Qualcomm (QCOM): Adding on Major Dips for Long Term Portfolio

I just wanted to highlight the weakness we've been seeing in technology recently. In mid-August, the Nasdaq was easily outperforming the S&P500. But, as we've slid into September, technology has given back its gains. I've been waiting patiently to add to some tech positions that are typically high-flyers. And, it looks as if that patience is finally going to pay off, as I can finally start to get back into some names I've been looking to add to my core long term positions. As I wrote about here, you've got to be prepared for inflationary or deflationary investment scenarios. While it's still unclear whether we're heading straight towards a deflationary environment, it never hurts to be prepared. At any rate, in that post, I highlighted how in both an inflationary or deflationary scenario, it usually pays off to be long technology. So, with that in mind, my longer term portfolio is looking to add to tech names to hold for the long term.

I bought Qualcomm (QCOM) back in June as I detailed here, and it has paid off nicely. I took some profits, decreasing my position size on the most recent gap-up in July (see chart below). And, I've been waiting forever for QCOM to start dipping back down to fill the gap to re-add what I sold. So, we're finally getting that dip and I'll be looking to buy QCOM for the long term at around $48 and then again at $44 if it trades that low. I like it at $48 because it offers a decent level of support. And, not to mention, I initially bought QCOM back in June at around those levels. So, you can bet I'm more than happy to add back at that level. I've got a secondary limit order around $44, which is right around both the 200 day moving average and a nice level of recent support. Then, for safety, my stop will be placed a point or two below that last limit order, below the 200 day moving average. Because, if that area is taken out, the stock is headed much lower as it will have violated its solid uptrend.

(click to enlarge)

It's not quite to my first limit order yet, but it's getting there. There have been a few negative catalysts recently which have started to send the stock lower, and I'm happy to see it happen! Seriously, I've been waiting to re-add to this position forever it seems. Yesterday, as StreetInsider detailed, Goldman Sachs removed QCOM from its Conviction Buy List. And, the day prior, QCOM's CEO was on CNBC saying, "We're seeing some evidence there's a lengthening of replacement cycles." Which, to put it plainly, means that people are putting off buying new cell phones. This near-term weakness was fully expected, seeing as how the US and other parts of the world have slowed recently. So, I will use this near-term weakness as an opportunity to start building up my position for the long term. Because, as I said before, going long technology fits both my inflationary and deflationary investment scenario models. I've picked Qualcomm simply because they're dominant in their industry and continue to perform. And, not to mention, QCOM is definitely a 'hedge fund favorite,' meaning that tons of funds have a large position in the name. As I wrote about here, Maverick Capital has a large position in the name; as does Lone Pine Capital, which I wrote about here. It's always reassuring to see respected funds with large positions in a name you follow, because undoubtedly their teams have done more research on the name combined than I most likely could ever do alone.

So, that sums it up. I will exit the name if my pre-determined stop gets taken out, or if I see a material shift in their business, which would affect their long term ability to meet estimates. But, I will definitely be looking at the tech sell-off as a place to try and establish longer term positions

Brett Barakett's Tremblant Capital: Large Research in Motion (RIMM) Exposure

This is the third quarter 2009 edition of our hedge fund portfolio tracking series. If you're unfamiliar with tracking hedge fund movements or SEC filings, check out our series preface on hedge fund 13F filings.

Next up in our series is Brett Barakett's hedge fund Tremblant Capital. The name Barakett might ring a bell because his brother Timothy used to run fellow hedge fund Atticus Capital (who recently announced they'd be shutting down). So while Timothy may have stepped away from the hedge fund game, Brett is still going at it. Before founding his own firm, Brett was previously a portfolio manager for Louis Bacon's hedge fund Moore Capital and in his spare time he enjoys ice hockey. Taken from their site, Tremblant Capital Group's objective is "to achieve superior risk adjust returns for our investors through our focused and disciplined investment process." The only major notable portfolio activity out of Tremblant has been their 13G filing on IMAX.

Keep in mind that the positions listed below were Tremblant's long equity, note, and options holdings as of September 30th, 2009 as filed with the SEC. We don't cover every single portfolio maneuver, as we instead focus on all the big moves. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.


Some New Positions
Brand new positions that they initiated last quarter:
Qualcomm (QCOM) Calls
Procter and Gamble (PG) Calls
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) Puts
Union Pacific (UNP) Puts
Monsanto (MON)
DirecTV (DTV) Calls
Apollo Group (APOL)
Viacom (VIA-B) Puts


Some Increased Positions
Positions they already owned but added shares to:
Imax Corp (IMAX): Increased position by 187.7% (we previously detailed this)
Mastercard (MA) Puts: Increased by 115.2%
Melco Crown (MPEL) Calls: Increased by 45.9%
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR): Increased by 42%
Walmart (WMT): Increased by 38.5%
Cheesecake Factory (CAKE): Increased by 36%
Intel (INTC) Puts: Increased by 34%
Liberty Media (LINTA): Increased by 27.3%
Charles Schwab (SCHW): Increased by 24.6%


Some Reduced Positions
Stakes they sold shares in but still own:
Red Hat (RHT) Calls: Reduced by 70.2%
Apple (AAPL) Puts: Reduced by 63.7%
RedHat (RHT): Reduced by 45.7%
Google (GOOG): Reduced by 43.5%
Melco Crown (MPEL): Reduced by 35.7%
Icon (ICLR): Reduced by 35.7%
Eclipsys (ECLP): Reduced by 31.7%
Hologic (HOLX): Reduced by 29.8%
Baidu (BIDU): Reduced by 26.8%
Costco (COST): Reduced by 24.8%
Apple (AAPL): Reduced by 24.4%
Qualcomm (QCOM): Reduced by 22.2%


Removed Positions
Positions they sold out of completely:
Apple (AAPL) Calls
Amazon (AMZN) Puts
Qualcomm (QCOM) Puts
Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ)
AU Optronics (AUO) Puts
Hologic (HOLX) Puts
Catalyst Health (CHSI)
Research in Motion (RIMM) Puts
Symantec (SYMC)
Bankrate (RATE)
Weingarten Realty (WRI)
MGM Mirage (MGM) Calls
Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Calls
MEMC Electronics (WFR)
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) Calls
Gannett (GCI) Calls
Harley Davidson (HOG) Calls
Commscope (CTV)
Sequenom (SQNM)


Top 15 Holdings by percentage of assets reported on 13F filing

1. Research in Motion (RIMM) Calls: 8.7%
2. Qualcomm (QCOM) Calls: 5.43%
3. Procter and Gamble (PG): 5.08%
4. Procter and Gamble (PG) Calls: 4.94%
5. Visa (V): 3.21%
6. Walmart (WMT): 2.9%
7. Mastercard (MA): 2.87%
8. Research in Motion (RIMM): 2.7%
9. Apple (AAPL): 2.5%
10. Hologic (HOLX): 2.29%
11. Baidu (BIDU): 2.19%
12. Mastercard (MA) Puts: 2.12%
13. Melco Crown (MPEL): 2.08%
14. Visa (V) Calls: 1.97%
15. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR): 1.95%
    

Tremblant was out reducing technology exposure across the board as it was previously almost 49% of their long US equity holdings. While they were moving out of that sector, they were moving into consumer goods as around 18% of their longs are in that sector now. The tough thing to decipher about their portfolio is their net position in a given name. As you can see above, they hold a bevy of puts and calls in addition to the underlying common in many stocks. As such, we do not have access to the strike prices or expirations of those options so it's hard to tell if they are net bullish or net bearish on some of their positions.

