Roy Niederhoffer

Roy Gary Niederhoffer

Investment Manager Roy G. Niederhoffer
Born 1966 (age 49–50)
Great Neck, New York
Residence Manhattan, New York City
Nationality American
Alma mater Harvard College (BA in Computational Neuroscience, magna cum laude, 1987)
Occupation Hedge fund manager and philanthropist
Years active 1987-present
Employer R. G. Niederhoffer Capital Management, Inc. (President)[1]
Known for
  • Founder of R. G. Niederhoffer Capital Management, Inc. (1993)
  • Founder of Niederhoffer Foundation
  • Chairman of the Board of the New York City Opera
Home town Great Neck, New York
Spouse(s) Jenny Niederhoffer
Relatives Hedge fund manager Victor Niederhoffer (brother)

Roy Gary Niederhoffer (born 1966) is an American hedge fund manager and philanthropist.[2] He graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude in 1987, with a BA in Computational Neuroscience (the study of how the brain processes information and makes decisions).

In 1993 he founded R. G. Niederhoffer Capital Management, Inc., (RGNCM), a hedge fund known as a managed futures fund or commodity futures trading company, and he serves as its President.[1][3][4] The hedge fund invests in public equity, fixed income, currency, and commodity markets across the globe, as well as in derivatives including spot currencies, futures contracts, forward contracts, swaps, and options.[5] From its inception in 1993 through May 2009, it had annualized returns of approximately 12%, over twice the average of the market (+60% in 2000, and +51% in 2008--when the S&P 500 was down 37%).[6][4][7] From 1999 through March 2009, the firm's annualized gain exceeded 17%.[4][7] In May 2009 Barrons reported that the fund ranked ninth in its survey of the top 100 hedge funds.[4][8] His firm was noted for strong performance during the financial crisis of 2007–2010.[9] As of April 2016, the fund had earned an annualized 18.73% since it was started.[10] As of June 2016, the firm's assets under management were $900 million.[11][12]

Niederhoffer uses an investment strategy known as short-term trading. He developed his strategy after tracking and analyzing short-term trading patterns.[4] He wrote the original computer code to test and run his complicated, high-frequency, automatic-trading strategy in over 50 financial and commodity markets in developed countries.[13][4] His company uses quantitative analysis to decide upon its investments, obtaining external research to complement its own in-house research.[5] He is of the view that movements in stock, currency, and commodity prices lead to patterns of short-term investor responses that can be anticipated.[4]

Niederhoffer is the Chairman of the Board of the New York City Opera (NYCO), which presents opera at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center and other venues around New York City, and was Chairman of NYCO Renaissance, a group that revived the NYCO after a two-year shutdown, in January 2016.[14][15][16][17] He created the Niederhoffer Foundation, which is active in music education, Jewish causes, and delivering aid to the needy.[18][19] Niederhoffer serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Harmony Program, which provides daily music lessons and free musical instruments to over 200 New York City Public School and Long Island students in under-served areas, and the Concert Artists Guild.[20][21][22] He has also served on the Board of the Kaufman Center (consisting of the Special Music School, Lucy Moses School, and Merkin Concert Hall).[23][24][25][19] He delivered relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, saying "We can’t rely on the government for all of this."[21][26][27] In October 2015, Niederhoffer was presented with the Johanna and Leslie Garfield Award for Arts Philanthropy at the New York Youth Symphony's 53rd Annual Benefit Gala.[19] Niederhoffer is also a violinist with and founding member of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony.[21][4][28] He was also the Executive Producer of The Flying Karamazov Brothers, which played Off-Broadway in 2010 and in London's West End in 2011.[29][30][31]

Early life and family

Niederhoffer was born and raised in Great Neck, New York.[32] His paternal great-grandparents had moved from Austria to the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the late 1800s..[33] His paternal grandfather Martin (Martie), an accountant and court interpreter, married Birdie (née Kuminsky) in 1916.[33][34][35] His maternal grandparents were Sam and Gertrude Eisenberg.[36]

His father, Dr. Arthur "Artie" Niederhoffer (1917–1981), graduated from Brooklyn College in 1937, and then from Brooklyn Law School, and finally with a Ph.D. from New York University (1963). His father served in the New York City Police Department for 21 years (retiring as a lieutenant), and then taught as a professor of Sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice for 14 years.[37][38][39][40][41][33][34] His father also taught at Hofstra University, Brooklyn College, New York University, Queens College, and the New York City Police Academy, authored several books on the police and criminology including Behind the Shield, The Ambivalent Force, The Gang, and The Police Family: From Station House to Ranch House (co-authored with his wife), and was awarded the President's Medal of John Jay College for his achievements in criminal justice.[38][42] His mother, Elaine (née Eisenberg) Niederhoffer (1925–2006), was an English teacher, author, and editor who had descended from a long line of rabbis.[41][43][33][44]

