Blackstone's King of Hedge Funds on Alt Investing Right Now
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Everyone knows by now that college endowment funds have gone big on alternative investing, pouring billions of dollars into private equity and hedge funds. But that investing model now seems to be under pressure and there are reports that Ivy League institutions like Yale and Harvard are looking to unload some of their more illiquid investments. So why did colleges get into alts in the first place? And how do they select which funds to invest in? In this episode, we speak with Joe Dowling, the former head of Brown University's endowment. Joe is now global head of multi-asset investing at Blackstone, one of the biggest institutional investors around. He talks about the rise of alts, how college funds got so invested, the pressures they're facing right now, and the boom in multi-strats.
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Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Andurand Pulls Back From Cocoa Misadventure After ‘Extreme' Volatility Drives Losses
(Bloomberg) -- Famed oil trader Pierre Andurand has pulled back from a bullish bet on cocoa after a series of mistimed trades led to deep losses, according to a letter sent to investors that was seen by Bloomberg. The World's Data Center Capital Has Residents Surrounded An Abandoned Art-Deco Landmark in Buffalo Awaits Revival We Should All Be Biking Along the Beach San Francisco in Talks With Vanderbilt for Downtown Campus Seeking Relief From Heat and Smog, Cities Follow the Wind The gyrations underscore the risk for fund managers that drift away from their core expertise into other markets that carry unfamiliar risks. Andurand, whose main fund was down over 57% through the end of June, began trading cocoa in early 2024 after more than a decade focused primarily on oil. 'Recent performance has been very disappointing,' the recent letter to investors said. 'Pierre Andurand has further reduced long cocoa exposure in all Andurand funds.' A spokesperson for Andurand declined to comment. Andurand's ill-fated foray into cocoa began in January 2024, when an analyst from his firm approached him and proposed a new trade. 'Pierre, you should look at cocoa,' the analyst said, according to a retelling by Andurand on the Odd Lots podcast in May last year. 'Okay, I don't know anything about it, tell me,' Andurand replied. Until that point, Andurand was primarily known for trading energy. He found initial success buying and selling oil at commodities trading house Vitol Group, before leaving to start hedge fund BlueGold Capital Management in 2008 with the firm's former head of trading Dennis Crema. Their new venture returned over 200% in its first year thanks to lucrative bets on the price of oil. BlueGold lasted only a few years, suffering steep losses and returning money to its investors in 2012. Andurand launched his eponymous firm the following year, making bets on oil that drove double-digit gains in its early years. Andurand branched out from oil to invest in other commodities, including metals. His firm also made profitable bets in recent years on a sharp rise in the price of European carbon allowances. Cocoa Strategy The cocoa-trading strategy suggested by the analyst at Andurand's firm was a basic story of a mismatch in supply and demand. A majority of the commodity is grown in just two countries, the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Supplies there looked set to decline for a variety of reasons, such as adverse weather conditions and a fungal disease called Black Pod. Any supply scarcity could have an outsized impact on cocoa futures, because typically demand for chocolate doesn't respond much to shifts in the price of the raw commodity, Andurand said. Chocolate consumption keeps rising 'when you have a recession or not, when prices go up a lot or not,' he said on Odd Lots. Initially, the analyst's assessment of the market proved to be correct. By the end of February 2024, cocoa futures were already up some 50% for the year. Andurand's firm initiated a small position in cocoa the following month, according to a letter sent to investors. By the end of 2024, bets on cocoa helped drive a 50% gain in his flagship Andurand Commodities Discretionary Enhanced Fund. Those profits were short-lived. The fund dropped some 17% in January 2025 and nearly 25% in February, with losses driven by falling cocoa prices due to worries about demand, according to information sent to investors. The less volatile Andurand Commodities Fund is also down 26% through June. In April, Andurand increased the fund's bullish cocoa position in expectation that figures on bean processing set to be published later that month would drive up prices. The prediction proved to be correct, but the trading strategy nevertheless foundered amid the chaos caused by Trump's so-called Liberation Day tariff announcement on April 2. As the US president launched his trade war, Andurand took a short position on the S&P 500 as a hedge against the risk that tariffs posed to the price of commodities. At first it worked, as stocks fell and cocoa rose, but the trend was quickly reversed when Trump announced a 90-day tariff pause. Amid the volatility, Andurand sought to stem losses by unwinding both positions. The bullish cocoa-bean processing data was eventually confirmed, but Andurand's fund missed out on the subsequent price rally and his fund slumped some 18% in April. 'In hindsight, if we had maintained the same positions throughout the month and not traded following Trump's various announcements, the funds could have generated positive performance,' Andurand explained to investors in a letter. 'At the time it was extremely difficult not to react to Trump's tariff announcement.' With Andurand's prediction of bullish cocoa-processing data vindicated, he put his bullish bet back on. 'Our top conviction today is that we will see higher cocoa prices,' according to the letter sent to investors that detailed April's performance. 