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Finding the next Bridging Finance
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I AM LAUNCHING COVERAGE OF PRIVATE DEBT FUNDS, starting with Third Eye Capital! If you want to get updates on private debt funds and other topics of your choice, click here.Many months before Bridging Finance was put into receivership, I received tips about how fishy it was. When Admiral
How total outsider Liddle Mo Lidsky built and sold Prime Quadrant in under 10 years
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Objectively, what Mo Lidsky has accomplished at Prime Quadrant is remarkable. Prime Quadrant's big transformation started in 2011. Until then, the firm had been led by Ian Rosmarin and his junior partner Evan Cooperman. Evan left in January 2011. Fortunately, at the same time, a saviour by the name of
My opening salvo against Prime Quadrant
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Many people said I could never become presidential and yet I have not written anything incendiary in many months. I have pulled a complete 180, just like Trump after he won the election (the first time). Of course, I am only human, so occasionally, I will have presidential relapses. I
Polar Asset Management and Paul Sabourin, the alpha dog of Canadian hedge funds
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Believe it or not, Polar is now almost as big as Wealthsimple. But much more profitable.
SEC accuses Polar Asset Management trader of front-running scheme
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Sean Wygovsky, CFA, a Toronto-based trader was arrested this morning and charged with securities and wire fraud in a front-running scheme. His employer is by far the oldest and largest Canadian hedge fund, Polar Asset Management, AUM of over $20 billion. Sean allegedly exploited his advance knowledge of Polar's large
Steve Scotchmer - Mark Leonard's muse and the best private investor you have never heard of
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One way of finding potential good managers is to look at the biggest winners in the stock market and finding out who invested early in those names. Steve Scotchmer was there at the very beginning of Constellation Software and made a killing. Surely you know of Constellation? They are a
The Millennial's guide to Gordon Capital, Jimmy Connacher and Neil Baker
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A guide to the legendary Gordon Capital, the Big, Bad disruptor of the 80s... like The Wolf of Wall Street, but in a convenient blog post format.
The rise of Anson Funds and Moez Kassam
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Anson Funds and its founder Moez Kassam have emerged as players on Bay Street.
Gluskin Sheff downgraded to low-status
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An update on Gluskin Sheff under new owners Onex.
GameStop: Two Montrealers among biggest winners: Richard Mashaal of Senvest and Ryan Cohen
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My sister publication, The Wall Street Journal, has reported on a $700m gain on GameStop, now fully realized, by a hedge fund operated by Senvest Management. Montreal connoisseurs will know that Senvest has roots in Montreal and is part of a TSX-listed holding company, Senvest Capital. It was originally started
Burgundy Asset Management's origin myth
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If status isn't the most important thing, then why is Richard Rooney - a man with $13 million just in his foundation and the body of a Greek god - insisting on re-casting himself of late as a co-founder of Burgundy Asset Management? Hmm??? Is he really a co-founder? We’
Burgundy Asset Management downgraded to low-status
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What's the most important thing in life? Give yourself full marks if you said "status". This is why I was so alarmed when I recently came across statistics about average account sizes at Burgundy Asset Management, a firm I previously associated with blue-blood, properly wealthy Canadians. Like the billionaire Jackman
Martin Connell and the Ewing Morris dilemma
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The Ewing Morris Opportunities Fund had one of the more notable negative performances of 2020. It was still down 21.7% as of November 2020. I have already covered their struggles before here. I mentioned that fund had a $20m investor and I finally solved that mystery. It all started
Burgundy Assets Under Pressure
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Blue-blood money manager Burgundy Asset Management is in flux.
Bill Ackman and Tim McElvaine back Andrew Wilkinson
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A lunch with Bill Ackman paid off for Andrew Wilkinson, a mogul in his own right.
Admiral Gary Ng in troubled waters: $172m loan fraud alleged by IIROC
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Explosive allegations against golden boy Gary Ng who bought PI Financial for $100m at age 34.
Moez Kassam and Anson up 29% YTD
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Moez Kassam is under attack, but is having a good year performance-wise.
