to write-in votes? I hear there’s an election coming.
All you had to tell me was that he lives in the People’s Republic of Santa Monica.
I’m confused. This looks like a current reprint of an article written a year ago? One irritating thing about web pages is being able to get correct “dates.” Bad thing for an information data base.
Anyhoo==yea, most successful people take all the credit. Isn’t it also “true” that everyone knew the market would go down (that is the definition of a free market–it goes up and down?). So, he’s not smart to bet on the down part of the graph, he is lucky to get the timing right.
There is a efficiency curve in the number of lawyers a society has. Too many (eg–USA) and the artificial, non-productive, redistributive wealth function operates to harm society. Too few (eg–China and maybe Japan too?) and the gears, levels, and cogs of business and predictability do not move reliably.
This concept must apply to derivative financial instruments as well?
““The low-hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government.”
I say boot out of high Gov’t positions the Ivy league types and replace with those who have science & engineering degrees.
“I say boot out of high Gov’t positions the Ivy league types and replace with those who have science & engineering degrees.”
#5 – I second that notion.
#5 I would tend to agree with the part about booting the poli-sci majors and the “best and the brightest” from the leadership ranks. However, after doing a stint in “science and engineering” academia I would have to say that the scientists and engineers are just as foolish as the current crop of weasels.
Yes Lahde may be crackpot, but what exactly did he say that would be considered wrong?
#7 “However, after doing a stint in “science and engineering” academia I would have to say that the scientists and engineers are just as foolish as the current crop of weasels.”
I wouldn’t want someone from “academia”. I’m talking about people who actually have used those degrees in the real world where you have to get results.
Real hedge fund managers bong down on crystal M.
Oh noes, not the weed!
#8 I stand corrected! Would you happen to be a scientist or engineer? If so, can I write your name on the ballot?
Personally, I still prefer to be ruled over by some nefarious computer mind. MCP 2008!
At least then I would know where I stand in the grand scheme of things.
I’d rather have a weed smoking fund manager that returned 1000% to me than the Ahole who managed my cash to a 28% loss.
My fund manager was probly on the other side of the weed smoking hedge managers trades.
#6 – Paddy-O – I say boot out of high Gov’t positions the Ivy league types and replace with those who have science & engineering degrees.
Agreed. But the problem is that the shitty managers are throughout the Government… and they’re protecting each other. 😛
#9, Cow-Paddy,
I wouldn’t want someone from “academia”. I’m talking about people who actually have used those degrees in the real world where you have to get results.
Success in one field seldom translates to success in another field. U.S. Grant; great General but poor President, Herbert Hoover; made his name (and fortune) as a mining engineer but failed as President, Gerald Ford; great football player but among our worsts Presidents.
Management requires a different talent than designing a bridge, teaching children, leading an army, or writing a book. It is not easy and requires more discipline than perhaps any other occupation.
#13 — so would I. I used the crackpot moniker because he rambled into a discussion of weed and the fact that he quit like this. Crackpot does not mean dumb.
“idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA…..rose to ….. all levels of our government.”
Who exactly is he thinking of?
# 9 Paddy-O said:
—
‘#7 “However, after doing a stint in “science and engineering” academia I would have to say that the scientists and engineers are just as foolish as the current crop of weasels.”
I wouldn’t want someone from “academia”. I’m talking about people who actually have used those degrees in the real world where you have to get results.’
—
Let me remind you of two of our most recent engineer presidents: Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter.
Then,
# 16 John C Dvorak said:
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‘#13 — so would I. I used the crackpot moniker because he rambled into a discussion of weed and the fact that he quit like this. Crackpot does not mean dumb.’
—
I think Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler put it best:
“You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.
Know when to walk away, and know when to run.
You never count your money, when you’re sittin’ at the table.
There’ll be time enough for countin’, when the dealin’s done.”
Wise words.
Lahde’s letter has to be the most entertaining and truthful thing to come out of Wall Street in years!
The smart guys cash in early
smart man. Good for him
My favorite Kenny Rogers quote:
I pushed my soul in a deep dark hole and then I followed it in
I watched myself crawlin’ out as I was a-crawlin’ in
I got up so tight I couldn’t unwind
I saw so much I broke my mind
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in
Could be applied to Wall Street lately.
#15 “Success in one field seldom translates to success in another field. U.S. Grant; great General but poor President, Herbert Hoover;”
I agree. However, we do know what doesn’t/isn’t/hasn’t been working for the last 40 years (when the rotten foundation of the Fannie and Freddie were laid) and that is Ivy league atty’s & bus types.
I have recently been getting all uncomfortable and zonked out nowadays soon after puffing some robust bud lately…
Any of you people suffering from this? It’s possible that I just might need to moderate the amount I’m burning right…?