By far and away their largest position though is calls in Research in Motion (RIMM) and this carries over from the second quarter where it was their largest stake then as well. Their second largest holding is a brand new position in Qualcomm (QCOM) calls which is notable. So while they were reducing tech exposure, don't get us wrong... they definitely still have tech positions.

Below are some graphical illustrations of the changes made to Tremblant Capital's portfolio courtesy of Drew Robertson at Financial Research Station:

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

Assets from the collective holdings reported to the SEC via 13F filing were $3 billion this quarter compared to $2.7 billion last quarter. Please keep in mind that when we state "percentage of portfolio," we are referring to the percentage of assets reported on the 13F filing. Since these filings only report longs (and not shorts or cash positions), the percentages are skewed. Also, please again note that these positions were as of September 30th so two months have elapsed and they've undoubtedly shifted around their portfolio since then.

This is just one of the 40+ prominent funds that we'll be covering in our Q3 2009 hedge fund portfolio series. We've already covered Seth Klarman's Baupost Group Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, Dan Loeb's Third Point LLC, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, John Paulson's firm Paulson & Co, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, and Chase Coleman's Tiger Global. Check back daily as we'll be covering new hedge fund portfolios.

Lone Pine Capital's 13F (Stephen Mandel Jr.)

(Note: Before reading this update, make sure you check out the preface to the series I'm doing on Hedge Fund 13F's HERE.)

The second hedge fund I'm covering in depth this week is Lone Pine Capital, ran by Stephen Mandel Jr. Lone Pine is an $8 Billion fund that has returned over 25% annually ever since its inception in 1997. Why is Mandel worth following you might ask? Well, he served as a consumer/retail analyst for Tiger Management back in the day for legendary investor Julian Robertson. Robertson's proteges/right-hand men have been nicknamed the "Tiger Cubs" and many have started their own funds. So, not only has Mandel learned from one of the best, but he has put up some very solid returns himself. Although Mandel was taught in the ways of finding undervalued companies, his funds typically employ a strategy of selecting stocks of solid companies with good management that are trading below their intrinsic value. Just this past year 1 of his funds was up 34% before fees while another was up 32% before fees. His track record speaks for itself. And, not to mention, he learned from one of the greats in Julian Robertson.

So, let's get right down to it... what was Lone Pine up to this past quarter? The following is Lone Pine Capital's current holdings as of March 31st 2008 as released in their most recent 13F filing with the SEC. I've compared the positions in this most recent 13F to last quarter's 13F and here's what the breakdown looks like:

New Positions: (in no particular order)
CB Richard Ellis (CBG) 11,841,207 shares
Illumina (ILMN) 2,401,239 shares
Monsanto (MON) 2,441,900 shares
NY Times (NYT) Puts (100,000 of them)
Sears (SHLD) Puts (986,800 of them)
Teradata (TDC) 9,254,453 shares
Visa (V) 3,900,000 shares from the i.p.o.
XTO Energy (XTO) 8,069,313 shares

Added to:
Apple (AAPL) increased position by 381% (2,314,005 more shares)
CME (CME) increased position by 32% (144,506 more shares)
Deltek (PROJ) increased position by 18% (343,279 more shares)
Google (GOOG) increased position by 80% (721,474 more shares)
Infosys (INFY) increased position by 79% (3,070,924 more shares)
Nutrisystem (NTRI) Puts, increased put position by 278%
Sandridge Energy (SD) increased position by 53% (3,502,690 more shares)

Reduced Positions:
America Movil (AMX) reduced by 21% (sold 2,783,867 shares)
Brookfield Asset Mgmt (BAM) reduced by 26.5% (sold 3,037,700 shares)
Dicks Sporting Goods (DKS) reduced by 11% (sold 602,404 shares)
EMC (EMC) reduced by 25% (sold 3,622,624 shares)
Fastenal (FAST) reduced by 11% (sold 884,436 shares)
Mastercard (MA) reduced by 7% (sold 70,045 shares)
Priceline (PCLN) reduced by 34.4% (sold 1,075,046 shares)
Qualcomm (QCOM) reduced by 19% (sold 3,126,665 shares)
SAIC (SAI) reduced by 3% (sold 238,680 shares)
Southwest Energy (SWN) reduced by 27.7% (sold 2,829,432 shares)

Removed Positions:
Positions Lone Pine Capital sold out of completely
American Eagle Outfitters (AEO)
Burlington Northern (BNI)
Career Education (CECO)
Carmax (KMX)
Coach (COH)
Eastman Kodak (EK)
Fidelity National Info (FIS)
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)
Overstock (OSTK) Puts
Pharmerica (PMC)
Schlumberger (SLB)
Sina Corp (SINA)
Vulcan Materials (VMC)
WNS Holdings (WNS)

Positions with no change:
Bunge (BG) Puts
Eagle Materials (EXP)
SRA International (SRX)

Top 10 holdings by % of portfolio:
1. GOOG (Top Holding)
2. AMX
3. QCOM
4. XTO
5. AAPL
6. SD
7. FAST
8. CME
9. MON
10. CBG

--------------------------------------

Breakdown: Right off the bat I noticed two themes with Lone Pine's additions to the portfolio this quarter: technology and energy. Mandel started a new position in XTO this past quarter and brought it all the way up to the #4 holding in the fund. This was obviously a smart maneuver as XTO has exposure to both oil and natural gas, which are both roaring. Next, we see that he massively added to his AAPL position, by 381%, bringing it to the fund's 5th largest holding. He also added a bit more to his already top holding of GOOG. And, he obviously was buying on the big dip we just saw in that name. MON was a new addition to the portfolio and he added pretty big, making it the 9th largest holding in the fund and it appears this is the way he wishes to play the secular growth in agriculture (I prefer fertilizer myself, but that's a whole nother conversation). Also, interestingly, he added CBG, a commercial real estate services firm and brought it up to the 10th largest holding in the fund. This move puzzled me a little bit, as numerous people think commercial real estate will continue to suffer. Maybe this was a trade or maybe he just saw true value here... only time will tell. He added to his CME position some more (by 32%) and brought it up to the 8th largest holding in the fund. I like the exchanges here, but CME in particular could face major headwinds if the government decides to get involved as rumored. (I like NYX as an exchange play). Notably added to also was his position in INFY. This is significant only because I saw numerous hedge funds add to this name last quarter and so I had to mention it (more on that in the posts to come as well). Mandel has aggressively added to his put position in NTRI, so you might want to look at that as a good short candidate. Also, Lone Pine added to SD, which I pointed out in the last post, mentioning that Boone Pickens was one of many others who had added this name seemingly out of nowhere. Its a natural gas play so it makes sense, and it looks like its definitely time to do some research on this company to see what exactly all these funds are seeing.

