John Paulson in Bloomberg Markets

Hot on the heels of our post on Jim Chanos' NY Mag profile, we bring you this latest hedgie report: a lengthy Bloomberg Markets Magazine profile of uber-successful hedge fund manager John Paulson.

You may remember John Paulson from such posts as, "John Paulson buys mortgage securities", and, "Seasoned investors search for values".

But today, he'll be starring in Bloomberg Markets' latest feature, "The Richest Hedge Funds: John Paulson Strikes Again". Here's an excerpt:

"There's not a lot of light in Paulson & Co.'s 28th- floor headquarters on a drizzly November afternoon. The Alexander Calder sculpture and multicolored prints have been shipped to the firm's new offices six blocks south. Darkness envelops the New York skyline.

The Dow Industrials have lost a total of 929 points over two days, and the jobless rate is poised to hit 6.5 percent. And John Paulson, who oversees $36 billion in hedge fund assets, isn't exactly Mr. Sunshine either.

"You have deterioration in almost every asset class," Paulson says. "You're looking at declines in housing prices, the health of manufacturers and the earnings of various companies. There are rising delinquencies in auto loans and commercial real estate."

Paulson, 52, peers over his tortoiseshell glasses. "There's more to come," he warns.

Paulson doesn't smile as he says this, even though with each new calamity his bottom line grows. Paulson & Co. funds generated profits of more than $3 billion for the firm in 2007, mostly by betting the housing bubble, swollen with subprime mortgages, would burst."

Read on for more about Paulson & Co.'s successful investment strategies, and see how their 2008 performance stacked up against other big name hedge funds, and the industry as a whole.

Nasdaq credit rating junked.

S&P cut Nasdaq's credit rating to junk status citing debt burdens and its questionable strategy to buy a controlling interest in the London Stock Exchange. Financial Times reported that the exchange's counterparty credit & bank loan rating were lowered fromm BBB- (lowest investment grade rating) to BB+. The change will increase Nasdaq's borrowing costs should it wish to pursue aquisition targets. For an earlier look at the exchange consolidation trend that brought about Nasdaq's push for a stake in the LSE, please see "Exchange fever" .

Clean Money - John Rubino: Book review

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Jesse Livermore: How to Trade in Stocks (1940 Ed. E-book)

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