Victor Niederhoffer doesn’t believe history will repeat itself as far as his investing goes. Nine years ago he lost most of his money by investing too heavily in emerging markets, and once again he is counting losses in triple digits. His Manchester Trading lost about 30% of its assets ($100 million) in May, and his largest offering, Matador Fund, recently was down 12%, way worse than the -1% of the Dow Jones or 2% of Standard & Poor’s 500. But sandwiched in between has been stunning annual returns of 50% or more – an indication, suggests The Wall Street Journal, that he may have learned a lesson from his past history. Which is why through the ups and downs, Niederhoffer seems pretty much even keel. “I had a bad May, I made some mistakes, that’s regrettable,” he told The WSJ. “But one sparrow does not make a spring, and nor does one bad month.” That’s the spirit. An interesting side light is that Niederhoffer had an account with Refco, and when his own hedge fund collapsed in 1997, he and Refco reported signed an agreement whereby Refco would take over his assets and assume liabilities – and that some of his assets were part of those losses were part of the $430 million allegedly covered up by former Refco CEO Philip Bennett. But Niederhoffer reportedly has said his contribution to that would have been “minimal.”
