market folly

Given all the market oscillations this year, we figured it'd be good to check in on how some of the prominent hedge funds are faring out there. According to Credit Suisse's indices, the average hedge fund was up 3.5% for September and is up 5.5% for 2010. Without further ado, taken from individual fund investor updates and HSBC's latest hedge fund performance report:

John Burbank's Passport Capital: The San Francisco firm was up 4.9% last month and is now up 7.8% for the year. Passport's flagship fund has $1.7 billion under management while the firm's AUM comes in at $3.4 billion in total. Burbank recently spoke at the Ira Sohn West Conference and you can see notes from his talk here.

John Paulson's hedge fund Paulson & Co: Their Recovery fund was up 8.47% for the month (up 7.5% ytd). Their gold fund gained 5.67% last month (up 22.54% ytd). Paulson's Advantage and Advantage Plus funds gained 12.41% and 7.72% for the month respectively. For the year, those funds are -0.17% and -0.42% respectively. In a recent talk, Paulson said to sell bonds and buy stocks.

David Tepper's Appaloosa Management: Their Palomino fund was up 2.84% for September and sits up 15.13% for the year. In a recent (rare) interview, Tepper said he likes equities here.

Paul Tudor Jones' Tudor Investment Corp: Their flagship Global BVI fund was up 0.55% for September and is up 2.6% for 2010.

David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital: Up 2.2% in September and now up 4.2% thus far in 2010. Einhorn recently added to his stake in CareFusion (CFN).

Bill Ackman's Pershing Square: His flagship fund was up 3.4% net last month, bringing it up 6.5% for the year. Ackman of course just started a brand new activist position in JC Penney (JCP).

Ricky Sandler's Eminence Capital: Up 0.20% for September, down 7.78% thus far in 2010.

Dan Loeb's Third Point: Their offshore fund was up 3.9% in September and is now up 19.1% for thus far in 2010. Their Partners fund is up 22.2%, their Ultra fund is up 19.9%, and their Qualified fund is up 18.1%. Loeb recently disclosed new positions in gold bullion and Potash (POT).

Och-Ziff Capital Management: Their flagship fund was up 1.27% last month and is now up 4.18% ytd.

Nelson Peltz's Trian Partners: This activist hedge fund was up 7.5% for September.

Barry Rosenstein's JANA Partners: Another activist fund, JANA, was up 4.5% for the month and is now up 4% for 2010. In a recent presentation, Rosenstein said he thought the current environment was ripe for activist investments.

Steven Heinz & Paul Ruddock's Lansdowne Partners: The UK hedge fund was up 0.65% in September but down 3.87% for the year. The hedge fund recently acquired a position in Central Asia Metals (LON: CAML).

Richard Perry's Perry Partners: -0.04% for last month but up 11.17% for 2010. You can view Perry Partners' Q2 letter to investors here.

Joshua Fink's Enso Capital Management: The hedge fund managed by Blackrock CEO Laurence Fink's son was up a whopping 14.5% last month. The fund is up around 25% this year largely due to gains from big positions in commodity stocks. The fund now manages around $200 million.

Overall, long/short funds were up around 5.4% for September and up 5.3% year-to-date. Merger arbitrage funds in general were up 1.96% last month and now 7.64% for the year. Lastly, event-driven hedge funds are up 8.89% for 2010 after a positive 4.65% in September. Interestingly enough, global macro funds have lagged other strategies, up 0.45% last month and only up 2.26% year-to-date.