The UK’s Guardian is reporting that the leader of a successful American hedge fund has left the industry with a farewell letter dismissing rivals as “over-privileged idiots” and thanking “stupid traders” for making him rich.
Andrew Lahde’s $80 million Los Angeles based firm Lahde-Capital Management bet against subprime mortgages. He was right and Friday October 17 admitted he hated the business and was only in for the money.
"The low-hanging fruit, ie idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking," he wrote. "These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government," he said.
"I will let others try to amass 9, 10 or 11 figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck," he wrote, citing a life of back-to-back business appointments relieved only by a two-week annual holiday in which financiers are still "glued to their Blackberries".
Some 350 of the funds have liquidated this year, according to Hedge Fund Research the Guardian reported.
In his farewell letter, which concluded with an appeal for the legalisation of marijuana, Lahde said he was happy with his rewards and did not envy those who had made even more money. His final words of advice? "Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life."
To read the Guardian story, click here.
To read Lahde's letter, click here.