Mandel also reduced his AMX position a tad, but it looks just to be profit taking, as it is still easily the #2 fund holding and a favorite of many hedge funds. The same can be said for QCOM... some profit taking to free up cash to put into other tech names. Still like QCOM though as it is in practically all the hedge funds' portfolios I follow. He sold off a little bit of MA as well, undoubtedly profit taking as that name has had a monstrous run, but should easily continue to perform as the world switches from cash to charging with plastic. Mandel's drastic reduction of his SWN position makes me think that he was beginning to swap SD in place of SWN, or he just wanted added diversification in the natural gas space.

Notably, Lone Pine sold completely out of AEO and they seem to have given up on the specialty retailer, waving the white flag in the dreaded consumer discretionary sector. I actually liked AEO due to their compelling valuations here (stock has been absolutely trashed). But, I will admit it was Lone Pine (& a few other funds) presence in the name that gave me added confidence. This was obviously a long term hold name, but it seems as if they have dumped it during these tough times to put the money in sectors that are working (tech, energy). Mandel also sold out of his large position in COH, further assuring us that he is done with specialty retail for now. Lastly, he completely scaled out of his KMX. I believe he kind of followed Warren Buffett into this name to begin with and then he realized that a) no one is really spending big money on cars in this economy and b) the people shopping at Carmax are not necessarily of the best credit quality. So, he was in and out of that name pretty fast.

My personal favorites out of Lone Pine's portfolio: AMX, AAPL, QCOM, XTO, SD, ILMN, INFY, MA

Most interesting move(s): 1. Getting into commercial real estate with CBG. 2. Adding to SD along with a ton of other hedge funds (they obviously all talked to each other about this one). 3. Selling completely out of all their (specialty) retail names (AEO, COH, KMX)

Note: Of their positions, I'm long AMX, QCOM, AAPL, SD, ILMN, V, INFY, MA

Tune in tomorrow when I go over another protege of Tiger Management legend Julian Robertson: John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital.

Art Samberg's Pequot Capital Management 13F Filing Q4 2008

This is the 4th Quarter 2008 edition of our ongoing hedge fund portfolio tracking series. Before reading this update, make sure you check out the Hedge Fund 13F filings preface.

Next up is Pequot Capital Management run by Art Samberg. Pequot was founded by Art in 1986 with $3 million in assets and peaked with $15 billion in assets around the tech bubble. Today, he manages over $4 billion. They have 150 employees and employ multiple strategies, including private equity and venture capital, as Art believes equity returns will decline over time. Art holds a S.B. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.S. from Stanford University, and he received his MBA from Columbia University. Pequot Capital Management was recently ranked 93rd in Alpha's hedge fund rankings. In terms of their 2008 performance, their main fund was -17.5% for 2008, while their health care fund finished -27.9% as noted in our post on hedge fund year-end performance. Recently, we had noted that they amended some 13G filings and made some portfolio changes to a few larger positions. You can also read Pequot's March Commentary here by Byron Wien.

The following were their long equity, note, and options holdings as of December 31st, 2008 as filed with the SEC. We have not detailed the changes to every single position in this update, but we have covered all the major moves. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.


Some New Positions (Brand new positions that they initiated in the last quarter):
Medarex (MEDX)
Service Corp (SCI)
Brinker (EAT)
Marsh & McClennan (MMC)
Partnerre (PRE)
Hewitt (HEW)
Regal Entertainment (RGC)
Google (GOOG)
AMR (AMR)
Verifone (PAY)
Sterling Financial (STSA)
Shaw Group (SGR)
CA (CA)
Renaissance Re (RNR)
Continental Airlines (CAL)
MGM Mirage (MGM)
Onyx Pharma (ONXX) Calls
Amazon (AMZN)
American Italian Pasta (AITP)
Southwestern Energy (SWN) Calls
National Oilwell Varco (NOV)
Arch Capital (ACGL)
Microsoft (MSFT) Calls
Brink Home Security (CFL)
Cisco (CSCO) Calls
Exxon Mobil (XOM) Calls
Apple (AAPL) Calls
SPDR Gold (GLD) Calls
Monsanto (MON) Calls
Everest Re (RE)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
XTO Energy (XTO): Increased by 655%
Apple (AAPL): Increased by 59.8%
Lifetime Fitness (LTM): Increased by 47.5%
Qualcomm (QCOM): Increased by 24.4%
Lender Processing (LPS): Increased by 18.4%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Bank of America (BAC): Reduced by 58%
Huron Consulting (HURN): Reduced by 51.8%
SPDR Gold (GLD): Reduced by 50%
Apollo Group (APOL): Reduced by 45%
Qualcomm (QCOM) Calls: Reduced by 43.4%
Jack in the Box (JBX): Reduced by 32%
Onyx Pharma (ONXX): Reduced by 26.7%
Akorn (AKRX): Reduced by 25%
Panera Bread (PNRA): Reduced by 21%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
JPMorgan Chase (JPM)
ThermoFisher Scientific (TMO)
Cognizant Tech (CTSH)
Coach (COH)
Microstrategy (MSTR)
Burlington Northern (BNI)
Mohawk (MHK)
Sunpower (SPWRA)
McGraw Hill (MHP)
CSX (CSX)
Scientific Games (SGMS)
State Street (STT)
Helmerich and Payne (HP)
Freeport McMoran (FCX)
Moodys (MCO)
Union Pacific (UNP)
Bank of NY Mellon (BK)
Nasdaq (NDAQ)
Halliburton (HAL)
Cigna (CI) Puts
Middleby (MIDD)
Weatherford (WFT)
Microsoft (MSFT)
Healthcare Services (HCSG)
Wells Fargo (WFC)
JC Penney (JCP)
Ultra Petroleum (UPL)
Chesapeake (CHK) Calls
XTO Energy (XTO) Calls
iShares Emerging Markets (EEM) Puts


