Biggs remembered as Wall Street 'dean'

Barton M. Biggs, managing partner of the $1.2 billion hedge fund manager Traxis Partners LP and former chief global strategist and chairman of Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc., was considered “one of the deans of Wall Street,” whose views on the market and the investment management industry were eagerly sought by institutional investors.

Mr. Biggs, age 79, died July 14 from a bacterial infection after falling ill a few weeks ago, according to Amer Bisat, who shared managing partner duties at Traxis Partners, Greenwich, Conn. Mr. Biggs founded the global macro hedge fund in 2003 after a career of almost four decades at Morgan Stanley, New York.

Said Theodore R. Aronson, managing principal with Aronson + Johnson + Ortiz LP, Philadelphia, who made the academic reference to Mr. Biggs: “Barton's passing reminded me how significant he was in the formative years of my investing career. Even as a fully invested quant — who never acted on his market advice — I devoured his work.”

“Biggs was one of (Wall) Street's best communicators — brilliant writer, with an eye for a well-turned phrase — "Groupstink,' "Alice in Amerwonderland,' "Mr. Market Is a Manic-Depressive,'” Mr. Aronson said in an e-mail.

“I found myself, starting in the "90s, pleading for permission to share his work with our clients — permission was always granted.”

Mark Anson, managing partner and chief investment officer of Oak Hill Investment Management LP, Menlo Park, Calif., said in an e-mail: “I know Barton from the market research he did for CalPERS and other institutional investors.” Mr. Anson is a former CIO of the now $229.8 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento.

“Mostly Barton is known for calling an end to the dot-com bubble,” Mr. Anson said. “True enough, but few realize that he was bullish on the growth of emerging markets long before the term "BRICs' was coined. I remember reading his bullish statements on China in the mid-1990s — years before China popped up on investors' radar screens.”

Traxis managed $1.3 billion for 42 clients, including pension funds, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last November.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Bisat said Mr. Biggs' colleagues at Traxis “had been hoping for a recovery,” and that Mr. Biggs himself hadn't canceled plans to “climb Macchu Picchu” in Peru later in July.

Mr. Bisat called Mr. Biggs' death a “huge loss” for Traxis, but said the firm has a deep bench. He said there are no plans at present to fill Mr. Biggs' managing partner role.

In an internal memo, James P. Gorman, Morgan Stanley's chairman, CEO and president, said Mr. Biggs had “left an indelible mark on our business” since joining Morgan Stanley as a general partner and managing director in 1965.

In 1975, Mr. Biggs founded Morgan Stanley Investment Management and served as its chairman until his retirement in 2003.

“He was known as an independent thinker, colorful writer and one of the pioneers of emerging markets investing,” Mr. Gorman said in the memo.

Mr. Anson, in his e-mail, wrote: “I once asked him what he thought of hedge funds and he responded: "Do you have a week?' His point was that the topic of hedge funds was so complex that my simple question could not be answered in a simple and short response.

“He was one of the very few that took a long-term horizon, stuck to his guns in the face of opposing investor sentiment, and usually came out on top,” Mr. Anson added. “Strategist is too simple a term for him. The world is a smaller place today without him.”

Mr. Aronson wrote Mr. Biggs “had an influence on me well beyond investing!”

“Beyond the markets, his recommendations for summer reading were never ignored — Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October' and Massie's "Peter the Great' are two that come to mind,” Mr. Aronson wrote.

Mr. Biggs' “own books were notable.” Mr. Aronson said. “'Hedgehogging' takes on the very industry he joined after leaving Morgan Stanley. "Wealth, War and Wisdom' mixed humor, history and market history, during the epic battle of World War II.

“I lost touch with Barton's official writings (after) he joined the "dark side' in 2003, and stopped publishing for the great unwashed. I've missed his wisdom over the past decade or so, but what was already shared, lives on.”

Mr. Biggs took a critical eye to trends in the investment management industry.

In 2001, in a global strategy report to MSIM clients, he warned of hedge fund mania that is “rapidly assuming all the classic characteristics of a bubble.”

“Investors involved in hedge funds are generally wealthy, smart and sophisticated,” he noted, pointing out “history shows that sophistication and intelligence do not inoculate anyone from the infection of manias.”

“The current mania concerns me, because I see signs of excess,” he added.

Mr. Biggs himself would become part of that mania, when he retired from MSIM and formed Traxis.

Mr. Biggs also was generous in praising others in investment management.

In 2002, he called David F. Swensen, CIO of Yale University's endowment, now at $19.4 billion, “one of the best investors in the world.”

He attributed Yale's surging performance in large part to private equity investments. In analyzing the endowment at the time, Mr. Biggs said: “Yale performed relatively well because it sold all private equity share distributions as soon as they were received,” according to a P&I story. “Diversification also paid off, and Yale received superb relative performance from the managers of its other classes,” Mr. Biggs said at the time.

In 1995, Mr. Biggs called George Soros, the hedge fund manager, “the best macro investor of modern times.”

“There is no one else even close,” Mr. Biggs said in an investment research report to clients. “Warren Buffett is a great stock picker, but that's different from what Soros does.”

He was an advocate of emerging markets. In a 1995 report to clients, he called India “one of the best investment areas in the world,” while adding Myanmar offered a high-risk but high-return gamble.

“The investor in Indian equities must be steadfast in believing the long-term case and not be panicked by erratic election results, a few corrupt politicians, occasional religious massacres and gradual rather than dynamic economic reform,” he wrote at the time.

Myanmar “could be a great investment story,” he added. “The country is still ruled by a 21-general military junta. I called on five who run the economy, and without in anyway condoning their alleged human rights violations, I was impressed.”

Mr. Biggs is survived by two daughters, Wende Ractliffe and Gretchen Biggs, and a son, Barton Biggs, said Maricar Oliveros, assistant to Mr. Biggs at Traxis.

A private funeral was held July 18. A memorial service has yet to be determined.

The family requests donations to the United Negro College Fund, which provides financial assistance for low-income students of all races to attend college, www.uncf.org; the Wounded Warrior Project, which funds assistance and programs for injured service members, www. woundedwarriorproject.org; and Waterlines, which finances drinking-water projects worldwide, www. waterlines.org. n