Fund star embraces absurdity on YouTube

Hugh Hendry, the hedge fund manager whose contrarian bets earned a 30 per cent return in 2008, has been bemoaning investor consensus in the current crisis. A few days ago he spoke to Bloomberg TV of his disdain for “the beige market”. Fortunately, his own video output is altogether more colourful.

On his new YouTube channel, the founder of Eclectica Asset Management has been uploading mesmeric six-minute works of art house cinema — musing on writer Albert Camus’ three principles: “God is dead, life is absurd and there are no rules.” These he seeks to prove each of them from his Paris apartment in a très chic arrondissement, while interviewing a cabaret dancer, reading the FT in the bath and skateboarding between rooms in a baseball cap. If it appears redolent of the French New Wave, or a moody Christmas fragrance ad, that may be because his director is Dean Freeman, who has worked with such icons as footballer David Beckham, late pop star George Michael, and, er, ice cream brand Häagen-Dazs.

Hendry’s purpose, though, is to impart wisdom and inspire a new generation of free thinkers. A book is coming in March and his next video, which he dubs an “intense psychic cacophony”, reflects on his journey from Glasgow’s Castlemilk council estate to running a fund that once held $1.3bn in assets. Hendry hopes the edgy urban feel will encourage students to sign up to his online game, and pitch trading ideas. “I almost made a hedge-fund rap,” he tells City Insider. “My wife says: ‘you’re having a midlife crisis’.” Tune in to Hugh Hendry Official on YouTube next month to decide.

Mark Carney: Emerald green

Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney has been back in the land of his forefathers — via video link, at least — for Climate Finance Week Ireland. At Thursday’s virtual event, he was joined by AIB boss Colin Hunt and ex-chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission Mary Schapiro, to discuss “raising climate ambition among financial market actors”. These market actors need to share climate information that is “decision useful”, they agreed — presumably as opposed to useless “greenwashing”.

But one high-profile market actor was referenced only obliquely. Schapiro noted the role played by regulators “especially in the absence of leadership at a federal level in the United States”. Carney cited helpful financial reporting rules in most jurisdictions but admitted “the US is the exception; it is exceptional in many ways” — with a pained grin only a Canadian could pull off. He was speaking before a winner had emerged in the US presidential election, but was declared a winner himself: of the ‘Climate Leadership Award 2020’.

Carney’s prize was a model of an Irish curragh. He said it was like the model boat in the Canadian home of his Irish immigrant grandparents, which reminded them of waters lapping on the verdant Mayo coast. It was the only mention of ‘greenwash’ allowed all day.

Thomas Reilly: Our man in Marrakesh

Where’s a business-savvy trade negotiator when you need one? Not in Brussels, given the lack of progress in trade talks. But evidently at law firm Covington. It has just hired Thomas Reilly, former UK ambassador to Morocco — who “led the successful negotiation of the UK/Morocco post-Brexit Association Agreement”. He is joining the firm as head of UK Public Policy. Let’s hope his Morocco deal included lots on banking and securities trading. And not too much on fish.