Top 20 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. SPDR Gold (GLD): 12.05% of portfolio
2. Chipotle (CMG-B): 4.74% of portfolio
3. XTO Energy (XTO): 4.6% of portfolio
4. McDonalds (MCD): 4.35% of portfolio
5. Southwestern Energy (SWN): 3.93% of portfolio
6. Everest Re (RE): 3.77% of portfolio
7. Qualcomm (QCOM): 3.7% of portfolio
8. Akorn (AKRX): 3.14% of portfolio
9. Onyx Pharma (ONXX): 3.07% of portfolio
10. Walmart (WMT): 3% of portfolio
11. Qualcomm (QCOM) Calls: 2.77% of portfolio
12. Monsanto (MON) Calls: 1.99% of portfolio
13. Goldcorp (GG): 1.98% of portfolio
14. SPDR Gold (GLD) Calls: 1.95% of portfolio
15. Apple (AAPL) Calls: 1.76% of portfolio
16. Apollo Group (APOL): 1.61% of portfolio
17. Exxon Mobil (XOM) Calls: 1.58% of portfolio
18. Occidental Petroleum (OXY): 1.56% of portfolio
19. Lender Processing (LPS): 1.54% of portfolio
20. Jack in the Box (JBX): 1.47% of portfolio

So, we have yet another big fund with Gold in the top 3 positions of their portfolio. Samberg's Pequot joins the ranks of David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, Paulson & Co (John Paulson), and Eric Mindich's Eton Park as prominent funds holding gold as a top position. Pequot also shows a large position in Goldcorp as well, as their 13th largest holding. Assets from the collective long US equity, options, and note holdings were $3 billion last quarter and were $1.26 billion this quarter. This is just one of many funds in our hedge fund portfolio tracking series in which we're tracking 35+ prominent funds.

We've already covered:

• Paulson & Co (John Paulson)
• Carl Icahn
• Warren Buffett
• Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital
• George Soros
• Bill Ackman's Pershing Square
• Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global
• Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital
• David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital
• Seth Klarman's Baupost Group
• Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital
• Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital
• David Stemerman's Conatus Capital
• James Pallotta's Raptor Capital Management
• Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital
• John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital
• Bruce Kovner's Caxton Associates
• Paul Tudor Jones' Tudor Investment Corp
• Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management
• Anand Parekh's Alyeska Investment Group
• Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital

Check back daily as we'll cover a new fund each day.

Shumway Capital Partners (Chris Shumway): Hedge Fund Tracking 13F Filing - Q3 2008

This is the 3rd Quarter 2008 edition of our ongoing hedge fund tracking series. Before reading this update, make sure you check out the preface to the series we're doing on Hedge Fund 13F's here. We've already covered:

• Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital
• Whitney Tilson's T2 Partners
• Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital
• Bill Ackman's Pershing Square
• Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital
• John Paulson's Paulson & Co
• David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital
• Dan Loeb's Third Point
• Paul Tudor Jones' Tudor Investment Corp
• Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management
• Bruce Kovner's Caxton Associates
• George Soros Soros Fund Management
  

Next up is Shumway Capital Partners run by Chris Shumway. Shumway started his own fund after leaving well-known Julian Robertson's Tiger Management. And thus, as a progeny of Robertson, he is a part of what people call the 'Tiger Cubs' (people who have started their own firms after succeeding at Tiger). We've already covered many of the 'Tiger Cub' funds including Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, and Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global. Taken from our post on 'Tiger Cub' biographies, "Chris Shumway is the Founding Partner of Shumway Capital Partners (“SCP”), an investment management firm founded in 2001. SCP, which manages a multibillion dollar group of private investment funds, uses a private equity-like research model for public market investment on a global basis. Prior to forming SCP, Mr. Shumway was a Senior Managing Director at Tiger Management (1992-1999), an Analyst at Brentwood Associates (1990-1991), and an Analyst at Morgan Stanley & Co. (1988-1990). He received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School (1993) and a B.S. from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia (1988)." Shumway's Ocean Fund was up 0.85% for the month of October but was -8.24% for the year at that time, as we noted in our October hedge fund performance update (see also our recent November update). Lastly, at a recent 'Tiger Cub' hedge fund manager panel, Shumway suggested that buying stocks that were down largely due to hedge fund liquidations would be a winning strategy longer-term.

The following were Shumway's long equity, note, and options holdings as of September 30th, 2008 as filed with the SEC. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.


Some New Positions (Brand new positions that they initiated in the last quarter):
CVS Caremark (CVS)
Medco Health (MHS)
Focus Media (FMCN)
Wyeth (WYE)
News Corp (NWS-A)
Hansen Natural (HANS)
Mercadolibre (MELI)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
SBA Comm (SBAC): Increased position by 20%
Qualcomm (QCOM) Calls: Increased position by 1.6%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Cisco Systems (CSCO): Reduced position by 86%
Google (GOOG): Reduced position by 84%
Teva Pharma (TEVA): Reduced position by 74.5%
Qualcomm (QCOM): Reduced position by 72%
Potash (POT): Reduced position by 68%
Chipotle (CMG-B) B Shares: Reduced position by 55%
Waters (WAT): Reduced position by 49%
Sirius Satellite (SIRI) Notes: Reduced position by 37%
Mastercard (MA): Reduced position by 35%
Zimmer Holdings (ZMH): Reduced position by 34%
NII Holdings (NIHD): Reduced position by 29%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Union Pacific (UNP)
XTO Energy (XTO)
Burlington Northern (BNI)
Apple (AAPL)
St Jude (STJ)
Research in Motion (RIMM)
American Tower (AMT)
Visa (V)
Crown Castle (CCI)
Colgate Palmolive (CL)
Occidental Petroleum (OXY)
EMC Corp (EMC)
Baidu (BIDU)
Monsanto (MON)
SLM (SLM)
Chipotle (CMG)
Staples (SPLS)
Mosaic (MOS)
Liberty Global (LBTYK) Series C Common
Liberty Global (LBTYA)


Top 20 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. Qualcomm (QCOM) Calls: 11.9% of portfolio
2. Mastercard (MA): 11.8% of portfolio
3. NII Holdings (NIHD): 9.4% of portfolio
4. Qualcomm (QCOM): 8.8% of portfolio
5. SBA Comm (SBAC): 8.6% of portfolio
6. CVS Caremark (CVS): 8.3% of portfolio
7. Waters (WAT): 7.3% of portfolio
8. Teva Pharma (TEVA): 5.9% of portfolio
9. Zimmer Holdings (ZMH): 5.6% of portfolio
10. Medco Health (MHS): 4.1% of portfolio
11. Potash (POT): 3.8% of portfolio
12. Cisco Systems (CSCO): 3.2% of portfolio
13. Focus Media (FMCN): 2.2% of portfolio
14. Wyeth (WYE): 2% of portfolio
15. Google (GOOG): 1.6% of portfolio
16. Sirius (SIRI) Notes: 1.4% of portfolio
17. News Corp (NWS-A): 1.1% of portfolio
18. Chipotle (CMG-B) B shares: 1.1% of portfolio
19. Sirius (SIRI) Notes2: 1.1% of portfolio
20. Hansen Natural (HANS): 0.4% of portfolio

