Hedge fund manager John Paulson who made $3.7bn
betting against sub-prime (and UK banks like RBOS), has cut his short position in Barclays, the day before Abu Dhabi investment corporation (IPIC) pushed the share price down 5% after offloading 1.3bn shares (IPIC wants to maintain a
strategic relationship with Barclays however). Paulson's position was cut on 2 June from 1.17 percent to below 0.25% (threshold for disclosure).
Paulson is thought to have lost £100m by holding his short position from November until June09 as Barclays shares have rocketed five-fold, since hitting 51p low in January. He has a property in the
Hamptons.
Paulson's fame came from recognising there was a housing bubble in the United States and ACTING ON IT in 2006 while playing with spreadsheets. He made $1.25bn in a single morning from a five-point fall in the markets (late 2007). Initally, Paulson and his aide Paolo Pelligrini looked at buying puts on the S&P but they were just too darn expensive. So they started buying CDS, insurance on debt, which were very cheap. Paulson has since become the subject of a book "The Greatest Trade Ever" by Gregory Zuckerman of the
WSJ.
In other news, Intel acquired embedded software provider WindRiver, a synergistic union ($11.50 per share in cash).
And the FSA banned CFD broker
Blue Index who were based at St Dunstan's Hill near Old Billingsgate Market.
