. . . and this hedge fund tycoon’s lost a fortune

HE IS a flamboyant figure who has made stellar returns over the past 25 years.

But it seems investors think superrich hedge fund trader Crispin Odey

(pictured) may have lost his touch. Assets under management at the City stalwart’s flagship fund plunged 60pc in the first nine months of the year as he struggled to make sense of turbulent markets. Odey European Inc held about £981m at the start of the year – but this had plummeted to £376m by the end of September.

Around £48bn has been pulled from hedge funds this year due to angst over poor performance and sky-high, hard-to-understand fees. Odey, 57, has long had a bleak view of Britain’s prospects and takes aggressive short positions against UK stocks, betting their share prices will fall.

Earlier this week he made headlines by warning that a brutal recession was around the corner and that the stock market was set to plunge 80pc.

But where this might once have been gratefully received by awestruck shareholders, it was instead greeted with scepticism.

His slump continued on Thursday after a successful court challenge to Brexit. It saw most of his 18 short bets rise in value. Bloomberg data shows that Odey’s fourth-largest short position, Lancashire Holdings, gained the most value in eight years after posting surprisingly high profits. And Tullow Oil, his biggest bet in which he has shorted a 4.36pc stake worth £103.5m, has risen 60pc since he bought it.

‘The falls he’s predicting suggests a pretty seismic collapse in capitalism,’ said Laith Khalaf of trader Hargreaves Lansdown. ‘In that scenario, I’m not sure you’d want to be invested in anything apart from baked beans and bottled water.’

Odey – who is married to Nichola Pease, deputy chairman of asset manager JO Hambro Capital Management – has already dropped out of the billionaire club this year, his wealth falling by £200m to £900m.