John Paulson made enormous amounts of dollars betting against the United States real estate market, receiving a cash loan each time a homeowner foreclosed. Regardless of whether Paulson is considered to be a crook or a master, there is no disputing the real estate bubble and investment in various financials have made him a billionaire. He will not be applying for a pay day loan to pay for his mortgage at any time soon.
Getting Citigroup with John Paulson
To some, hedge fund director Paulson represents all of what is wrong with Wall Street. After earning approximately $15 billion betting against the United States real estate industry in 2007 – and being labeled a "guru" for doing this – Paulson moved to the other side of the investment speculation fence. He bet that the United States economy would soon rebound. He bet on high gold prices and rebounding house prices with his "after the fall" outlay while also putting investments into several indexes. Paulson’s stake in Citigroup earned his hedge fund investors utilizing Paulson & Co. about $1 billion in 2010. Over the past year, Citigroup’s share price shot up 50 percent.
About $35 billion in investments are owned by Paulson & Co. right now. Where most hedge funds eschewed the more volatile elements of the market past year, Reuters accounts that Paulson and company took small financial lumps early this year, yet managed to swing things around into double-digit gains. For 2010, the Paulson Advantage Plus fund had a 17 percent rise for the year. Also, there was a 35 percent jump in Paulson's gold investments.
How good is 17 percent?
The 17 percent gain by the Paulson Advantage Plus Fund really isn't that different than the 15 percent gain the S&P 500 had past year. This is something the Globe and mail points out when discussing the success of John Paulson. The Canadian newspaper's opinion could be wrong though. Even though Paulson did invest "against-the-bubble" hurting the economy in order to make himself millions, the federal regulators didn't do anything over it. Most are upset about this though. They say it isn't an excuse to do what he did.
Articles cited
The Guardian
guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/07/the-greatest-trade-ever-by-gregory-zuckerman-review-heather-stewart
The Globe and Mail
theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/markets/markets-blog/paulsons-5-billion-haul-big-deal/article1886319/
Reuters
reuters.com/article/2011/01/25/us-hedgefunds-paulson-idUSTRE70O4G820110125
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_default_swap
John Paulson and Joe Stiglitz on the mispricing of risk
youtube.com/watch?v=l8G-b315B6E
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