Hedge funds wrongfooted by a sharp surge in stocks this week rushed to exit losing bets on falling
markets at the fastest pace in years. Equity markets have risen sharply this year, led by many of the speculative stocks that were clobbered hardest during 2022’s global sell-off. Many of the funds that profited from the rout have found themselves poorly positioned for the rebound, which has recently accelerated as investors sensed that interest rates were close to peaking in many large economies. The scale of hedge fund buying, which helped fuel a 3.3 per cent jump in the Nasdaq index on Thursday, eclipsed that seen in January 2021 when retail investors co-ordinating their actions on forums such as Reddit sent the price of GameStop and other meme stocks rocketing, inflicting huge losses on some funds.
Funds closed their bets primarily against US stocks but also against European companies. Bets against stocks that had previously been falling for an extended period were «under MAX pressure», Goldman wrote in a separate note on Thursday. «We saw explosive move higher» in software stocks, «driven by consistent hedge fund covers all session,» it added. The bank estimated on Thursday that quantitative hedge funds lost about 1.3 per cent that day, their worst day in more than six months.
Among stocks that have stung hedge funds this year is online car retailer Carvana, which fell 98 per cent last year but is up 200 per cent in 2023. The rally in stocks that were hard hit in the previous year «has likely provided a big technical tailwind for the non-profitable tech universe and has been hurting the systematic community», wrote analysts at Goldman.
I have a friend that bought into Carvana heavily when its price was falling. He didn't get much shares when it was at 98% low but he bought a lot along its way down and can now take out his initial money (if he wants) and still be left with a lot of profit.
ReplyDeleteBeing scared when the market is down makes you do stupid stuff and make bad decisions. When the market is low, don't sell. Try to buy then. When it's high, don't buy. Sell then.
Delete@Maxwell If our emotions didn't get the best of us we would all (or a lot of us) be very rich by just doing what you've just said.
ReplyDelete