In March 2011 , Philippe Jabre and his fund made a substantial bet on Japanese equities . Mr.Jabre had eventually arrived at the rationale that Japanese stocks which have recently been on the decline due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami would rebound shortly thereafter . Mr.Jabre proceeded to plow capital into the Tokyo Stock Exchange . The Nikkei was down a sharp 13 % shortly after rumours of a " nuclear crisis " started to surface , and through his JapCap Multi Strategy Fund Jabre and his traders sold off their Japanese positions . Despite the evident rebound , futures contracts were sold short by his firm against the equity long positions as a sort of hedge . He personally contemplated the odds and eventually instructed his traders to close out their bearish futures . Mr.Jabre said he and his firm could not bear the risk of the supposed nuclear explosion that would lead government officials to close the Tokyo Stock Exchange , locking his firm 's capital in with no way to retrieve it for several months.The shares that were expected to bounce back did so the following week . This short panic and nervous sell off resulted in what the firm dubbed " a six-month drawback in fund performance " . All in all , this would eventually cause a $ 300 million windfall for the fund and an uneasy Jabre went on asking several colleagues of his if he " made the right decision " . " I keep thinking about it , what could I have done differently " ... " We could n't take the risk of the Tokyo Stock Exchange closing down , so we sold " . He told a reporter of the Wall Street Journal , " I felt horrible , but I do n't express happiness or frustrations , " he said . " Emotions are the enemy of a balanced person . " Reflecting back on his decision , Philippe says he does n't expect much emotional recoil on the trade , but said that he 's happy his firm has some capital to work with now that would otherwise be frozen . " If we 're wrong and the market rallies , we set the firm back , " Mr. Jabre remembers telling a colleague . " But we 'll be alive to fight another day . " In 2013 Jabre Capital was one of Europe 's top-performing hedge funds and won EuroHedge ’s Management Firm of the Year award
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
Philippe Jabre