News
Each day, DailyAlts tracks major developments across the alternative investment world. Our content is procured from primary contacts in the industry and secondary sources across the web. Our goal is to give readers the most up-to-date news and engaging experience to open new doors and areas of knowledge. Our stories cover nine separate verticals of the alternative investment industry.
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Chipmaker AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) has unveiled a range of innovative AI solutions spanning from data centers to personal computers. The AMD Instinct MI300 Series features data center AI accelerators, while the ROCm 6 open software stack introduces new features supporting Large Language Models (LLMs). Additionally, the Ryzen 8040 Series processors come equipped with Ryzen AI capabilities.
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Liquid Alternatives: Oil Makes History Pricing Below Zero; An ETF for the (Eventual) Rebound
The price of WTIC crude crashed to as low as minus $37.63 per barrel on Monday. The seemingly absurd pricing was triggered by the expiry of May’s future contracts scheduled for Tuesday. A trader would have to receive deliveries on any May contracts remaining open, and store the oil at exorbitant rates.
Digital Assets: StakedWallet Alleged to be Re-run of a Former Ponzi Scam
In a post in Medium, Jan Kowalski, a self-proclaimed hater of scammers, warns the unwary of the old chestnut: “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Kowalski writes about a very cool website called StakedWallet which promises returns of 1.5% daily on investments. Unfortunately, it bears an unholy resemblance to a previous Ponzi scheme and scam.
FinTech: Moven’s Consumer Banking Accounts to Move to Varo
Moven announced last month plans to focus completely on the enterprise side of its business. It pulled the plug on its consumer banking unit after the coronavirus put paid to financing plans. Moven planned to close customer accounts by April 30. It now transpires that digital banking challenger Varo Money will take over these accounts.
Alternative Investments: The CAIA’s Blueprint for the Alternative Investment Industry
The CAIA has issued a comprehensive report “The Next Decade of Alternative Investments: from Adolescence to Responsible Citizenship” based on a survey of over 1,000 CAIA members.
The report expresses the Association’s thoughts on the future of alternative investments, as well as its four-point call to action for the industry.
Artificial Intelligence: Landing AI Launches Social Distancing Detection Tool for Workplaces
Landing AI, works to empower companies to become AI-driven organizations. On April 17, Andrew Ng tweeted that the company “created this AI to help our customers in essential industries maintain social distancing in the workplace. We hope many people can benefit from these ideas.”
Venture Capital: Marc Andreessen Pans Western Unpreparedness; Says It’s Time to Build
Renowned entrepreneur, software engineer, investor and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen writes a hard-hitting essay titled “It’s time to build.” He calls our unpreparedness for the pandemic a “monumental failure of institutional effectiveness.”
The DailyAlts Playbook: Free Oil, Gold at $3,000, Investment Debt, and Kim Jung Un
On Monday, oil futures fell into negative territory for the first time in market history. With expiration taking place today, producers were forced to pay traders to take crude off their hands at the delivery point at Cushing, Oklahoma. Crude for May delivery fell to negative $37.63 per barrel. This morning, the June contract fell 24% to $15.50, while the Brent crude contract shed nearly 19%.
Hedge Funds: Quintessential Capital Takes Short Position in Akazooactivist hedge fund Quintessential Capital Management.
Activist hedge fund Quintessential Capital Management is shorting music streaming company Akazoo (NASDAQ: SONG). The news sent shares of SONG down more than 22% on Monday.
ESG: Highly Rated ESG Bonds Have a Great First Quarter
A new report by MSCI said that bonds with higher ESG ratings outperformed the full bond market in Q1. The report suggests that highly rated ESG bonds can weather difficult economic challenges like the one we face today.
Liquid Alternatives: Tesla on a Tear, and ETFs That Could Ride That Trend
As this is written Tesla, Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), is trading at $761.20, up $6.96, or 0.96%. If shares of the electric vehicle maker end today (Monday) in the green it will be the eleventh straight day of gains for the stock. The stock has risen phoenix-like from a low of $454.47 touched on April 2. That’s a gain of over 67% in those eleven trading sessions. And sure, ETFs holding the stock would benefit from the massive surge in its price.
Private Equity: KKR Outlook for the Road Ahead
McVey outlines his thoughts in his latest report titled Keep Calm and Carry On. He expects the economy to see a sharp downturn during the second quarter. McVey also expects more of a U-shaped recovery than a V-shaped one. He thinks that the economy may experience sustained demand issues as a result of the massive wave of unemployment in the United States and Europe. He does suggest that the increased unemployment benefits will offer full income replacement or many households allowing demand to at least maintains at a decent, but lower pace.
