What else could he say?
Anyway, that was only 7% of what his funds made so it's okay.
Here's what happens when he goes head to head vs. the market, from Deal Journal:
John Paulson Hits a Soft Patch
Somewhere, an unloved subprime mortgage is smiling.But of course.
Hedge-fund billionaire John Paulson, who made a killing on the subprime mortgage meltdown, has seen a 31% decline in his Advantage Plus fund so far this year, through the end of Friday’s trading, according to someone briefed on the figures. The fund, which uses leverage, was down 22% through the end of July.
Meanwhile, Paulson’s Advantage fund is down about 21.5% so far in 2011 through Friday, the person said. That fund was down 15% through July.
Paulson, whose Paulson & Co. manages about $35 billion, had been a big holder of stocks like Citigroup, and Bank of America this year; those shares have tumbled lately.
There appears to be a sliver or two of good news for Paulson. His gold fund is up about 6% for the year, according to an investor’s calculations. The bulk of Paulson’s own money is in gold, and in gold-denominated share classes offered by his firm, so he’s making out much better than many of his investors....MORE
Oh well. As Deal Journal says: (hat tip to Mark Gongloff for the lead to this post. We stole shamelessly.)
Here's Reuters'
Factbox: How Goldman's ABACUS deal worked
Here's how Deal Journal described the goings on in a January 2011 post:
The Surreal Lawsuit Over Goldman’s Abacus Deal
It’s surrealism day over at ACA Financial.Here's the pitchbook Goldman used to sell the stuff.
The bond insurer today sued Goldman Sachs over the now-infamous mortgage securities investment known as “Abacus 2007-AC1.”
(Read ACA’s lawsuit against Goldman Sachs HERE.)
As Deal Journal readers remember, this was the investment packed with souring mortgage securities, in which Goldman has acknowledged it didn’t appropriately disclose the role of investor John Paulson in designing the investment to allow him to short the housing market. Goldman paid $550 million to settle SEC fraud charges over its disclosures in the deal....MORE