He has a brother, Victor Niederhoffer, a hedge fund manager and former five-time United States squash singles champion.[38][41][33] He also has a sister, Dr. Diane Niederhoffer Klein, a clinical psychologist.[41][33][45] Niederhoffer grew up without a television in his home.[46] He is the uncle of director and author Galt Niederhoffer.[33] He is married to Jenny Niederhoffer, and the family lives in Manhattan.[47][48]

High school; teenage entrepreneur

Niederhoffer attended Great Neck South High School, where he was co-editor of the school paper, The Southerner.[49] He graduated in 1983.[50]

Microvations

At age 13, when he was a high school sophomore, Niederhoffer (as President) and classmate Evan Grossman founded a company called Software Innovations, which sold computer games such as Alien Invasion that operated on the Radio Shack TRS-80 microcomputer.[51][52][53][32][54] They created a mailing list of over 3,000 computer owners, sold shares in the company to their teachers and friends, borrowed money from their families, and printed a six-page mail order catalog listing their programs for sale, along with programs created by friends and other companies.[32] SoftSide Magazine named the 13-year-old Niederhoffer their Programmer of the Month in November 1979.[55]

In March 1982, Money Magazine wrote about them.[32] The owner of a large record company then contacted them, and suggested that the then-high-school-juniors form a joint venture with his company.[32] They struck a deal in which they agreed to supply the record company with computer games, in return for an initial fee and a per-game commission.[32] They hired lawyers, and that year while Niederhoffer was 16 they changed the company's name to Microvations, Inc.[32] It soon thereafter employed over 30 people, mostly his classmates and friends whom they subcontracted to program games and keep books, and produced over 450 individual titles by 1983, which were sold at stores such as Sears, K-Mart, and Woolworth's.[32][46] Because they were too young to drive a car, they hired a driver to pick up finished programs and run errands.[32] They dissolved the company when Niederhoffer and Grossman left to attend college at Harvard, though Niederhoffer's interest in computers continued.[32]

College

Niederhoffer then attended Harvard College, where as a freshman he was interested in Biology, Psychology, and social relations.[32] He graduated magna cum laude in 1987, with a BA in Computational Neuroscience, the study of how the brain processes information and makes decisions.[4][46]

Career

R. G. Niederhoffer Capital Management

Following university, Niederhoffer worked for his brother Victor Niederhoffer and his hedge fund from 1987 to 1992, trading fixed income securities.[21][46] Hedge fund manager Monroe Trout and commodities trader Toby Crabel worked at the hedge fund at the same time.[46]

He then opened R. G. Niederhoffer Capital Management, Inc. (RGNCM), a hedge fund known as a managed futures fund or commodity futures trading company.[40][4] He began trading in July 1993, investing as a contrarian in major financial and commodity markets.[56][40][21][4][46] The fund is a registered Commodity Trading Advisor, Commodity Pool Operator, and a member of the National Futures Association.[57] It is based in New York City, and he serves as its President.[5][1]

RGNCM is a hedge fund sponsor, and is employee-owned.[5] It invests in public equity, fixed income, currency, and commodity markets across the globe, as well as in derivatives including spot currencies, futures contracts, forward contracts, swaps, and options.[5] The company uses quantitative analysis to decide upon its investments, obtaining external research to complement its own in-house research.[5] RGNCM mainly provides services to pooled investment vehicles, as well as corporations, and manages separate client-focused portfolios.[5]

In its earliest years in the 1990s, RGNCM slumped during the internet bubble.[4] From its establishment through 1999, his firm's returns were essentially flat.[4]

This led Niederhoffer to adopt dozens of new trading rules, and to diversify by balancing his positions with various momentum plays.[4] He also added individual stocks to his portfolio, from the 800 most-liquid US and European stocks.[4] His revised approach led to a notable change in his firm's performance, as from 1999 through March 2009 the firm's annualized gain exceeded 17%.[4]

The R. G. Niederhoffer Diversified Program returned +60% in 2000, and +51% in 2008 (when the S&P 500 was down 37%).[6][4] Overall it had long-term returns over +17% annualized return from 1999 through March 2009.[7] In May 2009 Barrons reported that the fund ranked 9th in its survey of the top 100 hedge funds.[4][10] From its inception in 1993 through May 2009, it had annualized returns of approximately 12%, over twice the average of the market.[4] As of May 2009, the program had five-year annualized returns of 13.7% (compared with an average hedge fund gain of 2.51%, and an average S&P decline of -4.76%).[4] His firm was noted for strong performance during the financial crisis of 2007–2010.[9]

