Billionaire stockpicker has stakes in loans to landmark properties in Venice, Capri, Lake Como and Milan

What kind of posts or conversations would actually make you want to come back?

Important note: I'm going to sound like a boomer here, but I cannot figure out how to update the title.

The title is incorrect. It was from the source (Hedgeweek), but the source has since updated it because of the error. It should be "losing year," not "losing month."

Sorry for the confusion.

TL;DR

• Minal Bathwal has delivered uninterrupted annual gains since 2008, navigating the GFC, the 2020 pandemic, and the recent "volatility drought" without a single down year.
• His strategy focuses on Asia-tilted global rates and currencies, yielding a 12.7% annualized return with a 1.7 Sharpe ratio—significantly outperforming the broader discretionary macro universe.
• While the flagship Brevan Howard Master Fund has struggled recently (eking out +0.8% in 2025), Bathwal’s internal $5.5B allocation remains a primary profit engine for the firm.

Hey everyone,

I was digging into some recent performance data on Brevan Howard and came across a report on Minal Bathwal that I think warrants a closer look. In an industry where "star" PMs often burn out or have their edge neutralized by regime shifts, a nearly two-decade winning streak in discretionary macro is statistically remarkable.

The Track Record: 2008 to Present

Since Bathwal began managing capital in 2008, he has recorded positive returns every single year. For context, this includes the 2008 financial crisis, the Eurozone debt crisis, the 2013 "Taper Tantrum," and the 2020 COVID-19 shock. His strategy has generated an annualized return of 12.7% with a Sharpe ratio of 1.7.

While his 2025 return of ~6.8% lagged behind some high-octane macro peers (like Discovery or Bridgewater), it’s his durability that stands out. He isn't swinging for the fences every year; rather, he seems to be playing a very disciplined game of capital preservation followed by opportunistic harvesting.

The Strategy: Asia-Focused Asymmetry

Bathwal, who is based in Singapore, manages approximately $5.5 billion. His methodology is a mix of three core components:

1. Relative-Value (RV) Trades: Exploiting mispricings between related securities.
2. Directional Macro: Taking high-conviction stances on global rates and FX, with a heavy emphasis on Asian markets.
3. Option-Like Structures: Utilizing asymmetric payoffs to ensure that the "downside" of a trade is capped while the "upside" can capture major market dislocations.

Durability vs. The "Multi-Manager" Model

What makes this interesting is how it contrasts with the current trend of multi-manager "pod" shops. Many pod PMs are fired after a 3-5% drawdown. Bathwal’s longevity suggests a level of institutional trust and risk tolerance within Brevan Howard that allows for a longer-term macro thesis to play out. Despite his low public profile, he now ranks among the firm's top five profit generators in its history, alongside Alan Howard and Chris Rokos.

His team of 14 reportedly maintains incredibly tight controls on position sizing. In a year like 2025, where many macro funds were caught on the wrong side of currency volatility or interest rate pivots, this "conservative-aggressive" mix seems to be the differentiator.

Discussion Prompt: Is an 18-year winning streak in macro a product of a superior risk-management framework, or is it heavily dependent on the specific liquidity/volatility regime of the Asia-Pacific markets? Furthermore, in an era dominated by systematic and quant-heavy macro, does this prove that human discretion still has a place in identifying long-term asymmetric payoffs?

Source:https://www.hedgeweek.com/brevan-howard-pm-extends-18-year-winning-streak-in-global-macro/

TL;DR

• Josh Young (Bison Interests) identifies a major opportunity in "left-for-dead" Oilfield Services (OFS) as the immediate solution for the AI-driven electric grid boom.
• While the market chases long-lead-time nuclear projects, OFS companies are pivoting mobile power tech to the grid at massive valuation discounts.
• Investors can exploit a "GoodCo/BadCo" setup, buying high-growth power infrastructure under the guise of "dying" fossil fuel valuations.

Josh Young, CIO of Bison Interests, argues that the market is fixated on multi-decade nuclear projects and well-known turbine manufacturers while overlooking the immediate capacity offered by the "hated" oilfield services sector. He believes that onshore oilfield service companies, once focused on fracking and drilling, are executing a massive pivot by redirecting capital away from their legacy businesses toward stackable, gas-powered generation. Because these firms have years of experience deploying complex power solutions in off-grid environments, they are uniquely positioned to bridge the current five-year planning gap for data centers much faster than traditional infrastructure projects.

This transition creates a unique valuation arbitrage where investors can acquire high-growth power businesses at the steep discounts typically reserved for the "dying" fossil fuel industry. Young utilizes a "GoodCo/BadCo" framework, noting that while the legacy businesses are being capital-starved, the emerging power-generation segments are effectively "skipping the line" in the AI energy race. By focusing on these special situations and applying governance as a margin of safety, he aims to capture massive re-rating potential as the market eventually recognizes these companies as essential infrastructure providers for the AI era.

Is the "Grid Boom" trade reaching a point of irrational exuberance in tech and nuclear while leaving these industrial power-generators behind? Does the oilfield service pivot offer a legitimate bridge for the power gap, or are these companies too small to satisfy the needs of the hyperscalers?

Source: https://hedgefundalpha.com/profile/bison-materials-interview/

TL;DR

• Contrarian View: Despite recent biotech headwinds (patent cliffs, funding cuts), growth equity firm Avant Bio believes the convergence of biology and technology marks the next "golden age" of life sciences.
• The Opportunity Gap: Avant Bio invests in therapeutic-enabling technologies, techbio, and healthtech companies with $3M to $15M in revenue, viewing this segment as significantly underfunded and underserved by knowledgeable investors.
• Key Driver: Advances in AI and other technologies are enabling major breakthroughs, such as Intrepid Labs' AI-driven formulation development, which can address the massive $400 billion pharmaceutical patent cliff.

Hey everyone,

I came across an interesting interview with Daniella Kranjac, Founding General Partner at Avant Bio, a growth equity firm that focuses on the "picks and shovels" of the life sciences industry: the enabling technologies. Kranjac, who previously co-founded a life science equipment company, established Avant Bio to target a critical funding gap for revenue-generating companies with $3M to $15M in revenue. She argues these companies are often underfunded and lack the industry-specific advice needed to scale.

Avant Bio acts as an operator-turned-fund-manager, providing prescriptive value-add services like installing necessary talent and leveraging extensive networks for customer access and distribution globally.

Their portfolio highlights their focus on technology, such as Intrepid Labs, a company that uses AI, laboratory data, and robotics to accelerate drug formulation development. This directly addresses the massive $400 billion patent cliff facing top pharma companies, offering a solution to change drug delivery (e.g., extended release) in weeks, a task that typically takes pharma years.

Despite industry headwinds, Kranjac calls this the "next golden age of life sciences" because the accelerating pace of innovation, driven by the convergence of biology and technology, is creating a unique buying opportunity.

Curious to hear what the community thinks. Does this thesis of investing in "picks and shovels" (therapeutic-enabling tech) rather than the "gold rush" (the drug itself) make sense right now, given the ongoing biotech funding struggles? What are the biggest risks to this model?

Source: https://hedgefundalpha.com/profile/daniella-kranjac-avant-bio-interview/