Clarium Capital Management LLC is an American

investment management Investment management is the professional asset management of various securities, including shareholdings, bonds, and other assets, such as real estate, to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of investors. Investors may be institut ...

and hedge fund company pursuing a global macro strategy. It was founded in San FranciscoClarium Capital on Google Maps
/ref> in 2002 by Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and early investor in Facebook."Thiel's Hedge Fund Plummet"
''New York Post''. Retrieved June 27, 2010. Its assets under management grew to $8 billion in 2008, after which a series of unprofitable investments and client redemptions shrank that to about $350 million as of 2011.

Function and history

Clarium is an employee-owned firm that invests in public equity (primarily in micro-cap companies),

fixed income Fixed income refers to any type of investment under which the borrower or issuer is obliged to make payments of a fixed amount on a fixed schedule. For example, the borrower may have to pay interest at a fixed rate once a year and repay the prin ...

, and hedging markets. Unlike most funds, which charge clients about a 2% management fee of their total assets invested and an additional 20% performance fee of the increase in the fund's net asset value, Clarium charges a 0% management fee and a performance fee of 25%. The company stopped working while Thiel worked at PayPal, and resumed in 2002."Clarium Capital Management LLC"
''BusinessWeek''. Retrieved June 28, 2010. In 2008, Clarium moved its headquarters from San Francisco to New York City. In June 2010 Thiel closed the New York office to consolidate the company into one location at its San Francisco office.

Performance

2002

Through a series of correct bets in the energy markets that global demand would cause an oil shortage, Clarium's 2002 performance was described by a 2009 '' Wall Street Journal'' article as "impressive".

2008-2010

Clarium was down 4.5% in 2008,"Hedge Fund Portfolio Tracking: Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital, Q4 2008"
/ref> down 25% in 2009,
/ref> and down 23% in 2010.
/ref> For the first half of 2008, the fund had a YTD return of 57.9%."Clarium hedge fund posts gains of 57.9 percent"
Reuters. Retrieved June 28, 2010. At the start of 2008, the fund had $4 billion in assets under management (AUM), raised to $7.8 billion in June 2008, then dropped to $1.5 billion in July 2009, after investors withdrew money from the fund."The Quick Gutting of Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital"
. Gawker. Retrieved June 27, 2010. It lost most of its value in 2008 on large bets that the US dollar would fall, and AUM reached $681 million in December 2010.

References

External links