Assets from the collective holdings were $7.88 billion last quarter and were $1.78 billion this quarter. As you can easily tell from the raw figures, Shumway was making a large move out of equity markets over the last quarter. And, they were largely scaling out of natural resource and commodity related names that have seen extreme selling pressure the past few months. Please note that we have not detailed every single change to every single position in this update, but we have covered all the major moves. Also, keep in mind that these filings only include long equity, notes, and options holdings and do not reflect their cash, short portions, or holdings in other markets (currency, commodities, debt, etc). This is just one of many funds in our hedge fund tracking series in which we're tracking 35+ prominent funds. We've already covered Whitney Tilson's T2 Partners, Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, John Paulson's Paulson & Co, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, and Dan Loeb's Third Point, Paul Tudor Jones' Tudor Investment Corp, Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management, Bruce Kovner's Caxton Associates, and Soros Fund Management (George Soros). Overall, its been one of the worst years ever for hedge funds, as we noted in our new November hedge fund performance update. Thus, the recent moves they've made in their portfolios become all the more interesting given the way the market has played out.

More on Shumway:
- 'Tiger Cub' biographies
- Hedge fund manager panel (Tiger Cubs)
- November hedge fund performance numbers
- Julian Robertson's recent buys
- October hedge fund performance numbers
- Hedge Fund Rankings

Eton Park Capital (Eric Mindich): Hedge Fund Tracking - 13F Filing Q3 2008

This is the 3rd Quarter 2008 edition of our ongoing hedge fund tracking series. Before reading this update, make sure you check out the preface to the series we're doing on Hedge Fund 13F's here.


Next up is Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital, who was ranked 53rd in Alpha's hedge fund rankings. Mindich received an Economics degree from Harvard and then worked at Goldman Sachs' risk-arbitrage desk. After becoming the youngest partner in the history of Goldman Sachs at the age of 27, it was clear he had a bright future. In 2004, he started his hedge fund Eton Park Capital with a record $3 billion in assets and a $5 million minimum investment required of investors. Today, Mindich manages over $6 billion. Typically, Eton Park invests in long/short equity and convertible arbitrage strategies. Additionally, as much as 30% of the fund can be invested in private investments. Back in September, Eton Park was only -1% for the year, as noted in our hedge fund performance numbers compilation. Recently, Mindich said he sees opportunity in the current markets in an excerpt from a recent investor letter.

The following were their long equity, note, and options holdings as of September 30th, 2008 as filed with the SEC. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.


Some New Positions (Brand new positions that they initiated in the last quarter):
Spdr Gold Trust (GLD) Calls
Genentech (DNA)
Comcast (CMCSK) Calls
Potash (POT) Puts
Barr Pharma (BRL)
Alpha Natural Resources (ANR)
Alpharma (ALO)
UST (UST) Calls
Ikon Office (IKN)
Vale (RIO) Calls
Mobile Telesystems (MBT)
Deere (DE) Puts
VimpelComm (VIP)
Cisco (CSCO) Calls
AK Steel (AKS)
Newmont Mining (NEM)
News Corp (NWS)
Kinross Gold (KGC)
Ralcorp (RAH)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
Comcast (CMCSA): Increased position by 131%
Wells Fargo (WFC) Puts: Increased position by 117%
Qualcomm (QCOM) Calls: Increased position by 100%
Merrill Lynch (MER): Increased position by 94%
Ishares Emerging Markets (EEM) Puts: Increased position by 75%
Qualcomm (QCOM): Increased position by 70%
Walter Industries (WLT): Increased position by 64%
Verisign (VRSN): Increased position by 48%
Ebay (EBAY): Increased position by 46%
Lorillard (LO): Increased position by 40%
Starbucks (SBUX): Increased position by 38%
News Corp (NWS-A): Increased position by 35%
Gold Fields (GFI): Increased position by 28%
Hansen Natural (HANS): Increased position by 26%
Beckman Coulter (BEC): Increased position by 23%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Lamar Advertising (LAMR): Reduced position by 34%
Cemex (CX) Puts: Reduced position by 29%
Kraft Foods (KFT): Reduced position by 8%
Goodyear Tire (GT): Reduced position by 6%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Turkcell (TKC)
Bank of America (BAC)
Republic Services (RSG)
Weyerhauser (WY)
Yahoo (YHOO) Calls
BB&T (BBT) Puts
Ford (F)
America Movil (AMX) Puts
Wachovia (WB) Calls
Grey Wolf (GW)
Ebay (EBAY) Calls
Liberty Media (LCAPA)
Yahoo (YHOO)
American Express (AXP)
Encore Acquisition (EAC)
American Express (AXP) Calls
Harris (HRS)
WH Energy (WHQA) - inactive
Philip Morris International (PM)
DRS Technologies (DRS)
Mastercard (MA) Puts
Anheuser Busch (BUD)
Anheuser Busch (BUD) Calls


Top 20 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. Spdr Gold Trust (GLD) Calls: 14% of portfolio
2. Ishares Emerging Markets (EEM) Puts: 7.9% of portfolio
3. Merrill Lynch (MER): 7.2% of portfolio
4. Wells Fargo (WFC) Puts: 5.4% of portfolio
5. Verisign (VRSN): 4.1% of portfolio
6. Spdr Gold Trust (GLD): 3.7% of portfolio
7. Qualcomm (QCOM): 3.6% of portfolio
8. Genentech (DNA): 3.3% of portfolio
9. Goodyear Tire (GT): 3.1% of portfolio
10. Comcast (CMCSK) Calls: 2.9% of portfolio
11. Hansen Natural (HANS): 2.8% of portfolio
12. Hospira (HSP): 2.7% of portfolio
13. Potash (POT) Puts: 2.6% of portfolio
14. Cemex (CX) Puts: 2.1% of portfolio
15. SLM (SLM): 1.7% of portfolio
16. Barr Pharma (BRL): 1.7% of portfolio
17. Ebay (EBAY): 1.5% of portfolio
18. Qualcomm (QCOM) Calls: 1.4% of portfolio
19. Alpha Natural Resources (ANR): 1.3% of portfolio
20. Alpharma (ALO): 1.2% of portfolio

