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Saturday, October 18, 2008

Thank You, Idiots

American Scofflaw

In an extraordinary farewell letter to clients of his Lahde Capital Management fund, Andrew Lahde admitted that he has grown to hate the industry he works in and was simply "in this game for money".

He also criticised what he referred to as the "low-hanging fruit" working in the financial industry - people who "rose to the top" of financial companies which are now defunct or in the majority ownership of the US Treasury.

Mr Lahde took the decision to close down his $80million (£46m) fund recently after making an 870 per cent return last year betting against the US mortgage market, but said that further betting on sub-prime mortgages was too risky given the weak nature of the banks he had been trading with.

His letter ends by making a strong call for the legalisation of cannabis, saying: "It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal?"

The exact extent of 37-year-old Mr Lahde's riches are not known, but it is thought that he is sitting on a personal fortune that runs into tens of millions of dollars as a result of his recent exploits.

However, in the astonishing letter, the financier says he will now spend time managing his own money rather than that of others, and will also focus on his health, after the stress of the last few years.

Mr Lahde founded the hedge fund - which is a fund that aims to make a return for investors whether the markets go up or down using a range of sometimes risky strategies - with around $10m two years ago, but it was managing $80m just before he chose to shut it down.

A graduate of Michigan State University and the UCLA in California, he worked at rival hedge fund Dalton Investments before branching out on his own.

See Lahde’s extraordinary FU Letter

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