Hedge funds flat in March, Fortress Investment Group & BlueGold Capital outperform

Hennessee Group LLC announced yesterday that its hedge fund index was up just 0.23% in March and 2.35% year-to-date. In comparison, the Standard & Poor’s index was up 5.43% during the same period in 2011, but down 0.10% in March. Also, Hedge Fund Research, another Hedge fund research firm which aggregates data on over 2,200 hedge funds for its Hedge Fund Research Index, said its average hedge fund was up 0.31% in March and 1.99% YTD.

The strongest performers in the Hennessee index were technology (+5.2%) and healthcare-focused (+1.7%) hedge funds, while overall long/short equity funds were up 0.23%.


Poor performance was largely attributed to volatility caused by the earthquake in Japan and the widespread unrest and instability in the Middle East. Hennessee’s Global/Macro Index was up 0.32% but the Macro Index fell -1.33% in March and -1.29% YTD. Furthermore, The Hennessee International Index fell 0.50% in March, though was still up 1.32% YTD.

However, Fortress Investment Group was one winner in March, with its Asia Macro Fund up 3.5% in March. Fortress Investment Group’s Global Macro Fund was also up 1.8% and its commodities fund rose 1.5% in March. Notably, according to reports, all of Fortress Investment’s hedge funds recorded gains in March.

Another big winner is Pierre Andurand’s BlueGold Capital, which specializes in energy investments. BlueGold was up 5.5% for the quarter, far outstripping the average energy hedge fund, which was down almost -3% for the quarter.

Some notable losers include John Paulson’s Advantage Fund, down 3.10% in March and 1.24% YTD. Paulson & Co. ’s Advantage Plus Fund fared even worse, losing 4.4% in March, bringing its YTD performance down to -1.74%. Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor BVI Global fund also fell -0.47%, and even Dan Loeb’s Third Point Offshore fund, one of the year’s top performers at a 6.78% gain over the first quarter, fell in March.

$100mm+ Hedge Fund Launches by Indaba Capital & Ionic Capital

A couple of hedge fund managers are proving that the fund raising environment for new launches is improving. Earlier this month, newly formed Indaba Capital launched its first hedge fund with a reported $150 million in assets under management, while Ionic Capital Management has reportedly raised more than $100 million for its newly launched convertible bond focused hedge fund.

Indaba Capital, which employs an event-driven strategy, was founded last year by Farallon Capital veteran Derek Schrier. While at Farrallon, Schrier was responsible for managing credit investments. Indaba only targeted a limited number of investors for the launch and hopes to double its assets during the second quarter when it opens up to outside investors.

To view HedgeTracker’s lists of Top Hedge Fund Launches, please click below:

Top Hedge Fund Launches of 2011
Top Hedge Fund Launches of 2010
Top Hedge Fund Launches of 2009

For Detailed Investor Profiles on these Investors, click below
Indaba Capital Management

Ionic Capital Management LLC

Robertson’s Tiger Management seeds Nezu Asia Capital with $50 million

Julian Robertson’s well-respected investment group Tiger Management has recently invested $50 million in Nezu Asia Capital, a hedge fund manager that oversees six funds with $400 million in assets under management. According to Reuters, Tiger Management has seeded Nezu’s long/short equity focused Nezu Asia Fund and its short-biased equity Nezu Kuma Fund, which is focused on Japan.

All Credit to Moore Capital for This Year's Bounce Back

One of the biggest decisions that hedge fund managers in any investment style have to make is how they respond to significant losses, even if they are relative in nature. So think back to the response last year of Paul Tudor Jones in reconfiguring the capital allocations within his funds. Even though he made good money in 2009, his flagship BVI Global Fund was up 16.51% last year, he rejigged allocations - reducing some systematic strategies, cutting out some emerging market exposure altogether and increasing the classic opportunistic trading element. This was intended to be something of return to its roots for the Global Fund, as John Tudor Jones himself managed a bigger proportion of the assets, and macro in total was re-emphasized as it made up 88% of Fund assets from the 3Q of last year. The call was that the markets environment would be more suitable to that big-picture type trading that served Tudor Investment Corporation so well in the 90's, as QE created a time-warp.

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D.E. Shaw Firing, but other Top Hedge Funds are Hiring

Last week, hedge fund job seekers received unwelcome news when industry giant New York-based hedge fund manager D.E. Shaw & Co. announced that it was cutting 10 percent of its workforce, representing approximately 150 hedge fund industry jobs. Despite the layoffs at David Shaw’s quant shop, many other prominent hedge funds continue to hire.

As evidenced by HedgeTracker’s Hedge Fund Job Center, a large number of firms are looking to add talented portfolio managers, research analysts, fund raisers and operations professionals to bolster their teams. Some of the major hedge fund firms that appear on the hedge fund job board include: Steven A. Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, David Harding’s quantitative focused Winton Capital Management, multi-strategy behemoth Fortress Investment Group, Clint Carlson’s Dallas-based Carlson Capital, HBK Investments, and OakTree Capital Management.

The hedge fund job board also includes positions from more traditional investment managers, like Martin J. Whitman’s value-focused Third Avenue Management, Bill Gross’ fixed income focused PIMCO, Mario J. Gabelli’s GARP focused GAMCO Asset Management, and pension giant TIAA-CREF Investment Management.

David Tepper is bullish on Stocks

An interview this morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box with Appaloosa Management’s David Tepper reportedly helped move the US stock market higher. The respected hedge fund guru is moving into stocks, saying that if the economy does well over the next few months, stocks are going to do well, while bonds and gold will not do as well...

Paul Tudor Jones is Not Making Investors Any Money

Greenwich hedge funder Paul Tudor Jones might be a Forbes billionaire but he’s not helping his investors make the big bucks this year. According to an investor, BVI Global, his largest fund at Tudor Investment Corporation, is negative .9 percent as of September 20th. Meaning the 10 billionish of investor money he runs, in BVI, is lagging behind the industry average (Global Diversified Sector) whose average performance, according to HSBC, is positive 2.1 percent.

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Hedge Fund Directory

I thought that these lists of top hedge funds would be of interest to our readers. Some of hottest hedge fund styles currently include:
Growth Focused Hedge Funds
Global Macro Focused Hedge Funds
Event-Driven Foucsed Hedge Funds
Long/Short Equity Hedge Funds

Jim Pallotta launches Raptor Evolution Fund

Legendary hedge fund manager Jim Pallotta is returning to the industry with the launch of the Raptor Evolution Fund. The new hedge fund management firm has reportedly raised approximately $200 million and will employ the same long/short equity strategy that established Pallotta during his impressive run at Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corporation. According to theNew York Times, Mr. Pallotta achieved returns that averaged over 19% annually over his 15 year tenure at Tudor.

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Harbinger to Launch Troubled Bond & Loan Focused Fund

Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Capital is launching a distressed fund. The firm is going forward with the launch, despite the fact that its flagship fund is limiting investor withdrawals.
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