Anyone have an idea what this might mean?

[Special K]

John W. Henry to Stop Managing Client Money - WSJ.com

 

John W. Henry to Stop Managing Client Money

 

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BY GREGORY ZUCKERMAN

 

John W. Henry & Co., a trading firm controlled by the principal owner of baseball's Boston Red Sox, told clients it will stop managing their money amid dwindling assets and several years of disappointing returns. ...

[xerxes]

He isnt very good with other peoples' money?

[ternando_forres]

This is comforting news.

[FanchesterCity]

I suspect this is a polite twist on 'clients told HIM they're moving on to better management firms'.

[Neil G]

John W. Henry to Stop Managing Client Money

 

 

By GREGORY ZUCKERMAN

 

John W. Henry & Co., a trading firm controlled by the principal owner of baseball's Boston Red Sox, told clients it will stop managing their money amid dwindling assets and several years of disappointing returns.

 

"This is to notify you that JWH has determined to cease managing client assets effective December 31, 2012," Amy B. Hanson, a marketing manager of the firm, wrote in an email to clients on Friday. "We will not be providing performance information going forward."

 

The firm said it will continue to do some trading for its own account. In 2006, the firm managed more than $2.5 billion but today the figure has dropped to less than $100 million, Mr. Henry said in an email.

 

"The firm has been small since 2007 and once assets fell below $100 million this year the company became too small to sustain itself," Mr. Henry wrote. "We have been returning assets to investors with a desire to exit the client business by year end."

 

John W. Henry to Stop Managing Client Money - WSJ.com

 

 

Question: how did it go from managing $2.5 billion in 2006 to being "small" the following year? Heavily into the sub-prime market? Not very reassuring.

[Special K]

I'm shocked there's not been a lot of discussion about this. Isn't anyone else worried?

[Guest San Don]

John W. Henry to Stop Managing Client Money

 

 

By GREGORY ZUCKERMAN

 

John W. Henry & Co., a trading firm controlled by the principal owner of baseball's Boston Red Sox, told clients it will stop managing their money amid dwindling assets and several years of disappointing returns.

 

"This is to notify you that JWH has determined to cease managing client assets effective December 31, 2012," Amy B. Hanson, a marketing manager of the firm, wrote in an email to clients on Friday. "We will not be providing performance information going forward."

 

The firm said it will continue to do some trading for its own account. In 2006, the firm managed more than $2.5 billion but today the figure has dropped to less than $100 million, Mr. Henry said in an email.

 

"The firm has been small since 2007 and once assets fell below $100 million this year the company became too small to sustain itself," Mr. Henry wrote. "We have been returning assets to investors with a desire to exit the client business by year end."

 

John W. Henry to Stop Managing Client Money - WSJ.com

 

 

Question: how did it go from managing $2.5 billion in 2006 to being "small" the following year? Heavily into the sub-prime market? Not very reassuring.

 

Because the global financial economy went into meltdown.

 

Bank of America shares were trading at $54 a share before the crash. Afterwards they were down to $3 a share. That's an awful lot of money lost rather than mismanaging funds etc.

[Anubis]

I'd imagine it means the trading firm will stop handling client's money because it just isn't very good as a trading firm and is costing them money.

 

As it'll be a seperate legal entity I wouldn't worry about it affecting FSG ot Henry's other businesses. Whether or not it's indicative of Henry's ability would rather depend if he had any part of it other than appointing the management. I doubt he does but perhaps our Stateside cousins can throw more light on that.

[Neil G]

Because the global financial economy went into meltdown.

 

Bank of America shares were trading at $54 a share before the crash. Afterwards they were down to $3 a share. That's an awful lot of money lost rather than mismanaging funds etc.

 

 

Bank of America got hit in the summer of 2008 though, no? Along with the other big US banks like Lehman Brothers.

 

The period I'm talking about is a year earlier, right at the start of the crash, when the subprime mortgage market went tits up. If Henry was dabbling in that then I'd be a bit concerned about his judgment.

[Newport]

He isnt very good with other peoples' money?

 

Red Sox owner John Henry shutting down investment firm - Business - The Boston Globe

Says he has no intention of selling team

 

 

By Beth Healy

| Globe Staff

November 09, 2012

 

John Tlumacki / Globe Staff

 

Red Sox owner John Henry is shutting down his Florida investment firm after several years of decline, but Henry insists he has no intention of selling his stake in the Boston baseball franchise.

 

Founded in 1982, John W. Henry & Co. helped Henry build a fortune using complex statistical models to trade in commodities. The firm managed $2.5 billion in 2004, the year the Red Sox won the World Series. But assets under its watch declined dramatically in the financial crisis and have not come back.

 

On Friday, Henry said the Boca Raton firm told clients in October that it planned to return the rest of their money -- which now amounts to less than $100 million -- by year’s end. It will continue to manage Henry’s personal account.

 

Henry, 63, in response to questions from the Globe Friday, said in an e-mail, “I haven’t run the company since 1989. We’ve always had a mathematical approach and a philosophy that hasn’t changed.”

 

 

But markets have changed since then, making it more difficult to exploit changes in commodity prices. “It is clear that economies are much more managed than they were,’’ Henry said.

