Pretty miserable performance for a contrarian. He took a major hit just like everyone else.
This was probably why he was trying to distance himself from the controversy around his support for anti-immigration groups a couple of months ago. Redemptions to get cash out of his fund must have gone through the roof when markets tanked, and it's pretty hard to fundraise around Silicon Valley when you've been labeled a bigot.
@ektorp: Or around the world, as he's been more wont to do recently. He's also moved the entire operation from San Francisco to New York -- Clarium has few Silicon Valley ties at this point.
I seem to remember that he mentioned that his growth came from shorting Financials and going long on oil. Back when oil was $140/bbl that made him a lot of money. The fact that it's less than a third of that now pretty much explains his problem.
@Matthew_Maurice: Insiders tell me Thiel pursued the right strategies, but for too long, and didn't act to unwind his positions until after the market had already badly turned against him.
@Pepé Le Douche: Specifically, he was up 57.8 percent in the first half of the year, and down 39.4 percent. See the difference between that and simply being down 4.5 percent?
01/28/09
This was probably why he was trying to distance himself from the controversy around his support for anti-immigration groups a couple of months ago. Redemptions to get cash out of his fund must have gone through the roof when markets tanked, and it's pretty hard to fundraise around Silicon Valley when you've been labeled a bigot.
01/29/09
01/28/09
01/29/09
01/28/09
01/28/09
if it were a loss of 4.5% per annum it would be good but he was losing 4.5% per day and that is before payment of his fee
01/29/09
01/28/09
Peter and Michael so horny.
01/28/09