Industry | Investment management |
---|---|
Founded | 1983 |
Headquarters | Berkeley Square, London, U.S. |
Area served
|
Worldwide |
Products | Hedge funds |
AUM | $7.7 billion (2014) |
Number of employees
|
195 (2014) |
Website | www.caxton.com |
Caxton Associates is a global macro hedge fund founded by Bruce Kovner in 1983 and is headquartered in New York City. The firm also has offices in London, Sydney, and Princeton, New Jersey. Caxton Associates identifies investments according to their research of global markets and analysis of worldwide economic trends.
Caxton Associates went through a major generational transition in 2008 when Bruce Kovner stepped back from trading and appointed Andrew Law as Chief Investment Officer. In 2011, Law was appointed as the Chairman, CEO and controlling general partner of Caxton Associates, following the retirement of Kovner.
Caxton was founded in 1983 by Bruce Kovner. Kovner trained under Michael Marcus at Commodities Corporation (now part of Goldman Sachs International), before embarking on his own with the founding of Caxton.
In 1992, Caxton closed its fund to new investors. The fund then opened and closed intermittently, and most recently reopened to new investors in August 2013.
It was reported that at the end of the 1990s Caxton Global Investments volatility fell substantially along with the funds returns.
In 2003 concern at Caxton Associates around the potential future impact on their historical rate of return due to their fund's size resulted in 20 percent of investors' capital being returned. Assets under management post 20% were $9.5 billion.
On December 21, 2007, Caxton-Iseman Capital, a joint investment partnership Caxton Associates and Frederick Iseman announced that it had completed its spin-off from Caxton Associates. Caxton-Iseman Capital will change its name to CI Capital Partners LLC.
In 2008, Bruce Kovner stepped back from trading and appointed Andrew Law as Caxton’s Chief Investment Officer. In 2011, Law was appointed as the Chairman, CEO and controlling general partner of Caxton Associates, following the retirement of Kovner. Law joined the London office in 2003 from Goldman Sachs, where he was Managing Director and head of FICC proprietary trading in London.
During the 2008 financial crisis Caxton Associates did not erect gates freezing investor capital in their Caxton Global Investments fund. As reported the fund saw client redemptions totalling 27% of assets under management through 2008–2009—while returning 13% for the year. The redemptions were reportedly born out of cash strapped clients many of whose asset allocations were gated and frozen at other investment management companies: two years later the firm had fallen from No. 16 to No. 51.