 

He said that his firm’s decline has “caused a number of potential investors to call me” about whether he would sell the Red Sox, but he has rebuffed such a notion.

 

“My answer has been that I’m not interested in selling any portion of my ownership. While others within the partnership have sold all or portions of their stakes over the past 11 years, my percentage of ownership has increased,’’ Henry said. “I have no interest in reducing that. If anything I expect it to increase over time.”

 

There was speculation in September that his firm’s demise might mean Henry would lack the resources to support the Red Sox and the Liverpool Football Club in England. Henry and at least one key partner say that is not true.

 

Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said in an interview Friday, “I know that John doesn’t have any intention to sell either the Fenway Sports Group, or any portion of his shares.”

 

The Wall Street Journal first reported on John W. Henry & Co.’s plans to close.

 

A college dropout who grew up on a farm in Arkansas, Henry developed an appreciation for the commodities markets at a young age. He built a successful firm on his concept of “managed futures,” trading profitably in both up and down markets.

 

The Globe reported in 2009 that assets at Henry’s firm had declined to $188 million and that the Brookline resident had fired more than a quarter of the staff. Eight employees were let go, leaving 20 at the time.

 

Recent performance is down by double digits in two of the funds John W. Henry & Co. oversees -- one by 32 percent over the past year, according to the firm’s web site. Over three years, the funds are down 6 percent annually, although longer term the funds look better: producing 8.9 percent average annual returns over five years, vs. 1 percent for the stocks of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

[ternando_forres]

I'm shocked there's not been a lot of discussion about this. Isn't anyone else worried?

 

We only spend what we earn anyway,maybe it doesn't make too much difference what he's getting up to.

[Jim MM]

I'm shocked there's not been a lot of discussion about this. Isn't anyone else worried?

 

No. Business isn't making enough money so he's ditching it and keeping the ones that do make money. I'd be worried if his solution was to borrow more than the value of the business and expect the shareholders to pay the interest while he bullshitted about Arabs buying it all for three times it's value.

[Nightcat]

Broughton who according to him have scoured the earth to find a "sugar daddy", he offloaded Liverpool to these fellas while he was tapping up Torres. Thanks Martin, true legend and unrivalled liar.

[Jim MM]

Broughton who according to him have scoured the earth to find a "sugar daddy", he offloaded Liverpool to these fellas while he was tapping up Torres. Thanks Martin, true legend and unrivalled liar.

 

Negged. Get ta bed, ya blert.

[Ne Moe Imya]

I say we all panic. Clearly that is the only possible response here.

[Unrighteous]

I say we all panic. Clearly that is the only possible response here.

 

[index1000]

Some of the panic on here is ridiculous, i posted a longer answer on here earlier but for whatever reason it is not on the thread. In summary, i work in this industry and Henry is a legendary trader. What made him was his ability to utilise futures markets to capitilise on discrepancies between interest rate and bond market yields. He was hailed as the best in the world at identifying the underlying trends in these markets and made a fortune from it.

Currently US interest rates are at record lows, practically zero, and the bond markets are flat. Therefore what would have worked (and did massively well) in the past does not produce the required returns any longer, so he has closed the fund that corresponds to this and is probably sitting out until we get some normalcy in the markets.

The sub-prime market debacle was nothing to do with Henry at all. In fact he has been a victim of it as the money printed to by up the toxic debt (called Q.E but money printing none the less) is the cause of the interest rate reductions and low bond volatility.

[Guest San Don]

Broughton who according to him have scoured the earth to find a "sugar daddy", he offloaded Liverpool to these fellas while he was tapping up Torres. Thanks Martin, true legend and unrivalled liar.

 

Fucking ejit. Back in her box.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

He isnt very good with other peoples' money?

 

Yeah, because he was the one making all the decisions.

[Springer]

No. Business isn't making enough money so he's ditching it and keeping the ones that do make money. I'd be worried if his solution was to borrow more than the value of the business and expect the shareholders to pay the interest while he bullshitted about Arabs buying it all for three times it's value.

 

In a nutshell :yes:

[xerxes]

Some of the panic on here is ridiculous, i posted a longer answer on here earlier but for whatever reason it is not on the thread. In summary, i work in this industry and Henry is a legendary trader. What made him was his ability to utilise futures markets to capitilise on discrepancies between interest rate and bond market yields. He was hailed as the best in the world at identifying the underlying trends in these markets and made a fortune from it.

Currently US interest rates are at record lows, practically zero, and the bond markets are flat. Therefore what would have worked (and did massively well) in the past does not produce the required returns any longer, so he has closed the fund that corresponds to this and is probably sitting out until we get some normalcy in the markets.

The sub-prime market debacle was nothing to do with Henry at all. In fact he has been a victim of it as the money printed to by up the toxic debt (called Q.E but money printing none the less) is the cause of the interest rate reductions and low bond volatility.

 

That sums it up for me. We can all move on now.

[Phoenix]

John W. Henry to Stop Managing Client Money

 

 

Question: how did it go from managing $2.5 billion in 2006 to being "small" the following year? Heavily into the sub-prime market? Not very reassuring.

 

Majority of his clients taking their money elsewhere? A trading fund which is more profitable.