Artificial Intelligence: AI to Guzzle a Fifth of Global Energy by 2025; Magnetic Nanowires Could Slash That
Researchers have found that replacing silicon in neural training networks (hardware or software systems that function like human brains) by magnetic nanowires could slash energy consumption by a factor of 20X-30X. That would be a huge saving considering that data processing is expected to account for a mind-boggling 20% of global electricity consumption by 2025. At a rough calculation, that would equal to 5.5% of all CO2 emissions.
FinTech: Coronavirus, M&A, and Consumer Expectations Transform Payments
Marjan Delatinne, global head of banking, Ripple, writes in a post in Bobsguide that the payments industry is being transformed through mergers and acquisitions, innovation in technology and the new lessons from the coronavirus.
Venture Capital: South East Asian Startups and Coronavirus – Baptism by Fire?
The economic repercussions from the coronavirus or taking a severe toll on Southeast Asian start-ups. With revenues petering out, fresh funding in doubt and dwindling reserves of cash, these businesses are suddenly confronted with a new and basic reality – making ends meet.
Digital Assets: Investors Bid up Privacy-Focused Digital Assets in 2019 Says eToro Report
Investors are putting a premium on digital assets that are focused on privacy according to the latest crypto report from eToro and The Tie. The report named digital tokens Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR) that outperformed bitcoin during 2019, and continue to do so in Q1 of 2020.
The DailyAlts Playbook: $0 Oil, How to Play Recreational Cannabis, and Why Macy’s Is Selling RE-backed Bonds…
THE DAILYALTS PLAYBOOK April 20, 2020 The DailyAlts Playbook Talks $0 Oil, How to Play Recreational Cannabis, and Why Macy’s Is Selling RE-backed Bonds… PRIME OVERVIEW Good morning, Please forgive my tardiness – but as an economist, I’m trying to figure out what kind of scotch to use to help these oil prices make sense…
Alternative Investments: Larry Fink Rejects Bailout Talk During Blackrock’s Q1 Call
Blackrock CEO Larry Fink took umbrage with at a question from Patrick Davitt of Autonomous Research. Davitt asked during a conference call this week if the Fed buying ETFs was a bailout for Blackrock.
McKinsey Talks Private Equity Outperformance
Global consulting firm McKinsey & Co. has published a study that examines what private equity firms can do to outperform their peers during times of crisis. They examined what high performing private equity firms did during the Great Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 did to achieve outstanding results. The consultants who worked on the project suggested…
Digital Assets: CZ Says QE Will Impact BTC Few Months Down the Line
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), chief executive and founder of leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance, spoke on the prospects of bitcoin (BTC) amidst the coronavirus. He was speaking at the Virtual Blockchain Conference BlockDown 2020 being held in response to the pandemic between April 16 – 17.
Venture Capital: Payments Unicorn Stripe Raises $600 Million at a $36 Billion Valuation
In its largest funding round yet, California-based payment platform Stripe announced that it raised $600 million in an extension of its $250 million series G funding round. The unicorn said it intended to use the new money to expand its workforce, advance its software, make strategic acquisitions and expand across the globe.
FinTech: Commission-Free Investing Pioneer Robinhood To Raise $250 Million from Investors
Online brokerage Robinhood, which has recently been in the news for repeated system outages, is said to be raising $250 million from investors led by Sequoia Capital. Bloomberg, which broke the news of the funding, quoted sources who requested to remain anonymous. However, Bloomberg said it had received no confirmation from either Robinhood or Sequoia on the deal.
Artificial Intelligence: The Pentagon’s JAIC is Shopping For Tools to Test AI
The Joint Artificial Intelligence Centre, or JAIC, is looking for tools to test and evaluate future artificial intelligence products and certify them as safe and effective.
Real Estate: Barbara Corcoran Talks Changes In Commercial Demand
Commercial real estate markets have been severely impacted by the economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus. Barbara Corcoran, Shark Tank judge and founder of the Corcoran Group, a New York-based residential brokerage, told Yahoo Finance today that some of these changes may be permanent.
Hedge Funds: So… Elliott Management Sounds Pretty Bearish…
Hedge fund Elliott Management isn’t bullish on the U.S. economy as we approach the deepest downturn in 80 years. Paul Singer’s fund said Wednesday that global stocks could decline by as much as 50% from February highs. Reuters reports on a letter sent to clients. The fund called the sharp March decline in the market…