Odey’s Hedge Fund Posts 54% Gain in 2021 After Wild Ride
Odey’s Hedge Fund Posts 54% Gain in 2021 After Wild Ride
(Bloomberg) -- Even for Crispin Odey’s investors, who are used to frequent bouts of booms and busts at his hedge fund, last year was a rollercoaster ride.
The London-based money manager enjoyed both his best-ever monthly return and suffered his worst monthly loss, according to a person familiar with the performance. Odey’s fund finally ended the year with a gain of almost 54%, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.
Odey’s fund was up as much as 108% through September before giving up half those gains in the last quarter of 2021. February marked the fund’s best month, while October was its worst. The strategy has shrunk over the years and ran about $383 million at the end of November.
The annual return, its best since 2007, comes as a welcome respite for the hedge fund manager, who stepped down from running his eponymous firm to focus on trading in 2020 and has faced public scrutiny for years for his stunning losses and support for Brexit. A dollar invested in the fund at the start of 2015 is still worth only about 51 cents now.
A spokesman for London-based Odey Asset Management declined to comment.
Odey has for years predicted a market collapse and been one of the most vocal critics of central bank quantitative easing.
At least two bets helped power the fund’s surge. The first targeted long-dated government bonds amid expectations that a post-pandemic economic recovery will fan inflation. The fund’s short exposure to bonds totaled 902% of its net asset value at the end of November, according to an investor letter seen by Bloomberg. The second was a stake in Oxford Nanopore, which surged in value after the DNA-sequencing company listed in London in September.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.