'The majority of our risk remains in cocoa given our fundamentally bullish view.' While cocoa prices did rise again in May, they slumped in June and July, often with huge intraday swings, as a slowdown in demand from Europe's cocoa factories deepened. Unfamiliar Market Some of Andurand's losses may stem from fundamental differences in the market for cocoa and the much larger oil trade. Cocoa is a relatively small market, so if you make a big bet and the market moves against you there may not be enough buyers to shrink your exposure without drastically reducing prices, said Ole Gjolberg, a professor at the School of Economics and Business at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. 'Cocoa is not like the markets that Andurand has been in before, like oil and gas and metals. So that's also part of the risk picture,' said Gjolberg, who teaches about hedging and speculation in commodities. 'If you're going in big you can be stuck with your positions.' It appears that Andurand has come to the same conclusion — even if his thesis is correct that there's a fundamental mismatch between the supply and demand of cocoa, that doesn't make it a profitable trade. 'We still believe in the constructive cocoa story,' a recent letter to investors said. 'But the price action and volatility has been too extreme.' --With assistance from Mumbi Gitau. How Podcast-Obsessed Tech Investors Made a New Media Industry Everyone Loves to Hate Wind Power. Scotland Found a Way to Make It Pay Off It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Russia Builds a New Web Around Kremlin's Handpicked Super App Cage-Free Eggs Are Booming in the US, Despite Cost and Trump's Efforts ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Newsweek
12 hours ago
- Newsweek
Most Americans Were Never Interested in Meghan Markle Podcasting
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Meghan Markle's struggle to break through with her business podcast Confessions of a Female Founder may in part be explained by polling conducted at the time she first signed with Spotify. The Duchess of Sussex has now chalked up two podcasts: Archetypes, about sexist slurs, and Confessions of a Female Founder, which featured interviews about prominent women who run companies. The first made waves when she dished about the royal family in the early episodes but sunk in the charts in later shows when she steered clear of the palace soap opera. Meghan Markle listens to a broadcast through headphones during a visit to Reprezent 107.3FM community radio station in Brixton, south west London, on January 9, 2018. Meghan Markle listens to a broadcast through headphones during a visit to Reprezent 107.3FM community radio station in Brixton, south west London, on January 9, 2018. DOMINIC LIPINSKI/AFP via Getty Images The second had nothing do with the monarchy and struggled to make an impact beyond the first episode. That may in reality be no surprise as polling as far back as 2020 suggests Americans may simply never have been particularly interested in Prince Harry and Meghan podcasting. Why It Matters Meghan launched a flurry of new projects in 2025 but had a rough ride among critics for both her Netflix cooking show and Confessions, which were both tied to her own business As Ever, which launched in April. Now the first phase of those ventures is over, she will have a chance to take stock and consider what is working well and what could do with a revamp. What to Know Polling agency YouGov asked 5,400 U.S. adults in December 2020 how much interest they would have in listening to Harry and Meghan's podcasts. Just 8 percent said they were "very interested" while 53 percent said they were "not at all interested." And 16 percent were "not very interested" while 15 percent were "somewhat interested." This adds up to a total of 69 percent falling on the side of disinterest compared to 23 percent who expressed interest. At the time, they had just signed their Spotify deal but no specific shows had been publicly revealed and in the end it would be a year-and-a-half before Archetypes dropped. It was, though, also a time when they had not been giving interviews and therefore media appetite to hear what they had to say was far higher than now. The Oprah Winfrey interview, for example, was still months away and was not even known about in December 2020. In that respect, Harry and Meghan's reputations in America were still mostly uncontroversial bar a run-in with Donald Trump after they commented on the presidential election he lost to Joe Biden. Some might, therefore, by tempted to conclude that Meghan should not take the lukewarm response to her podcast to heart and simply focus on other more successful projects. What Happens Next Meghan's As Ever online shop has sold out all three of its product runs in mere minutes but more produce is expected to drop this summer, specifically a sparkling wine. Season 2 of her Netflix show With Love, Meghan is also due out in the fall, while the Netflix deal itself is due to run out in September. As yet, a new deal has not been signed and The Sun and People both reported Netflix does not intend to renew it. Time will tell whether some continuation of the partnership gets renegotiated or not. Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page. Do you have a question about King Charles III and Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate, Meghan and Prince Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@ We'd love to hear from you.
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Bloomberg
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A Cornell University alumnus bought the longtime home for the college's presidents after the Ivy League school put the property on the market amid budget constraints. A spokesperson for the university said a 'devoted Cornell alumnus' purchased the Tudor-style residence — known as Robin Hill — for $2.785 million. The home in Ithaca, New York, was vacant and Cornell did not have plans to use it in the near term, the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
