Did David Tepper’s Appaloosa Get Killed Friday? (TheStreet.com)
David Tepper‘s Appaloosa Management is one of the top performing large hedge funds on Wall Street, but he likely took a beating on Friday, according to John Hempton, an Australian blogger and manager of a hedge fund called Bronte Capital that is a flea relative to a multi-billion dollar giant like Appaloosa. Recalling this interview Tepper gave to Bloomberg two months ago, Hempton notes Tepper was long equities and short bonds as a hedge. On Friday, equities were hit hard, while bonds performed well. “In other words Tepper was long the bad stuff, short the good stuff and the short was meant to be his hedge,” Hempton wrote Saturday on his blog.
Citrone’s Discovery Hedge Fund Joins BlackRock in Bet on Mexico (San Francisco Chronicle)
Discovery Capital Management LLC, the $15 billion macro-economic hedge fund run by Rob Citrone, is betting on a strengthening economy in Mexico, echoing comments from money managers including Laurence D. Fink’s BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) and Bill Gross’s Pacific Investment Management Co. “Mexico is our highest-conviction long idea for 2014,” the firm said in a letter to clients, a copy of which was obtained for Bloomberg News. “During 2013, Mexico has undertaken the most ambitious and revolutionary reform agenda of all emerging markets. On a global basis, its reform agenda even exceeds Japan’s in our view.”
Loeb, Singer Hold Gay-Rights Event At Davos (FINalternatives)
Two of the hedge-fund industry’s most prominent supporters of gay rights brought the issue to the forefront of the World Economic Forum last week. Elliott Management’s Paul Singer and Third Point’s Daniel Loeb hosted a panel featuring gay-rights activists from Russia, Cameroon and Jamaica, three countries where those rights either do not exist or are under assault. The two hedge fund managers followed that lineup on a panel of their own, which also featured Human Rights Campaign chief Chad Griffin.
Druckenmiller Lawyer Takes On Hedge Funds Over Contracts (Bloomberg)
Stan Druckenmiller, one of the top-performing money managers of the past three decades, discovered a hard truth when he started investing in other hedge funds: Most don’t treat their clients fairly. Partnership agreements frequently leave investors on the hook for legal fees associated with the misconduct of fund employees, or allow managers to unilaterally suspend redemptions for any reason, Gerald Kerner, Druckenmiller’s lawyer since 1997, wrote in a paper presented yesterday to a group of endowments and foundations. Now Kerner is fighting back, pushing for changes in an industry where managers wield clout with their investors and typically charge the highest fees in the asset-management business.
Distressed Debt Hedge Fund Commits $530 Million to Europe (New York Times)
Marathon Asset Management has gained a reputation for being a rag-and-bone picker, finding opportunities in the aftermath of financial disaster. Marathon, a $11 billion hedge fund, is going scavenging in Europe with a new fund dedicated to distressed debt on the Continent, hoping to profit from improving economic prospects in the region. The $530 million fund was opened on Jan. 15 and will start with investments in Spain, Germany and Ireland, according to someone familiar with the fund’s strategy.
Cooperman’s hunt for value (CNBC)
