Tag Archives: ken griffin

doj-investigates-citadel-griffin-
People Profiles, Tech Talk

Citadel and KCG Targets of DOJ

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Federal authorities investigating the market-making arms of the $25bil hedge fund Citadel LLC and broker KCG Holdings Inc, are looking into the possibility that the two giants of electronic trading are giving small investors a poor deal when executing stock transactions on their behalf.

The Justice Department has subpoenaed information from Citadel and KCG (formerly known as Knight Capital Group) related to the firms’ execution of stock trades on behalf of clients, according to people familiar with the investigation. FBI Director Jim Comey, the top cop for the US DOJ will ultimately oversee the investigation, as he does for all other DOJ matters. Prior to his current role as FBI Director,  Comey worked as the General Counsel to Westport, CT-based Bridgewater Associates,  the world’s largest hedge fund with $150bil (RAUM) and owned mostly by the firm’s Founder Ray Dalio, a trading guru who is known to have a particularly intense personality. But, that comes with the territory if you’ve built a personal fortune estimated at $15bil.  Chicago-based Citadel is steered by billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, whose estimated net worth of  $7bil is half of what Dalio purportedly has, but does include multiple luxury residences, whose total value is nearly $500 mil, and includes a $200mil NYC penthouse that he purchased in Q3 2015.

Intermission from news flash: For followers of Showtime’s drama-parody of the world where hedge funds cross paths with regulators aka Billions, you’ll get the joke. Meaning, the notion that a guy who first appeared as a rising federal prosecutor, working all the way up to White House level roles, then, by virtue of administration revolving doors, he finds his way down the yellow brick road into the private sector, where he manages to land a sweet job at a defense contractor and takes in $6mil after 5 years and then,  he finds Jesus [in Westport CT],  who is located at the peak of Hedge Fund Mountain. This is where  he makes nearly $10mil –pretty good pay for a former Elliot Ness–in less than three years as top lawyer to of all folks, the world’s biggest and most secretive hedge running $150bil (RAUM) for institutions and sovereign governments.  Wait! Now flash forward two seasons; that same guy is now the FBI Head who, in Season 2, Episode 1 goes after Apple Inc and threatens to waterboard Tim Cook unless he pries open the back of an iPhone belonging to a self-acclaimed follower of Daesh .  And now, Season 2, Episode 2,  our top cop is now going after a billionaire hedge fund manager who happens to swim in the same “billionated” pool of HF sharks as his former partner!  Memo To: Andrew Ross Sorkin–Are you writing this sh*t down?? P.S. New phrase above ie. ‘billionated’,  also pronounced billion-ated. Means: to be full of billions, to be inflated with material possessions that cost billions, to have your brain inflated with thoughts of self aggrandizement   because you are full of billions. Not to be confused with “Billionator”, which is the finance industry equivalent to “Terminator”…but we digress… back to the main story…citadel-fbi-marketsmuse

Authorities are examining internal data concerning the firms’ routing of customer stock orders through exchanges and other trading systems, to see whether they are giving customers unfavorable prices on trades in order to capture more profit on the transact

ETF News

Bitcoin ETFs: BIT Could Be “Balderdash” Says Sell-Side Seer

Leave a comment

MarketsMuse.com ETF snapshot takes another bite into the topic of Bitcoin, the dominant digital currency that continues to gain traction with leading brokerdealers and many, [but not all] from across the ETF universe, despite the currency’s 74 percent decline since November 2013. Below is excerpted from 07 April coverage courtesy of NewsMax.com

Big-time traders and investors are starting to participate in the bitcoin market, The Wall Street Journal reports. The list of participants includes Citadel Securities, KCG Holdings and Wedbush Securities. Citadel is a heavyweight investment firm led by Ken Griffin. KCG is the massive brokerage firm formed by the merger of Knight Capital and GETCO.

Citadel, KCG and Wedbush have offered bids to buy shares of the Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT) since it was listed on the OTC Markets in March, The Journal reports. The BIT holds bitcoin in a trust in which accredited investors can then buy shares. Trading could begin as soon as this week.

KCG is “actively exploring various opportunities related to” bitcoin, its spokeswoman Sophie Sohn tells The Journal.

Some experts say use of the bitcoin by investors and traders will help to further legitimize the currency and increase its usage throughout the economy.

mf_monkeymathTo be sure, there is some skepticism about the BIT. The fund’s manager, Grayscale Investments, charges a 2 percent annual fee for administration and safekeeping, CNBC reports. That’s more than what most exchange-traded funds (ETFs) charge. One skeptical sell-sider has this to say about that..

“BIT investors may end up paying 5 percent more for shares of the fund than if they simply bought bitcoin on an exchange”, Eric Mustin, vice president of ETF Trading Solutions at WallachBeth Capital, tells the news service.

“People who read tabloids deserved to get lied to, and that’s how I feel about someone buying a bitcoin ETF,” he notes. “If you’re confident in this currency that you want to buy it, but you can’t take the 30 seconds to set up a wallet, which is incredibly easy, then you deserve to pay the 5 percent or whatever. I’m not cynical about bitcoin, but I just think it’s a goofy way to trade it.”