Anthony Melman and a parable on SPACs
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Onex biggie Tony Melman and the Acasta SPAC misadventure.
Jay Hennick: from pool boy to billionaire
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An under-the-radar billionaire who started from the bottom.
Ewing Morris: Even Harry Rosen couldn't save this hedge fund
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Hedge fund with big-name backers has performance issues.
Reza Satchu-ration
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Possibly my last post on Reza Satchu. No promises, though.
Admiral Gary Ng sells PI Financial
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Dramatic turn in the Gary Ng story, he unloads the firm he had bought for $100m only 18 months prior.
Moez Kassam, Anson Funds
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Moez Kassam is one of the most colourful characters on Bay Street.
I've got jack squat on Gary Ng
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New twists in the Gary Ng story!
Move over Mike Katchen, Gary Ng bought PI Financial for $100m cash at age 34
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The mysterious brokerage owner Gary Ng!
That time Reza Satchu had a home in Nevada
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A little known part of the Reza Satchu story!
That time I called Reza Satchu's mom
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More interesting revelations about Reza Satchu, founder of Alignvest.
Reza Satchu: Kevin O'Leary with hair
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The myth and reality of Reza Satchu.
That time Brent Belzberg fought Imperial Capital
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A David v Goliath battle on Bay Street.
Montreal family office conned by American She-Wolf
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Montreal entrepreneur Ariel Shlien is the victim of a Ponzi scheme.
BloombergSen: fighting inequality through crappy returns
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BloombergSen, another fund with performance fees and performance issues.
Eric Nuttall - oil and gas fund manager of the decade
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Let’s go there and talk about man of the hour, Eric Nuttall. The last man limping in the active management of an energy fund. People want me to talk about Eric Nuttall - I have resisted so far, because he fails the bigliness test. Also, I didn’t want
More Blind Squirrels of Bay Street
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Updates on various hedge funds. Jeff Banfield, Waratah, XIB, Avner Mandelman and more!
Canadian Hedge Fund Death Watch
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How did hedge funds fare in the March market crash?
That time I phoned Black Swan author Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Despite recent developments, I will focus on my niche of telling you about things that happened 15 years ago. Around 2005, I met a unique trader / investor for whom I continue to have great respect. Let's call him Bruce Wayne. I asked Bruce about his strategies and he said the
Albert Friedberg, billionaire Original Gangster of Macro
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Albert Friedberg, old-school macro trader.
Polar Asset Management, Original Gangster of Canadian hedge funds
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Polar has been around for a long time and is a rare institutional-grade hedge fund in Canada.
That time I met Brian Chapman of Clearwater Capital
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Brian Chapman is an under-the-radar investment wizard.
Waratah Advisors - Apology & retraction
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More Waratah polemics!
The first 3 funds I ever picked blew up 💥
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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement. —Bruce LeeI have just returned from a high-status holiday that my professed investment expertise presumably affords me. My resolution this year is to be more vulnerable. I heard Gwyneth Paltrow, founder of Goop, say that leaders must show their vulnerable
John Phillips and Shopify - the biggest angel score in Canadian history
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Meet Canada's newest billionaire.
Wealthsimple's new initiatives in banking and crypto
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OPM Wire was first to report on these major new initiatives by Wealthsimple.