Assets from the collective holdings were $6.08 billion last quarter and were $6.04 billion this quarter. In contrast to numerous other hedge funds who were decreasing long US equity exposure across the board, Eton Park was pretty much flat in terms of exposure. In terms of positions they sold out of, Eton Park barely sold out of partial positions. Instead, they had a tendency to remove positions entirely. Please note that we have not detailed changes to every single position in this update, but we have covered all the major moves. Also, keep in mind that these filings only include long equity, notes, and options holdings. They do not reflect their cash, short portions, or holdings in other markets (currency, commodities, debt, etc). This is just one of many funds in our hedge fund tracking series in which we're tracking 35+ prominent funds. The other funds we've already covered include:

• Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital
• Whitney Tilson's T2 Partners
• Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital
• Bill Ackman's Pershing Square
• Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital
• John Paulson's Paulson & Co
• David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital
• Dan Loeb's Third Point
• Paul Tudor Jones' Tudor Investment Corp
• Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management
• Bruce Kovner's Caxton Associates
• George Soros Soros Fund Management
• Chase Coleman's Tiger Global
• Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital
• Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital
• John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital
• Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global
• Chris Shumway's Shumway Capital Partners
• Touradji Capital (Paul Touradji)

Overall, its been one of the worst years ever for hedge funds, as we noted in our new November hedge fund performance number update. Thus, the recent moves they've made in their portfolios become all the more interesting given the way the market has played out.


More on the Eton Park:
- Eric Mindich sees opportunity (excerpt from investor letter)
- Hedge Fund Rankings
- November hedge fund performance numbers
- October hedge fund performance numbers

Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital Group Bets On Technology: 13F Filing Q1 2009

This is the 1st Quarter 2009 edition of our ongoing hedge fund portfolio tracking series. Before reading this update, make sure you check out the Hedge Fund 13F filings series preface.

Next up, we have Tremblant Capital Group. Tremblant is a $3 billion hedge fund based in New York and is run by Bret Barakett, who is a former portfolio manager at Moore Capital Management (the hedge fund run by the great Louis Bacon, whom we also track). If the last name of 'Barakett' sounds familiar, its because his brother, Timothy Barakett, manages fellow hedge fund Atticus Capital, whose portfolio we recently covered. Taken from their site, Tremblant Capital Group's objective is "to achieve superior risk adjust returns for our investors through our focused and disciplined investment process." Barakett has worked with some of the best in the macro game and obviously is quite knowledgeable himself. But, as we noted back in September, Tremblant had a rough 2008.

In recent action, Tremblant filed a 13G on Eclipsys (ECLP) in mid April. Over the course of last year, they disclosed a 5.2% stake in Advanced Medical Optics (EYE). Additionally, they previously filed a 13G filing on Chipotle (CMG), where they had been adding to their large position. We'll check out how their portfolio looks nowadays below.

The following were Tremblant's long equity, note, and options holdings as of March 31st, 2009 as filed with the SEC. We have not detailed the changes to every single position in this update, but we have covered all the major moves. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.


Some New Positions (Brand new positions that they initiated in the last quarter):
Procter & Gamble (PG), Apple (AAPL) Calls, Visa (V) Puts, Apple (AAPL) Puts, Mastercard (MA) Puts, Qualcomm (QCOM) Puts, J Crew (JCG), Icon (ICLR), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ). Amerisource Bergen (ABC), Charles Schwab (SCHW), Research in Motion (RIMM) Puts, Omnicare (OCR) Calls, Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) Calls, Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Calls, Visa (V) Calls, Green Mountain Coffee (GMCR) Puts, Sohu (SOHU) Calls, Sina (SINA) Calls, Fred (FRED) Calls, Red Hat (RHT) Puts, Baidu (BIDU) Puts, Covance (CVD), Bankrate (RATE), Bankrate (RATE) Puts, Factset (FDS) Calls, Cheesecake Factory (CAKE) Calls, Equinix (EQIX), MGM Mirage (MGM) Calls, Liberty Media (LMDIA)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPDI): Increased by 2,358% - position was tiny before and still is small relative to their overall portfolio
Google (GOOG): Increased by 338%
Union Pacific (UNP): Increased by 231%
Hologic (HOLX): Increased by 145%
DirecTV (DTV): Increased by 127%
Hologic (HOLX) Calls: Increased by 100%
Costco (COST): Increased by 95.7%
ThermoFisher Scientific (TMO): Increased by 83%
Mckesson (MCK) Calls: Increased by 78%
Research in Motion (RIMM) Calls: Increased by 65.9%
Molson Coors (TAP): Increased by 63%
Cheesecake Factory (CAKE): Increased by 63%
Eclipsys (ECLP): Increased by 41%
Chipotle (CMG-B): Increased by 33.8%
Walmart (WMT): Increased by 28.7%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR): Reduced by 60%
Apple (AAPL): Reduced by 35%
Mastercard (MA): Reduced by 28%
CVS Caremark (CVS) Calls: Reduced by 24%
Red Hat (RHT): Reduced by 23%
Visa (V): Reduced by 22%
Research in Motion (RIMM): Reduced by 18%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Qualcomm (QCOM) Calls, Mckesson (MCK), Corning (GLW) Calls, NYSE Euronext (NYX) Calls, Life Tech (LIFE), Energizer (ENR) Calls, TW Telecom (TWTC), Calls, Advanced Medical Optics (EYE) Calls, Dell (DELL), United Health (UNH) Calls, CVS Caremark (CVS), Pharmanet (PDGI)


Top 15 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. Visa (V): 5.11% of portfolio
2. Apple (AAPL): 4.59% of portfolio
3. Research in Motion (RIMM): 4.57% of portfolio
4. Procter & Gamble (PG): 4.51% of portfolio
5. Qualcomm (QCOM): 4.13% of portfolio
6. Red Hat (RHT): 3.95% of portfolio
7. Baidu (BIDU): 3.64% of portfolio
8. Research in Motion (RIM) Calls: 3.64% of portfolio
9. Chipotle (CMG-B): 3.42% of portfolio
10. Apple (AAPL) Calls: 3.32% of portfolio
11. Walmart (WMT): 3.23% of portfolio
12. Mastercard (MA): 2.73% of portfolio
13. Melco Crown (MPEL): 2.69% of portfolio
14. Google (GOOG): 2.66% of portfolio
15. Hologic (HOLX): 2.63% of portfolio

If we had to give this portfolio a label, we'd call it the quintessential hedge fund portfolio. Why, you ask? Well, because it has numerous commonly held hedge fund positions all in their top 15 holdings. Tremblant has the radically popular Visa as their largest stake and has large stakes in the three tech titans: Apple, Research in Motion, and Google. Not to mention, they also hold other tech plays Baidu, Redhat, and long-time hedge fund darling Qualcomm. It seems like people never sell out of QCOM and it is always in the portfolios of numerous hedge funds we track. So, Tremblant's portfolio is the quintessential hedge fund portfolio because they have all of the hedge-fund-favorite names.

