Moore Capital Management

Moore Capital Management LLC is an American hedge fund sponsor-owned by its employees. It was founded in 1989 by Louis Bacon.^[1] and in 2011 Moore Capital Management's (MCM) largest funds were the $7.4 billion Moore Global Investment Fund, and the $4.6 billion Moore Macro Managers Fund.^[2]

Description

MCM was founded in New York, New York and maintains its headquarters there. MCM has 429 employees worldwide with satellite offices in New York, London, Zurich, Hong Kong and Washington, D.C.. MCM maintains six offshore funds and domestic equivalents of its largest funds. As of the end 2010, its fund's values were valued at: Moore Global Investments and Remington combined; $8.2 billion, Moore Macro Managers; $4.3 billion; Moore Emerging Markets; $1.5 billion. The remaining three funds each in possession of between $81 million and $324 million.^[3]

MCM is characterized as a global macro investor, utilizing macroeconomic themes, cash, futures and derivatives in its portfolios. Bacon, its founder, participates in most of the global markets, basing his moves on his evaluation of the future trends of inflation, economic growth, central bank policy and national politics. He then determines what themes and investments to play based on data from his strategists and researchers.^[3]

History

Moore Capital Management MCM was founded by Bacon in 1989, who launched Moore Global Investments in 1990 using the $25,000 he inherited from his mother and named the company using his middle name.^[3]

MCM's first investor was Antoine Bernheim, president of Dome Capital Management, who in 1990 accounted for $1.5 million of MCM's initial $1.8 million in assets and redeemed his investment in 2009.^[3]

MCM launched the Moore Macro Managers Fund in 1993 and is led by 14 manager teams. From 1993 until 2009, the Macro Managers fund held the name, Moore Global Fixed Income Fund. Until 2002, Bacon himself was very much involved in the management of the fund but later it became a macro fund and the name was revised accordingly. Between 2002 through 2005, its assets under management grew to $4 billion from $1.8 billion.^[3]The fund has not had any down years and has compounded at 15 percent annually through 2010.^[3]< The firm might cap the fund soon, when it reaches $4.5 billion to $5 billion.^[3]

In 2008, MCM let nervous investors redeem $5 billion in shares despite decent performance.^[3]

In 2009 MCM launched two new funds; Moore Emerging Equity Long/Short Fund and Moore Emerging Fixed Income and Currency Fund. The company also offered incentives for new investors in other funds.^[3]

In 2010, British regulators entered MCM's London offices and arrested trader Julian Rifat, for allegedly participating in illegal insider trading in concert with other traders. Rifat was put on leave during the investigation.^[3][4][5]

In April of that year, MCM paid $25 million to settle the charges brought against it by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission(CFTC) which accused MCM of manipulating settlement prices for Nymex platinum and palladium futures contracts. Charges were also filed by the CFTC, against MCM for failure to “diligently supervise” MCM's commodity interest transactions. The case was settled without much reaction from MCM's investors. According to MCM, the individual responsible for the CFTC infraction left the company in 2008 and members of current management had not been accused of any wrongdoing.^[3]

In September 2010, the firm had $4,118 million in US equity assets under management.^[6]

References

1. ^ [1] Bloomberg, Winton Replaces Moore Among Top 20 Hedge Funds as Managed Futures Advance, Retrieved July 2011
2. ^ [2] Bloomberg, Winton Replaces Moore Among Top 20 Hedge Funds as Managed Futures Advance, Retrieved July 16 2011
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} [3] Institutional Investor, Louis Bacon: Macro maestro, Retrieved July 16 2011
4. ^ Moyer, Liz (2010-03-23). "Insider Case Snares Moore Capital". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/23/moore-capital-bacon-business-wall-street-hedge-funds.html. 
5. ^ "section - Bacon starts to feel the heat". London Evening Standard. June 14, 2010. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-business/article-23844029-city-spy-guardian-directors-get-30-percent-salary-hike.do. Retrieved March 14, 2011. 
6. ^ "Moore Capital Management - Investor Profile". Hedgetracker.com. http://www.hedgetracker.com/fund/Moore-Capital-Management. Retrieved March 14, 2011.