Background
His father was an accountant in West Orange, New Jersey, where Rocker was raised and married his high school sweetheart, Marian.
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David Rocker
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After graduating from Harvard College and before getting his Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, Rocker served for two years as an officer in the United States Navy.
Career
After founding in 1985, Rocker built the firm into one of the largest hedge funds specializing in short selling. Rocker holds a magna cum laude bachelor"s from Harvard College and a master"s of business administration from Harvard Business School. Rocker"s grandparents were Austrian and Russian immigrants.
In 1969, Rocker joined Mitchell Hutchins, where he was a research analyst and investment banker.
In 1972, he hired on at Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz & Company, a pioneering hedge fund, and was a general partner there from 1973 to 1981. Rocker joined Century Capital Associates, an investment adviser firm, in 1981.
At Century, he was an analyst and portfolio manager for institutional clients. Rocker managed over $600 million in assets while at Century.
During his time at, he was an online contributor on RealMoneyPro.com and quoted in Business Week for his opinions on stocks.
In 2002, he appeared with Jim Cramer on Consumer News and Business Channel"s Kudlow and Cramer. As part of, Rocker opened a British Virgin Islands fund, Compass Holdings Limited, as well as Helmsman Holdings, which was later folded into Compass. He also founded Contra Strategic Short Fund LP, based in the United States.
In 2003, Rocker testified on the industry before the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises.
In 2005, Rocker was named as a defendant in a lawsuit from Overstock.com. In December 2009, the suit against Rocker, whose name had since been changed to Copper River Partners, was settled by the hedge fund agreeing to pay $5 million.
In 2004, Rocker funds were down to less than $400 million in assets, down by half of its previous high figure. However, in 2005, netted 46%, and total assets rose to $1.3 billion.
Annualized returns since inception was about 11% at the end of 2005, when it had 12 employees.
According to Richard Sauer, hired by Copper River after his departure, Copper River shut down in 2008 due to the bankruptcy of Lehman United Kingdom (which prevented access to $100 million of Copper River"s assets) and to the actions of the Securities and Exchange Commission to limit the holding of short positions in the market and of Copper River"s Prime Broker (Goldman Sachs) in response to the Securities and Exchange Commission"s emergency rules.
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Nationality
United States