As of April 2016, his fund had earned an annualized 18.73% since it was started.[10] As of June 2016, the firm's assets under management were $900 million.[25]

Trading strategy

Niederhoffer uses an investment strategy known as short-term trading. He developed his strategy after tracking and analyzing short-term trading patterns.[4] He wrote the original computer code to test and run his complicated, high-frequency, automatic-trading strategy in over 50 financial and commodity markets in developed countries.[28][4]

He is of the view that movements in stock, currency, and commodity prices lead to patterns of short-term investor responses that can be anticipated.[4] Niederhoffer’s computerized trading models are based on a belief in the presence of cognitive biases in the human brain, which in his view cause investors and the models they create to behave predictably.[58] He believes that other short-term investors generally engage in certain predictable behavior: they overemphasize recent experience when they make decisions, they hate to lose even more than they love to win, their behavior becomes increasingly predictable as markets become more volatile, and when the investors are emotional they engage in herd-like behavior and sell stocks when they are at their lowest level and buy stocks when they are at their highest level.[4] The firm's trading models do not focus on company fundamentals or macroeconomic trends.[4][59]

Niederhoffer's computer models analyze the real-time data as it comes in, such as volume and price of every major market and most of the largest stocks.[58] The models make decisions as to what the probability is that a particular market may rise or fall over a period of the next few hours, to the next few days.[58] As with the way an airplane is flown, the models are flown by auto-pilot most of the time, with a pilot watching over them to make corrections if need be.[58] The models focus among other things not just on the price of a security, but on the path that a price has taken to get to where it is.[58] They are premised on the notion that to be effective, the quantitative strategy must be applied and the emotion of the trader has to be stripped from the process.[60] Niederhoffer's strategy thrives on volatility, because it brings out emotional, predictable herd behavior in investors.[61]

His firm's own trades generally range in duration from several hours to a week or two, averaging a day and a half.[4][58] Niederhoffer's program seeks to decrease its risk when the amount it could lose goes past certain thresholds, and his firm's risk management committee can override the program to reduce risk when it feels it is appropriate, at times by buying options.[4]

Awards

Musical and theatre pursuits

Niederhoffer, who began training to play the violin at the age of four, is a violinist with and founding member of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, and has performed with the symphony in Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Alice Tully Hall.[21][4][28] He is also a classical and jazz pianist.[29] In addition, Niederhoffer was the Executive Producer of The Flying Karamazov Brothers, which played Off-Broadway in 2010 and in London's West End in 2011.[29][30][31]

Philanthropy

Niederhoffer is the Chairman of the Board of the New York City Opera (NYCO), which presents opera at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center and other venues around New York City.[14][15][16][20][66] He was a Board member of the NYCO when the company filed for bankruptcy in October 2013. For the next two years, he (as Chairman) and Michael Capasso (now General Director of NYCO) led an effort, called NYCO Renaissance, Ltd., to revive the company.[14][15][16][20][66] The finances of the group were supported by a $1.35 million pledge by Niederhoffer.[38][67] After a protracted legal battle, in January 2016 Niederhoffer and Capasso’s effort was approved by the creditors of NYCO as well as the NY State Attorney General to reorganize and revive the company.[14][15][16][20][66] NYCO resumed performing on January 20, 2016.[14][15][16][20][66]

Niederhoffer also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Harmony Program, which provides daily music lessons and free musical instruments to over 200 New York City Public School and Long Island students in under-served areas, and the Concert Artists Guild.[20][21][27] He has also been on the Board of the Kaufman Center (consisting of the Special Music School, Lucy Moses School, and Merkin Concert Hall), and created the Niederhoffer Foundation, which is active in music education, Jewish causes, and providing aid to the needy.[23][58][25][18][19]

Niederhoffer delivered relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, saying "We can’t rely on the government for all of this."[21][33] Beginning the week of the storm, he organized hundreds of volunteers and corporate donors including Fairway, Inc., and Exxel Outdoor Products, who distributed tons of food, supplies, generators, and sleeping bags to residents of Rockaway, Queens and elsewhere.[68][27][33] For his efforts, in 2013 Niederhoffer received the Lehman-LaGuardia Award from the NY Grand Lodge Order of the Sons of Italy in America and the Metro North region of B’nai B’rith.[69]

