What’s Hedge Fund Week? Miami’s “Wall Street South” has a fast-money Coachella in January

However that’s what they had been mixing the opposite night time by the pool on the famed Fontainebleau Miami Seaside – a certain signal the hedge fund set was again on the town.

The tequila and grapefruit spritz was named in honor of the Carlyle Group Inc., which was one of many sponsors of a convention within the resort.

And, like so many issues in South Florida nowadays, it smacked of 1 oh-so-sweet ingredient: cash.      

At instances Miami appeared as if half of American finance had flown in for what’s prosaically often known as Hedge Fund Week, a type of Coachella for the fast-money crowd. The rolling collection of conferences and events swaggers via this space every January, throughout the peak of the Florida winter season.

“Who’s going to close a deal this week? Make some noise!” the DJ at LIV, the thumping mega nightclub within the Fontainebleau, shouted into the mic late Wednesday night time. The fits within the crowd went wild.

Now greater than ever, the previous Wall Avenue of New York is sizing up what Miami promoters breathlessly check with as Wall Avenue South. Even skeptics wonder if there’s extra to this than hype. The pandemic prompted rich financiers to flock right here for the low taxes and good climate. For now, they’re staying. 

The place cash goes, politicians comply with. As President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump head towards a possible rematch in November, cash and affect are snaking via Miami. Even town’s annual hedge fund confab provides off a brand new vibe this election season. That is now not merely a gathering of cash managers. This looks like a gathering of kingmakers.

And this will not be a one-off: Florida has eclipsed California and Texas because the nation’s single largest supply of donations to Republican presidential campaigns, racking up $30 million for GOP candidates in 2023.

“They’re all going to be down here raising money,” Nitin Motwani, a derivatives trader-turned-condo-developer, mentioned of presidential candidates.

They’re right here already.

As Wall Avenue partied beachside on the Fontainebleau, Biden raised $6.2 million at a fundraiser a couple of miles away. Hedge-fund billionaire Henry Laufer, who co-founded the Medallion Fund at Renaissance Applied sciences with Jim Simons, co-chaired the occasion. Ninety miles north, in Jupiter, Florida, a gaggle of attorneys raised one other $1 million for the president, not removed from Trump’s house and personal membership, Mar-a-Lago.

“Miami is the place where everyone comes out,” mentioned Chris Korge, a distinguished Democratic fundraiser and lawyer.

The cash is flowing in all instructions. Some main Republican donors who had been beforehand proof against Trump have begun to show towards him. Scott Bessent, former chief funding officer at Soros Fund Administration, initially backed Wall Avenue’s early choose, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Late final yr, Bessent switched to Trump and donated $250,000 to the previous president’s tremendous PAC, in line with federal marketing campaign filings. 

“Over the summer, I became convinced that Donald Trump can win,” Bessent mentioned.

Others are holding out hope for Nikki Haley since DeSantis dropped out and backed Trump.

The identical day Biden was heading to Miami, actual property billionaire Barry Sternlicht insisted America wants a 3rd different come November. “We’re people who don’t like the path that the country is on and don’t like our two choices at the moment,” he mentioned on the sidelines of the Fontainebleau convention. 

Just a few miles south, Citadel founder and Miami transplant Ken Griffin mentioned he’d supported Haley’s marketing campaign — later disclosing a $5 million reward — however stopped wanting saying he would contribute extra to her long-shot problem. (Different enterprise figures who’ve supported Haley embrace Henry Kravis, Stanley Druckenmiller and Kenneth Langone). 

A well-recognized line on the events and convention sidelines is that monetary professionals are usually “socially liberal but fiscally conservative.” In fact, they mentioned the identical in 2016, which led to Trump’s presidency and a hard-right shift within the Supreme Court docket.

An enormous query for the 2024 election, which each Democrats and Republicans say might decide the way forward for American democracy, is how the monetary donor class will strike that steadiness now.

Nobody wished to speak politics aboard the SeaFair, a $40 million swanky yacht cruising the azure waters of Biscayne Bay.  

The event: one other hedge fund cocktail social gathering. This time, the host was Universa Investments, the place Nassim Taleb, of “Fooled by Randomness” fame, is an adviser. Universa founder Mark Spitznagel moved his agency to Miami from Santa Monica, California, years earlier than all of the speak of Wall Avenue South.  

Sitting close to the open bar, Brandon Yarckin, the chief working officer, insisted that politics by no means figures into Universa’s technique of making an attempt to revenue from out-of-the-blue Black Swan occasions. “We don’t talk about politics,” Yarckin mentioned because the Miami skyline shimmered within the distance.

Taleb averted the subject altogether. “No, no, I’m not going to talk about that,” he concluded. 

One of many 200-or-so visitors, Francesca Federico, co-founder and president of Twelve Factors Wealth Administration in Boston, repeated the socially liberal/fiscally conservative line. As for who wins in November, she mentioned: “A bond is still going to be a bond, a stock will still be a stock.”

Becoming a member of them aboard the 222-foot SeaFair was Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who’s shot to nationwide consideration since 2020 by relentlessly promoting the concept Miami would possibly sooner or later rival New York because the US monetary heart. 

It landed him a job at a prestigious legislation agency and different lucrative aspect gigs, he launched a failed presidential bid and is going through a number of investigations. On Wednesday, the Florida Democratic Occasion called on him to resign.

Wall Avenue South isn’t a dream, Suarez instructed the group. It’s a actuality. 

Motwani, the developer and one other main Miami booster, mentioned that to him, Wall Avenue South is a way of thinking. “We’re running on all cylinders,” Motwani mentioned over the salsa dun of Buena Vista Social Membership.

Again on the Fontainebleau, one of many week’s gatherings, World Alts 2024, was wrapping contained in the thronging LIV nightclub.

For 2 days, conference-goers had sat quietly because the likes of Michael Novogratz, Peter Thiel, Jared Kushner and Shaquille O’Neal went on about how and the place to make cash. Now, a whole bunch of them flooded onto the dance flooring.

Quaffing gin and tonics, Johnnie Walker Black Label and mediocre white wine, the revelers moved to the beat laid down by the DJ and the night’s headliner, the early 2000s hit rapper Ja Rule. Later, as Ja Rule (actual title: Jeffrey Atkins) lamented his age (he’s closing in on 50), he pulled off his T-shirt to disclose a sculpted six pack.

“Let’s hear it for Global Alts 2024!” he yelled.

Smoke machines pumped. Confetti rained down. Wall Avenue South danced on.