A portfolio manager invested a portion of his $4.8 billion fund in bitcoin – and at the same time he’s hedging against worrying speculative bubbles

• Steve Russell, a portfolio manager at Ruffer, is warning investors of big asset bubbles.
• Russell says SPACs echo the South Sea Bubble and explains how to position against bubbles.
• He breaks down what could burst those bubbles and what convinced him to buy bitcoin.

In 1720, inflated stock prices in obscure joint stock companies resulted in a market crash known as the South Sea Bubble.

Investors piled money into one company famously known as “a company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody knows what it is.”

When Steve Russell, who co-manages the £3.5 billion ($4.8 billion) total return fund for the UK investment firm, Ruffer, heard about special purpose acquisition companies he recalled that quote.