It looks like the newly minted mega-millionaire Belpointe Boys are getting adventures with all their new found fame. Rop Copeland at AR Magazine pointed out this week they’ve hired a trader with a fancy euro name, Herve van Caloen, to raise money and start a long short international equity fund. Maybe some of those Powerball millions will go to helping them get it off the ground; although they haven’t bothered to register the fund with the SEC yet.
AR Mag didn’t exactly do any digging on the man Lacoff and Skidmore are entrusting their firm’s name with so I thought I’d check him out. Mr. van Caloen ran a small fund at international asset management firm, du Pasquier, where in February he boasted the fund was ‘just under 10 percent negative’. His fund, called The Caloen International Fund, published a four page letter commenting on market conditions in rambling one sentence statements. van Caloen in an effort to explain his investment strategy did offer this unique insight though – he was SHORTING the Brazilian market again. Why – well besides his view their currency was overvalued – he thought it was a good short because “even the manufacturing of bikinis has now been taken over by the Chinese”.
I called over to du Pasquier’s trading desk who quickly told me van Caloen took his fund when he left the firm a few months ago and they didn’t sound like they wanted to be associated with him. van Caloen has mysteriously left this job time off his LinkedIn profile but does remind viewers an investment letter (guessing this is for his new Belpointe fund called Mercator) is available upon request.
If you are seriously thinking about giving Team Belpointe any of your hard earned millions for their adventure in hedge fund investing you might want to take a look at van Caloen calling the Federal Reserve “an un-American institution, undemocratic, and elitist.” Hummm wondering how an all American U.S. Olympic sailor hopeful like Skidmore feels about that.
Funny find Teri but what do expect? Belpointe is a bottom feeder firm run by two guys who were not on a path to make it to the 1% untill they did or didn’t win the lotto. If they only run $80 million of clients money that could be be Skidmore’s Dad and 5 of his friends.
Get your facts right.
I am not a trader, but an international portfolio manager (a minimum of digging would have revealed the names of the companies I have been associated with over the last 30 years).
Second, in my letter I write I was up 8% year to date, with no other comments. Where did you get your quote “just under 10% negative” from?
Herve – You buy and sell stocks, forex, or bonds so you are trader in my book. The under 10% negative came from your own letter to investors. What we really want to know is: Have you been able to raise any outside money from investors that is not firm (Belpointe) capital?