Bloomberg- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said clients pulled about $3 billion from quantitative hedge funds including Global Alpha in the fiscal fourth quarter and withdrawals will increase over the nextthree months.
“We are OK with those funds being smaller, especially Global Alpha, because the funds have gotten too big,” Chief Financial Officer David Viniar said today on a conference call after the New York-based securities firm released earnings for the quarter ended Nov. 30.
Global Alpha, which started 2007 with more than $10 billion, declined 37 percent through November as managers Mark Carhart and Raymond Iwanowski failed to find profitable trades amid swings in financial markets, an investor said last month. Quant funds use complex mathematical models to select which securities to buy and sell.
Computer-driven funds managed by the world’s largest securities firm also include the $7.5 billion Global Equity Opportunities fund, which fell 23 percent in August alone, prompting Goldman to inject $2 billion into the fund, waive fees and raise an additional $1 billion from outside investors.
Goldman said it had $868 billion in assets under management as of Nov. 30, up 9 percent from three months earlier. The increase was primarily in fixed-income and stock funds, with so- called alternative assets under management, including hedge funds, unchanged at $151 billion.