The secret to raising money
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Man is the most vicious of all animals, and life is a series of battles ending in victory or defeat.-Donald Trump, politician, author and thinker “The older I get, the more I realize how many kinds of smart there are. There are a lot of kinds of smart. There
Jeff Banfield, Original Gangster of Arbitrage
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Jeff Banfield is primarily known as an arbitrageur. After working for many years as a prop trader at banks, he started Banfield Capital Management in 1997. In February 2001, Banfield was allegedly involved in some insider trading shenanigan (or it might have been a kerfuffle, I'm not a regulation expert)
Francois Rochon of Giverny Capital: The real Warren Buffett of Canada
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Calling a successful investor the "Warren Buffett" of X is a journalistic cliché. Often, the people so described have very little in common with Buffett's approach. Many managers cover themselves in the cloak of Buffett. But few are truly close adherents to his strategy. Francois Rochon of Giverny Capital is
Eric Sprott and Tom Stanley lost big yesterday
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Eleanor Roosevelt said great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. But why would you listen to an antisemite who married her fifth cousin? So forget her, we are going to discuss events and people. Specifically, Tom Stanley (aka Tom Lazarus Stanley), Eric Sprott and how
Sam Belzberg's comeback and his answer
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Start from Part 1 here. Belzberg continued to be an active and opportunistic investor. In 1992, he started Gibralt Capital as his main investment vehicle post First City. He took advantage of opportunities like the Savings and Loans crisis in the US in the 90s and distressed property in Alberta
My Bud Fox-like meeting with Sam Belzberg
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Read Part 1 here. A friend who was acquainted with Belzberg gave me a preview of the meeting. He said: “try to keep your pants on the whole time”, meaning that Sam was a charmer. We met in a small conference room along with Travis Dowle, a portfolio manager working
Sam Belzberg - That time I met Brent Belzberg's uncle
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In its short life, this newsletter has already amassed an audience bigger than Obama's inauguration. I feel the pressure to be relevant, so today I am going to write about a guy who peaked in the 80s and is no longer alive. You are going to enjoy it and fax
Move over Lazarus, Tom Stanley also rose from the dead
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This post, like my last one, is about Tom Stanley, although from now on, I will call him Tom Lazarus Stanley. In case you don’t know, Lazarus is a Bible character who was brought back to life by Jesus. Of course, Jesus also famously came back to life, but
Tom Stanley of Resolute Performance has delivered near 8x returns since 2016
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Move over Tiger Woods, there's a new Comeback Kid. Tom Stanley is the manager of the Resolute Performance Fund, a strategy he has been managing continuously, in various guises since 1993. For a while he had a phenomenal track record and reputation, culminating in a 2005 Report on Business Magazine
Cymbria: a Berkshire-like exit option for business owners looking to sell
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I buried the lead in my previous story on EdgePoint Wealth. What I should have said is that the founders of EdgePoint used $2.5 million in startup capital to create $1.5 billion (and counting) in value for their business in a little over 10 years. And at the
Move over Mike Katchen, Tye Bousada founded three separate billion dollar investment firms
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I have been telling myself I need to improve my titles, so I am proud of the one above, because it combines three clichés of business journalism: rivalry, whiz kids and billions. At OPM Wire, everything is a pissing contest, so consider the following my competitive response to Report on
The Wealthsimple founders before Wealthsimple
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The three co-founders of Wealthsimple.
Is Dave Nugent still Chief Investment Officer of Wealthsimple?
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Let me start by telling you about a pivotal event that happened at the foundation of Wealthsimple. In Canada, in order to have a license to manage discretionary money, you generally need two things: real experience in the field and an educational certification (either the CFA or a more local,
Wealthsimple's global ambitions are - to date - a flop...we have the numbers
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In 2018, Wealthsimple founder Michael Katchen penned an essay saying "Canada is bad at thinking big". Wealthsimple launched in the US in January 2017. By then, US robo-advisors had been around since 2008. So it was pretty bold of Wealthsimple to try to break into that competitive market. Let's check
Robert Krembil has made another killing
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Another case of the rich are getting richer.
Joe Lewis, Tavistock, Newton Glassman and Callidus Capital, the distressed investor that went meta
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The saga of Callidus Capital as a public company is winding down with a shareholder vote later this month on a take private offer at $0.75 per share. The original IPO price was $14. The offer is from Braslyn, an affiliate of the Tavistock Group. Tavistock is the investment
Andrew Wilkinson of Tiny Capital, the Charlie Munger of Tech
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So Bill Ackman is holding a Buffett-type lunch auction. Ackman is essentially a Buffett clone, except that he has an inclination for activism and shorting, which has sometimes proven too clever by half. The Buffett recipe is very hard to improve. Ackman claims to have learned from his mistakes and