As we've covered previously, tons of the 'Tiger Cub' hedge funds are in the Mastercard (MA) and Visa (V) trade, and Tremblant is no different. But, while Tremblant has a large play on the payment processing duopoly, their bigger bet lies in the positions mentioned in the paragraph above. Collectively, it looks like Tremblant is betting on tech to be the sector that outperforms on the long side.

One other holding that we wanted to point out in particular is that of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR). This is their 16th largest position at 2.66% of their portfolio and undoubtedly has generated huge gains for Tremblant, even after they sold 60% of their position. After all, shares of GMCR are up 165% over the last 6 months. Over on Twitter, we called this big move as we posted updates on this short squeeze play. 30-40% of the float was short going into an earnings release and GMCR knocked the cover off the ball. All of our channel checks had indicated strong numbers. And, when you combined that with the technical setup on the chart and the short float numbers, it was an easy play. So, if you're not already, definitely follow us on Twitter for unique insight in addition to what we post on the blog.

Assets from the collective holdings reported to the SEC via 13F filing were $1.8 billion this quarter compared to $1.6 billion last quarter, so a slight uptick in their long positions. This is just one of the 40+ prominent funds that we'll be covering in our hedge fund Q1 2009 portfolio series. Check back each day as we cover new fund portfolios. We've already covered Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, John Paulson's hedge fund Paulson & Co, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, and David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, Raj Rajaratnam's Galleon Group, and Shumway Capital Partners (Chris Shumway).

Maverick Capital's 13F (Lee Ainslie)

(Note: Before reading this update, make sure you check out the preface to the series I'm doing on Hedge Fund 13F's here )

Lee Ainslie started Maverick Capital back in 1993 with $38 million. Nowadays, the fund is worth $10 billion, so you can already see the track record he's established. Ainslie, like many of the other fund managers I've profiled, has a background rooted in learning from legendary great Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. So, due to the fact that these proteges learned from the best and have had great success running their own funds, I continually try to find a reason NOT to follow these funds. And, needless to say I'm never successful. Time to learn from the greats! Some of my contacts over at Maverick have explained to me that their strategy is straight up stock picking, both long and short. They made it clear though, that they do not employ pairs trades. Although, some of their long/short setups might be in the same sector. They try to hedge their positions like a true hedge fund by picking out the shining stars in certain sectors, as well as identifying the pieces of garbage. Now, of course, this presents us with a problem in that the 13F filings only show long positions (unless they're holding puts on a name, we can see those). So, a good amount of Maverick's portfolio (the entire short side) is unbeknownst to us, because they have reported zero put positions. But, let's look on the bright side in that we can see all their long positions. Maverick uses a value approach (obviously learned from Julian) and one of their most popular metrics is finding companies and comparing their enterprise value to sustainable free cash flow. So, now that we've got a little background on Maverick, let's see what they were up to. Rumor has it that they had a poor start to the year, and they were definitely out switching things up in mass in their portfolio.

New Positions: (in no particular order)
American Capital Strategies (ACAS) 581,590 shares
Bankrate (RATE) 100,100 shares
BonTon Stores (BONT) 57,000 shares
BPW Acquisitions (BPW) 2,000,000 shares
Citrix Systems (CTXS) 4,007,280 shares
Crocs (CROX) 515,389 shares
Discovery Holdings (DISCA) 6,063,297 shares
Dish Network (DISH) 5,977,630 shares
Infinera (INFN) 2,524,117 shares
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) 4,745,330 shares
Liberty Media Corp (LMDIA) 5,726,736 shares
Loews (LTR) 2,297,358 shares
Nordstrom (JWN) 4,386,874 shares
Sears (SHLD) 848,724 shares
Starbucks (SBUX) 12,512,559 shares
Wyeth (WYE) 4,282,850 shares

Added to:
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) increased by 12% (3,956,220 more shares)
Amylin (AMLN) increased by 28% (544,550 more shares)
Apple (AAPL) increased by 3.6% (80,965 more shares)
Autozone (AZO) increased by 99.8% (1,005,200 more shares)
Avon Products (AVP) increased by 82% (2,863,320 more shares)
Bank NY Mellon (BK) increased by 24% (1,174,155 more shares)
Baxter (BAX) increased by 38.5% (930,840 more shares)
Burlington Northern (BNI) increased by 151% (1,007,490 more shares)
Cardinal Health (CAH) increased by 12% (350,230 more shares)
China Nepstar Chain Drugstores (NPD) increased by 68.5% (960,605 more shares)
Cognizant (CTSH) increased by 3.6% (181,168 more shares)
Covidien (COV) increased by 57% (1,483,210 more shares)
Cypress Bioscience (CYPB) increased by 123% (1,458,064 more shares)
Direct TV (DTV) increased by 25% (1,438,140 more shares)
Fidelity National Info (FIS) increased by 41% (1,286,091 more shares)
Google (GOOG) increased by 49% (98,722 more shares)
Hanes Brands (HBI) increased by 37% (896,563 more shares)
Home Inns & Hotel Mgmt (HMIN) increased by 28% (633,753 more shares)
Leap Wireless (LEAP) increased by 19.5% (217,011 more shares)
Lumber Liquidators (LL) increased by 7% (147,720 more shares)
Marsh & McLennan (MMC) increased by 13.6% (888,850 more shares)
MetroPCS (PCS) increased by 32% (1,032,857 more shares)
Mylan (MYL) increased by 52% (3,463,006 more shares)
Nucor (NUE) increased by 19% (307,337 more shares)
Research in Motion (RIMM) increased by 179% (2,174,226 more shares)
Resmed (RMD) increased by 11% (186,168 more shares)
Salesforce (CRM) increased by 63% (818,010 more shares)
Sandisk (SNDK) increased by 7% (399,180 more shares)
Textron (TXT) increased by 31% (988,240 more shares)
UnderArmour (UA) increased by 81% (1,622,662 more shares)
United Health (UNH) increased by 31% (832,673 more shares)
VMWare (VMW) increased by 5% (60,000 more shares)
Zimmer Holdings (ZMH) increased by 36% (623,610 more shares)


Reduced Positions:
America Movil (AMX) reduced by 34.5% (1,907,040 less shares)
Berkshire Hathaway A (BRK.A) reduced by 43.5% (635 less shares)
Berkshire Hathaway B (BRK.B) reduced by 22.8% (3,687 less shares)
Corcept (CORT) reduced by 8.5% (128,480 less shares)
Cumulus Media (CMLS) reduced by 21% (526,311 less shares)
Gamestop (GME) reduced by 14.6% (676,378 less shares)
Genentech (DNA) reduced by 9% (150,290 less shares)
Gmarket (GMKT) reduced by 56% (308,037 less shares)
Harmonic (HLIT) reduced by 10% (574,361 less shares)
Lexmark (LXK) reduced by 49% (2,161,513 less shares)
Marvell Tech (MRVL) reduced by 3% (551,916 less shares)
Monsanto (MON) reduced by 11% (190,570 less shares)
Office Max (OMX) reduced by 22% (1,464,249 less shares)
Potash (POT) reduced by 11% (123,790 less shares)
Qualcomm (QCOM) reduced by 37% (3,851,237 less shares)
Raytheon (RTN) reduced by 19% (861,290 less shares)
Suntrust (STI) reduced by 54% (1,194,028 less shares)
ThermoFisher Scientific (TMO) reduced by 33% (1,782,100 less shares)


