Hedge Fund King Who Lost Billions Asking For More Billions

Hedge fund giant Kenneth Griffin lost $8 billion in investors’ money last year, but the Wall Street Journal says he is now trying to persuade investors to trust him with more money.

Griffin explains a loss of $8 billion of other people's money by saying he showed human fallibility, which incidentally cost a 55% loss in the hedge funds at his firm Citadel Investment Group. This was much higher than the average 19% that hedge funds lost as a whole last year.

Incidentally, Mr. Griffin is looking for the next big thing while investors are still recovering from their losses. He is focusing on investment banking and making some money from the profitable vacuum left back by the "deceased" Lehman Brothers. He has been one of the best investors in the past 2 decades.

He has been exasperated by people’s desire to dissect last year’s losses as he tries to concentrate on future opportunities by focusing on the company’s biggest hedge funds. In an interview, he compared this with people's fascination with a car-crash, and how they cannot look away from one.

Citadel is now trying to drum up money from investors, telling them that Citadel has already made $5 billion in nine months of trading this year as markets recovered. In fact, Griffin has been talking of an IPO for Citadel as early as next year, based on his new found confidence from losing so much money in such a short time.

Kenneth Griffin flew to Europe in his private jet in September to convince investors to keep on trusting him. He is known to have met with Pictet & Cie, a Geneva bank with more than $300 billion in assets. The bank questioned him closely about his recent "car-crash," and decided not to invest.