In October 2015, Niederhoffer was presented with the Johanna and Leslie Garfield Award for Arts Philanthropy at the New York Youth Symphony's 53rd Annual Benefit Gala.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Story, Louise (October 10, 2008). "Hedge fund winners amid the rubble". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ George Loomis, "NYCO: renaissance for a victim of the financial crisis", The Financial Times, January 29, 2016
  3. ↑ "Weddings,", The New York Times, October 25, 1993
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Eric Uhlfelder, "Model Behavior; Talking With Roy G. Niederhoffer, Founder, R.G. Niederhoffer Capital Management," Barrons, May 25, 2009
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "R. G. Niederhoffer Capital Management, Inc.: Private Company Information", Business Week, October 24, 2016
  6. 1 2 Jacob Wolinsky, "Niederhoffer Capital's Flagship Fund Down 1% YTD: Inflation is Concern," ValueWalk, March 26, 2012
  7. 1 2 3 Matthias Knab (September 24, 2010). "Opalesque Exclusive: New York CTA R.G. Niederhoffer posts strong gains in August announces new launch and asset base of $943m". Opalesque. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  8. ↑ Jack Willoughby, "The Hedge Fund 100: Acing a Stress Test; Highlighting the funds that continued to shine through tough times," Barron's, May 11, 2009
  9. 1 2 Louise Story (November 10, 2008). "What Crisis? Some Hedge Funds Are Gaining". The New York Times. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  10. 1 2 3 Julia La Roche, "Hedge fund returns for the first quarter", Business Insider, April 1, 2016
  11. ↑ Laurence Fletcher, "Hedge Funds Split Over Prospect of ‘Brexit,’", The Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2016
  12. ↑ Julia LaRoche, "Roy Niederhoffer is best performing hedge fund in 2016," Business Insider, February 12, 2016
  13. ↑ Rob Copeland and Laurence Fletcher, "Computer-Driven, Automatic Trading Strategies Score Big; So-Called Quant Traders Take Advantage of Volatility," The Wall Street Journal, February 5, 2015
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 Stephanie Gleason, "Judge OKs City Opera’s Revival Plan; Will re-launch performances under the control of an organization headed by hedge-fund manager Roy Niederhoffer," The Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2016
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 Michael Cooper (December 5, 2014). "Bid for New York City Opera’s Assets Wins Board’s Support", The New York Times.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 Brian Kellow (March 2015). "Revival Meeting". Opera News.
  17. ↑ Jennifer Smith, "Rival Visions to Reboot New York City Opera Detailed,", The Wall Street Journal, November 1, 2015
  18. 1 2 "Niederhoffer Foundation". CitizenAudit.org.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 Alec Baldwin Honors Alan Gilbert at Tonight's NYYS Benefit Gala, Broadway World, October 13, 2015
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "About Us," Harmony Program
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Eduordo Porter, "Charity’s Role in America, and Its Limits," The New York Times, November 13, 2012
  22. ↑ "The Musical Beat of Harmony Program With the New York Philharmonic Transforms Children's Lives,", The Huffington Post, April 13, 2015
  23. 1 2 "Support Us". Harmony Program.
  24. ↑ "About Us", Concert Artists
  25. 1 2 3 Amanda Gordon (January 11, 2008). "Kaufman Center Celebrates Renovation, Garners Praise". New York Sun.
  26. ↑ Catherine Rampell, "Volunteers Flock to Disaster Areas, Overwhelming City Relief Centers", The New York Times, November 4, 2012
  27. 1 2 3 Fox NY Report on Brett Scudder and Roy Niederhoffer's Relief Efforts in The Rockaways. video. November 12, 2012.
  28. 1 2 3 Danielle Beurteaux, "A passion for music; Manager--and violinist--Roy Niederhoffer backs the Harmony Program," Institutional Investor, December 9, 2010
  29. 1 2 3 Danielle Beurteux (December 9, 2010). "A passion for music: Manager--and violinist--Roy Niederhoffer backs the Harmony Program". Institutional Investor's Alpha.
  30. 1 2 "The Flying Karamazov Brothers". Fkb.com. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  31. 1 2 Uhlfelder, Eric (September 10, 2010). "Artists Bound by Tradition, If Not Blood". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  32. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Kathrine M. Peterson, "Two Freshman Entrepreneurs Put Computer Careers on Hold," The Harvard Crimson, October 29, 1983
  33. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 John Cassidy, "The Blow-Up Artist," The New Yorker, October 15, 2007
