By Irwin Speizer
| | |
| | Chris Nygaard and Drew Gilbert: We are thinking about how supply and demand is going to evolve (Photographs by Brad Harris) |
It was a bitter spring for commodity investors as a surprisingly steep plunge in prices battered portfolios. The carnage was particularly brutal the first week in May, when a sharp sell-off in silver and oil sent the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index plummeting more than 9% in a few days and caused equally big losses in the portfolios of many commodity-focused hedge funds.
But the mood remained decidedly upbeat in the New York office of one commodity hedge fund firm. Vermillion Asset Management made it through the rout relatively unscathed, with its flagship, Viridian Fund, losing less than 1% for the week, according to individuals close to the fund. For one, it snapped up silver options being dumped on the cheap by panicked hedge funds...