[The Inevitable Crisis] The Hedge Fund Known As The Swiss National Bank Posts A Record $23 Billion Loss, Down 4%, On EUR, AAPL, VRX

[The End Is Near]

To some it is the independent and impartial Swiss National Bank; to others it is the world’s biggest hedge fund with $584 billion in assets or about the same as the Swiss GDP, whose former chief suddenly resigned in 2012 following a family FX trading scandal.

Whatever it is, the SNB had an abysmal year: first and foremost it was its terrible bet on maintaining a EURCHF floor which imploded almost exactly a year ago, when the bank was forced to scrap its attempts to keep the Swiss Franc weak, in the process suffering tens of billions in losses.

Then it was its unprecedented buying spree of US stocks, which in the first quarter of 2015 saw the SNB become one of the world’s biggest buyers, and holders, of AAPL. Since then the stock price entered a bear market, having tumbled to levels not seen since late 2014.



Among its other holdings, the SNB also had substantial exposure not only to the crushed US shale and energy sector, but to the recent bete noire of the US pharma industry, the company everyone now loves to hate, after loving to love for years, leveraged roll-up expert, Valeant.



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Posted By The End Is Near to The Inevitable Crisis at 1/10/2016 12:42:00 PM