Fund Managers & Market Experts Interviews (Sunday Times)

Valuebuddies' dream - short working hours, work-life balance, time with family, good returns -> akin to FAT F.I.R.E. ..... what else to ask for ?

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World's top hedge fund returns found in Singapore
Published Dec 17, 2019, 5:00 am SGT

On most mornings, Mr Chong Chin Eai starts his day with a jog through the Botanic Gardens. After taking his son to school, he trades futures on his laptop at home until it is time for lunch, after which he might have a massage or a nap.........His Vanda Global Fund, started with US$24 million (S$32.5 million) from friends and family and named after Singapore's national orchid, is the world's best-performing hedge fund this year, gaining more than 300 per cent......

Mr Chong, 46, trades from a desk in his home office with a laptop and an extra monitor. While some quantitative analysts (or quants) have supercomputers, his model is built on an Excel spreadsheet that crunches data supplied by a Bloomberg terminal

"If you spend too much money in terms of infrastructure and rent, it'll eat into your returns," said Mr Chong......Vanda's annualised returns are 39 per cent and Mr Chong now manages US$222 million......

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/ba...-singapore

(17-12-2019, 09:29 PM)dreamybear Wrote: Valuebuddies' dream - short working hours, work-life balance, time with family, good returns -> akin to FAT F.I.R.E. ..... what else to ask for ?

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World's top hedge fund returns found in Singapore
Published Dec 17, 2019, 5:00 am SGT

On most mornings, Mr Chong Chin Eai starts his day with a jog through the Botanic Gardens. After taking his son to school, he trades futures on his laptop at home until it is time for lunch, after which he might have a massage or a nap.........His Vanda Global Fund, started with US$24 million (S$32.5 million) from friends and family and named after Singapore's national orchid, is the world's best-performing hedge fund this year, gaining more than 300 per cent......

Mr Chong, 46, trades from a desk in his home office with a laptop and an extra monitor. While some quantitative analysts (or quants) have supercomputers, his model is built on an Excel spreadsheet that crunches data supplied by a Bloomberg terminal

"If you spend too much money in terms of infrastructure and rent, it'll eat into your returns," said Mr Chong......Vanda's annualised returns are 39 per cent and Mr Chong now manages US$222 million......

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/ba...-singapore

Not this VB's dream.....Like I said before: When you take money from others, you are their b*t*h.
Best is to manage your own money, not OPM.

(18-12-2019, 01:37 AM)opmi Wrote:

(17-12-2019, 09:29 PM)dreamybear Wrote: Valuebuddies' dream - short working hours, work-life balance, time with family, good returns -> akin to FAT F.I.R.E. ..... what else to ask for ?

---------------------------------------------------------------

World's top hedge fund returns found in Singapore
Published Dec 17, 2019, 5:00 am SGT

On most mornings, Mr Chong Chin Eai starts his day with a jog through the Botanic Gardens. After taking his son to school, he trades futures on his laptop at home until it is time for lunch, after which he might have a massage or a nap.........His Vanda Global Fund, started with US$24 million (S$32.5 million) from friends and family and named after Singapore's national orchid, is the world's best-performing hedge fund this year, gaining more than 300 per cent......

Mr Chong, 46, trades from a desk in his home office with a laptop and an extra monitor. While some quantitative analysts (or quants) have supercomputers, his model is built on an Excel spreadsheet that crunches data supplied by a Bloomberg terminal

"If you spend too much money in terms of infrastructure and rent, it'll eat into your returns," said Mr Chong......Vanda's annualised returns are 39 per cent and Mr Chong now manages US$222 million......

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/ba...-singapore

Not this VB's dream.....Like I said before: When you take money from others, you are their b*t*h.
Best is to manage your own money, not OPM.

I am not sure of the message that Mr Chong is trying to send, by allowing the newspaper to publish his daily routine of "jog, send kid to school, trade and nap". To be honest, it doesnt really reflect good on him from a client standpoint.

My personal experience and from what i have read on successful traders/investors is that hard work/time is a significant correlation to long term positive returns in the stock market.

I have a different view. Just this sentence on 2nd paragraph may bring him more clients....


"is the world's best-performing hedge fund this year, gaining more than 300 per cent."

Re my earlier post/article, maybe Mr Chong Chin Eai is an outliner or doing much more than just equities/fixed income ....

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Most asset managers will be zombie firms: PGIM boss
Wed, Dec 18, 2019 - 5:50 AM New York

THE asset-management industry is changing so rapidly that as many as 80 per cent of its players will become "zombie firms" unable to achieve the performance or scale needed to attract new money, according to PGIM chief executive officer David Hunt.

"We have never seen such a disparity between winners and losers," Mr Hunt said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday. "The vast majority of firms, if you're just doing public equities, you're just doing fixed income, you're struggling. You're in outflows, and we don't see that changing anytime soon.".......

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/executi...-pgim-boss

(18-12-2019, 07:25 PM)TerryT Wrote: I have a different view. Just this sentence on 2nd paragraph may bring him more clients....


"is the world's best-performing hedge fund this year, gaining more than 300 per cent."

hi TerryT,
That is probably true. His prospective clients (HNWI) and me (OPMI) are from different worlds.

(18-12-2019, 06:37 PM)weijian Wrote:

(18-12-2019, 01:37 AM)opmi Wrote:

(17-12-2019, 09:29 PM)dreamybear Wrote: Valuebuddies' dream - short working hours, work-life balance, time with family, good returns -> akin to FAT F.I.R.E. ..... what else to ask for ?

---------------------------------------------------------------

World's top hedge fund returns found in Singapore
Published Dec 17, 2019, 5:00 am SGT

On most mornings, Mr Chong Chin Eai starts his day with a jog through the Botanic Gardens. After taking his son to school, he trades futures on his laptop at home until it is time for lunch, after which he might have a massage or a nap.........His Vanda Global Fund, started with US$24 million (S$32.5 million) from friends and family and named after Singapore's national orchid, is the world's best-performing hedge fund this year, gaining more than 300 per cent......

Mr Chong, 46, trades from a desk in his home office with a laptop and an extra monitor. While some quantitative analysts (or quants) have supercomputers, his model is built on an Excel spreadsheet that crunches data supplied by a Bloomberg terminal

"If you spend too much money in terms of infrastructure and rent, it'll eat into your returns," said Mr Chong......Vanda's annualised returns are 39 per cent and Mr Chong now manages US$222 million......

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/ba...-singapore

Not this VB's dream.....Like I said before: When you take money from others, you are their b*t*h.
Best is to manage your own money, not OPM.

I am not sure of the message that Mr Chong is trying to send, by allowing the newspaper to publish his daily routine of "jog, send kid to school, trade and nap". To be honest, it doesnt really reflect good on him from a client standpoint.

My personal experience and from what i have read on successful traders/investors is that hard work/time is a significant correlation to long term positive returns in the stock market.

Such articles are some of the most scary ones around. They always dont mention that the fund manager earns a lot of fees in good times, the usual is like 20% of net gains. But in bad times, still "milk" like 2% of net assets. THe more funds they manage, the more they "milk". And if the fund manager has some special insight, it works only if the fund size is small, and when there is almost no competition. Now when you announce to the world how capable you are, your intention becomes clear. You want to attract more funds, and you are asking for competition. 

At the end of the day, more funds means more manager fees