  34. 1 2 Jack Raymond Greene (2006), Encyclopedia of Police Science, Routledge, pp. 846-52.
  35. ↑ Larry Karp (2009). The King of Ragtime, p. 497.
  36. ↑ Victor Niederhoffer (1997). The Education of a Speculator, John Wiley & Sons
  37. ↑ "Arthur Niederhoffer (Author of Gang)". Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  38. 1 2 3 4 "Dr. Arthur Niederhoffer, A Professor at John Jay," The New York Times, January 16, 1981
  39. ↑ "The Education of a Speculator". Business Week. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  40. 1 2 3 4 5 2016 Nominees - Investors Choice Awards
  41. 1 2 3 4 Roy Niederhoffer, "In Memory of Elaine Niederhoffer; Eulogy for My Mom", Daily Speculations, April 2006. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  42. ↑ William G. Bailey (1995). The Encyclopedia of Police Science, Taylor & Francis.
  43. ↑ "The police family: from station house to ranch house/Arthur Niederhoffer, Elaine Niederhoffer". Lexington Books; National Library of Australia Catalogue. 1978. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  44. ↑ "Elaine Eisenberg Niederhoffer Obituary," The New York Times, April 25, 2006
  45. ↑ "John Jay Supporters are Champions of Justice," John Jay College of Criminal Justice Alumni News, March 2014
  46. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Niels Kaastrup-Larsen, "Q&A: Roy Niederhoffer; Veteran hedge fund manager and Top Traders Unplugged host Niels Kaastrup-Larsen talks to the founder of RG Niederhoffer Capital Management," CTA Intelligence, December 16, 2014
  47. ↑ "Marvin Lebowitz Obituary - Manalapan, NJ," Home News Tribune, November 23, 2014
  48. ↑ Richard Jay Alexander, "Parlor Night Debuts in Manhattan with Michael McElroy, The Broadway Inspirational Voices and Plenty of Broadway Royalty!", Broadway World, June 23, 2015
  49. ↑ Andy Newman, "Long Island High School Alumni Recall Connection to the Confederate Flag,", The New York Times, June 26, 2015
  50. ↑ "Great Neck Public Schools Showcase of Achievement,", Great Neck Record, April 24, 2015
  51. ↑ "Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80-Model-I Roms; Download; Games; Alien Invasion". The Old Computer. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  52. ↑ Interface Age, Vol. 4, McPheters, Wolfe & Jones; 1979
  53. ↑ Jack B. Rochester and John Gantz (1983). The Naked Computer: A Layperson's Almanac of Computer Lore, Wizardry, Personalities, Memorabilia, World Records, Mind Blowers, and Tomfoolery, W. Morrow
  54. ↑ George Blank, "The National TRS-80 Computer Show; Private Audiences with Top Programmers," Creative Computing, Vol. 7, Number 8, p. 108, August 1981
  55. ↑ George Blank, "Programmer of the Month", Softside, November 1979
  56. ↑ Ginger Szala (December 1994). "Trader Profile; Street Stories-- Roy Niederhoffer: Filtering out the noise for profits". Futures Magazine. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  57. ↑ R. G. Niederhoffer Capital Management, Inc
  58. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Fund manager's strategy for double digit returns," CNBC, February 18, 2016
  59. ↑ Eric Uhlfelder 中文原文, "Compelling case for going big on global macro," 站在高处看市场 - FT中文网, August 24, 2009
  60. ↑ "Removing emotion & trusting algorithms; Discussing the volatility in the markets, and whether there is a correlation to computerized trading models, with Roy Niederhoffer, R. G. Niederhoffer Capital Management President & Founder.", CNBC
  61. ↑ "Diversify yourself, get into fixed income: Hedge fund pro; Roy Niederhoffer, 3rd best performing hedge fund manager YTD: HSBC Hedge weekly, shares his bearish views on equities and bullish forecast on fixed income and gold.", CNBC, March 23, 2016
  62. ↑ "Top Traders of 2000". Futures: News, Analysis & Strategies for Futures, Options & Derivatives. March 2001. p. 70, volume 30, issue 4.
  63. ↑ ., Hedge Fund Intelligence
  64. ↑ "HFMWeek announces winners for US Performance Awards | Hedge Fund Manager". HFM Week Magazine. October 31, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  65. ↑ "The Hedge Fund 100" (PDF). The Wall Street Journal. February 2009. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  66. 1 2 3 4 "Leonardo DiCaprio and Deepak Chopra's NYC Building Hosts Bizet's Leading "Carmen" Opera by NYCO Renaissance," The Huffington Post, May 29, 2016
  67. ↑ Robert Viagas, "New York City Opera Returns Tonight With Tosca," Playbill, January 20, 2016
  68. ↑ Exxel Outdoors
  69. ↑ Marjorie Moschella, "Lehman-LaGuardia Award Presented to Robert DiTrapani and Roy Niederhoffer at the 32nd CSJ-B'nai Brith Solidarity Breakfast", Justice, April-May-June 2013

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