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Business Insider
8 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
6 Wall Street veterans share the best trades they've ever made
Last month, Business Insider highlighted tales of investing glory from 10 everyday Americans. For some, their best investment was their house. For others, it was holding on to superstar stocks like Nvidia or Apple. But what about the pros? Over the last few weeks, senior Wall Street money managers have regaled us with stories of their career highlights. A degree of luck played a role in each trade, to be sure, but all of the anecdotes also highlight why top asset managers are among the best in their business: their ability to spot timely opportunities and capitalize on them, either in the short term or over many years. GMO's Arjun Divecha used negotiating tactics at 3 a.m. to eventually realize a 6,400% return. Haverford Trust's Hank Smith knew to get out of a stock just a day before it fell 86%. Here are the stories of the best trades six Wall Street veterans made, either through their firms or for their personal accounts. Arjun Divecha, founder of GMO Emerging Markets Equity In 1998, Russia experienced a financial crisis that caused its stock market to crash by 98% and sparked a brief global financial shock. Divecha started buying up discounted shares of machinery producer UralMash, now known as United Heavy Machinery, amassing a 5% stake in the company. One night, he got a call at 3 a.m. from a Russian investor who owned 2% of the firm and wanted to know if Divecha and GMO were interested in buying it. "I said, 'Ok, what is the bid-ask on this?' because one of the first things you learn in a crisis is you never say, 'What's the price?'" Divecha said. "There's no such thing as a price in a crisis." The investor was asking for a dollar a share, but the current bid was for 50 cents. Annoyed at being woken up, and knowing that several failed New York-based hedge funds were due to liquidate their shares in the company soon, Divecha said he would buy his stake for 23 cents a share and that the offer was good for a minute. The investor accepted. "I am convinced that had I said 25 cents, he would not have taken it," Divecha said. "When I said 23 cents, I was using something I call the illusion of precision — that somehow he thought that I had done some complicated math and come up with 23 cents." Divecha held the stock for four to five years before selling it for around $15 per share, he said. Que Nguyen, CIO at Research Affiliates During the pandemic in early 2020, when the price of oil went negative, Nguyen had an idea: Get paid to hold oil. However, it's hard for a retail investor to take delivery of physical crude. Nguyen decided to approach the oil trade by gaining exposure to MLPs, or Master Limited Partnerships, which are generally companies that process and move oil. She did this via investments in specific ETFs. With the sector broadly cheap, casting a wide net made this the simplest approach. "It's kind of like the question do you want to look for the needle in a haystack, or do you want to buy the haystack?" Nguyen said. "When the haystack is full of great needles, you just want to buy the haystack." As it became clear that the world would normalize and reopen, her investment returned 50%. She eventually closed the position and transferred the proceeds to her donor-advised fund, which allows someone to set aside money they intend to donate. Nguyen's favorite charities to donate to include those focusing on education and food security in New York City. Bill Smead, manager of the Smead Value Fund Amid the chaos of the 2008 crash, Smead — a top 1% investor, according to Morningstar data — noticed eBay trading at $11 a share and saw a bargain. While he liked the business model, Smead was more drawn to the fact that the company owned 100% of PayPal, 100% of StubHub, and 30% of Skype. They also had the equivalent of $3 per share in cash and were debt-free, he said. At Thanksgiving that year, Smead had a broker who was a family friend over, and remembers telling him about the stock. "I said, 'When you go back to your office on Monday, you call every single one of your clients and get them to buy a bunch of this stock and then never sell it," Smead said. Today, eBay trades at around $77 a share, and PayPal has split into a separate stock. John Barr, manager of the Needham Aggressive Growth Fund Barr, whose fund has a five-star rating from Morningstar, said his best investment ever was in Nova (NVMI), a company that produces measurement systems used in the factory production of semiconductors. It's benefited hugely from the recent semiconductor boom amid the AI arms race. Barr bought it all the way back in the third quarter of 2009. Since then, it's up more than 6,000%. "It was no analyst coverage, nobody knew it," Barr said. "I knew one of their peers very well, and the peer was also a small-cap listed company that was doing great, and I owned it." Jason Hsu, CIO and founder at Rayliant In early 2021, retail traders blew up hedge fund Melvin Capital by piling into GameStop stock, sparking a now-infamous short squeeze. Hsu saw the Melvin collapse as an opportunity, as it likely signaled upside momentum on GME would run out quickly. It's not often that retail traders topple a hedge fund, so it seemed like a sign of the peak was near. He took the same position that rattled other short sellers and bet against GameStop. He timed it just right. As the stock fell 87% over the next couple of weeks, Hsu realized huge returns. "I was right in the analysis assessment, but I was no more right than the hedge fund that went ahead of me," Hsu said. "We did the same analysis, and I made the money by actually being late, which is not usually an attribute that's successful in this industry." He continued: "What I learned is if you do your analysis correctly, that's a part of investing successfully. Luck is so important. In that trade, if you're early, you die." Hank Smith, head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust Haverford Trust Smith's best investment decisions were actually deciding when to sell during the Great Financial Crisis. In October of 2007, Citigroup's stock fell 21% in the span of a couple weeks after a bad earnings report. Smith sold the stock, sparking ire from his clients. "We were vilified by many of our clients for selling a bluechip company at the low," he said. "In fact, one consultant used that as an excuse to pull a handful of his clients that were invested with us." But Smith had made the right move. Citigroup's stock continued its freefall as the crisis unfolded. Today, it's still down 79% from its price in early November 2007. In September 2008, Smith then sold AIG at a steep loss before it collapsed by another 86% within a day. "We sold the entire position in one day at around $15 a share," he said. "The next day it opened at $2."
New Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Israel attacks starving Palestinians at aid distribution site, kills at least 30; UN calls Gaza 'hungriest place on earth'
Israel on Saturday attacked starving Palestinians who gathered near an aid distribution point set up by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Rafah and killed at least 30 people and wounded more than 120. In a statement, the Government Media Office in Gaza said the killings "reflect the nature of these areas as mass death traps, not humanitarian relief points." 'We confirm to the entire world that what is happening is a systematic and malicious use of aid as a tool of war, employed to blackmail starving civilians and forcibly gather them in exposed killing points, managed and monitored by the occupation army and funded and politically covered by the occupation and the US administration, which bears full moral and legal responsibility for these crimes,' the statement read. The GMO said that at least 39 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's attacks on the newly established US-backed aid sites in less than a week. The toll doesn't include the 17 people killed on Saturday. The Palestinian Centre for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons on Friday raised an alarm regarding Palestinians vanishing from the aid sites set up by the Israeli army after Israel's three-month long blockade of humanitarian assistance pushed the entire population of Gaza into a famine like situation, starving at least 57 people to death, mostly children including infants.
New Indian Express
23-05-2025
- Health
- New Indian Express
Israel kills at least 60 Palestinians, including security staff guarding aid trucks; WFP says 15 trucks looted
At least 60 Palestinains, including more than six security officers guarding the "minimal" humanitarian aid that had entered Gaza from being looted were killed by Israeli forces on Friday in airstrikes described by the Gaza Government Media Office as 'part of a plan to engineer starvation and disrupt humanitarian relief.' 'Several more martyrs remain at the scene of the massacre, unreachable due to ongoing shelling and continuous gunfire from warplanes in the area,' the GMO said in a statement. 'The deliberate targeting of these personnel, who were carrying out purely humanitarian tasks to secure two aid trucks carrying essential medicines and medical supplies for the health sector, and ensuring their safe arrival to hospitals in affected areas, constitutes a full-fledged war crime,' the statement said. 'It has become evident that the Israeli military is methodically enabling the looting of humanitarian aid and medical shipments, and ensuring their non-arrival to rightful beneficiaries by targeting those working to organise and secure safe delivery routes,' it added. The killed also include 10 people in the southern city of Khan Younis, four in the central town of Deir al-Balah and nine in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought. The strikes that lasted into Friday morning came a day after Israeli tanks and drones attacked a hospital in northern Gaza, igniting fires and causing extensive damage, Palestinian hospital officials said on Thursday. Videos taken by a health official at Al-Awda Hospital show walls blown away and thick black smoke billowing from wreckage. Meanwhile, 15 World Food Programme trucks were looted in Southern Gaza while en route to WFP-supported bakeries. Nearly 90 trucks of aid, including flour, food, medical equipment and drugs entered Gaza after Israel allowed "minimal" humanitarian assistance into the territory after a three-month-long blockade that has pushed the entire population into a famine-like situation. The trucks came in through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
New Indian Express
21-05-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
UN says no aid has reached Palestinians yet as Israel kills at least 82 in Gaza, including children
UN on Wednesday said it was trying to get the "minimal" aid that has entered Gaza this week into the hands of Palestinians, as Israeli military restrictions have made it extremely difficult for the aid workers to function. Meanwhile, Israel conducted airstrikes across Gaza as part of its intensified genocidal operations, killing at least 82 Palestinains, including children. UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher on Tuesday said that over 14,000 children could die in Gaza in the next 48 hours if sufficient aid did not reach them in time. Calling the figure "utterly chilling," Fletcher said that he "wants to save as many as these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours.' Gaza's Government Media Office (GMO) had earlier this month said that nearly 2,90,000 children in Gaza are on the brink of death due to Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid. At least 57 Palestinians have so far starved to death in Gaza, causing international outrage against Israel's alleged weaponisation of starvation, which amounts to a war crime. Addressing the media on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said all of Gaza will be under Israel's control by the end of its assault on the territory. Highlighting the move to allow "basic" aid into Gaza, after a three-month-long blockade of humanitarian assistance that has forced the entire population into a famine-like situation, Netanyahu said, 'We must avoid a humanitarian crisis in order to preserve our freedom of operational action.' Former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert had earlier today called Israel's genocidal war "politically driven" and slammed Israelis for committing "war crimes" in the occupied West Bank. 'A political war that has no purpose will not return a single hostage and will also involve the loss of the lives of brave soldiers,' he said.
New Indian Express
20-05-2025
- Health
- New Indian Express
UN says 14,000 children could die in Gaza in next 48 hours due to Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid
UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher on Tuesday said that over 14,000 children could die in Gaza in the next 48 hours if sufficient aid did not reach them in time. Israel's three-month-long blockade of humanitarian aid has pushed the entire population in Gaza into a famine-like situation, resulting in several deaths, mostly children, including infants. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's 'Today' programme, Fletcher remarked that the aid that entered Gaza after Israel's recent announcement was a 'drop in the ocean' and totally inadequate for the population's needs. Calling the figure "utterly chilling," Fletcher told the BBC that he "wants to save as many as these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours.' Gaza's Government Media Office (GMO) had earlier this month said that nearly 2,90,000 children in Gaza are on the brink of death due to Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid. 'At a time when 1.1 million children daily lack the minimum nutritional requirements for survival, this crime is being perpetrated by the 'Israeli' occupation using starvation as a weapon, amid shameful international silence,' the GMO had said in a statement. At least 57 Palestinians have so far starved to death in Gaza, causing international outrage against Israel's alleged weaponisation of starvation, which amounts to a war crime.