Removed Positions:
Positions Maverick sold out of completely
Altria (MO)
Atheros Comm (ATHR)
Biogen Idec (BIIB)
Burger King (BKC)
Crown Castle (CCI)
CVS Caremark (CVS)
Digital River (DRIV)
Echostar (SATS)
Five Star Quality Care (FVE)
Guess (GES)
Healthnet (HNT)
Macys (M)
Men's Warehouse (MW)
Merck (MRK)
Omnicare (OCR)
Wellpoint (WLP)
Wyndham (WYN)
Yahoo (YHOO)


Positions with no change:
Bluefly (BFLY)
Cnet (CNET)
First Advantage Corp (FADV)
First Marblehead (FMD)
Gilead (GILD)
Move Inc (MOVE)
Newstar Financial (NEWS)
Palm (PALM)
Trubion Pharma (TRBN)
Ultra Clean Holdings (UCTT)
Vivus (VVUS)
Western Union (WU)


Top 10 Holdings by % of Portfolio:
1. RIMM (Top holding)
2. AAPL
3. QCOM
4. AVP
5. BK
6. GILD
7. GME
8. RTN
9. AMX
10. TXT



--------------------------------------------------------------

Breakdown: Alright, so right out of the gate the first thing I noticed was Maverick's heavy tech weighting, much like fellow Tiger Cub funds Lone Pine and Blue Ridge. Maverick's top 3 holdings are all tech in RIMM AAPL and QCOM. And, Maverick even reduced their QCOM position by almost 40% and its still the #3 holding. I'm sure given the big run tech has had lately (especially AAPL), that Maverick will show some profit taking next quarter in the next round of 13Fs. They just clearly loaded up on tech on the big dips, and they've profited quite handsomely from that play it seems. Ainslie added to Avon Products (AVP) by 82% and brought it up to the #4 fund holding, which is a strong move. Ainslie also added heavily to Autozone, increasing it by almost 100%, and bringing it to a notable 11th largest fund holding. Also, he added Bank New York Mellon by 24% and it sits at the fund's 5th largest holding. Maverick clearly wants to play the financial space through BK and then also JPM, which they also added as a brand new holding this go round. And, they added in mass too, with a whopping 4.7 million shares. Take a closer look at those two if you want financials exposure. Ainslie also started a pretty decent sized position in Citrix, who specialize in IT and the such. I would say they were trying to play the VMWare trade through the backdoor, but they already have VMW in the fund as well. Another new addition to the portfolio this go round was Wyeth, which they added a strong 4.2 million shares of. Also, it seems like Ainslie added SBUX as well, buying on the dip when Schulz came back. We'll see if they still hold those shares in the next quarter.

In terms of further adding to positions they already owned, Maverick really loaded up on BNI, a whopping 151%. And, keep in mind, that stock has already made a monster move, so they weren't exactly getting those shares on the cheap. They clearly believe the move in the rails has more juice. They also added in mass to Cypres Bioscience by 123%, showing conviction in that buy as well. One play that they continue to quietly amass is satellite plays. DTV they increased by 25% and they've been building a position over time. They also started a brand new position in Dish Network, so they've got all their bases covered. I'll definitely be checking into that theme further as Maverick seems to firmly believe in it, despite a recession. They also added GOOG to their tech basket by 41%, but its still *not* a top 10 holding in the fund. Ainslie clearly prefers hardware in tech. They also continue to add to Mylan quarter after quarter (increased 52% this quarter), so that's one I'm keeping my eye on as well. One move I'm not so sure of is them adding to UA by 81%. I think this stock has real issues as they've lost their "mojo" after first storming onto the scene. We'll see how that plays out and see if they add even more shares in the quarters to come. Half the point in tracking these 13f's is to see where these funds are accumulating shares on a quarterly basis, so we can play catch-up with them and load up on positions ourselves that these funds strongly believe in. Some stocks they buy and sell and they are in and out. Others though, you can see them slowly adding each quarter, building core positions. Those are the ones you want to look for. Also, keep an eye out for sector trends (such as satellite tv in Maverick's case). They are clearly buying up all satellite players and must believe strongly in that space.

Turning to the reduced positions, I noticed that they've reduced their stakes in both BRK.A and BRK.B. Clearly they aren't seeing as much value in Buffett anymore. Or, maybe they were just freeing up cash. As, after all, if the rumors of Maverick's poor start to the year were true, then they needed to free up some cash to re-tool their portfolio. I mentioned earlier that they reduced their QCOM position by 37%, and yet it is still the 3rd largest fund holding. That amazed me; they've really bet big on this name. I attribute this sell to some profit taking and some freeing up cash to re-work the portfolio. After all, its still a massive holding and they've sold off more than a 3rd of the position. Raytheon (RTN) was also reduced by 19% and yet it is the fund's 8th largest holding. So, not a whole lot to worry about there either.

Maverick sold completely out of some of their bigger and longer term holdings in that of CVS Caremark and Burger King. They also sold out of Echostar (SATS) and it seems they prefer DTV and DISH in the satellite space. Actually, it looks like they swapped completely out of SATS and into DISH. Another semi-big holding they sold out of was Guess. Then some smaller holdings of fellow retailers Macys and Men's Warehouse were sold off as well. It seems that Maverick must have taken a real beating with all of these retailers and that probably played a large part in their rumored weak start to 2008. They've clearly admitted they were wrong on those and sold them off completely in search of better sectors. One removal I was confused about was Crown Castle, as their investment in the wireless tower industry seemed to be a smart one. But, now that they've sold out, its time to revisit that name and make sure nothing is fundamentally wrong with it. Maybe Maverick needed the cash after their bad beginning of the year, maybe they were taking profits in the name, who knows. But, I strongly believe that the wireless tower play was a smart one and I'm going to look into it deeper, as the future is obviously in wireless technology.

Not a whole lot to look at in terms of positions with no change. They kept their GILD position unchanged as the fund's 6th largest holding. They held their CNET as well, and I'm sure they've actually sold it off now that the stock has popped immensely on its takeover news. Like fellow Tiger Cub manager John Griffin at Blue Ridge, Ainslie and Maverick have a position in First Marblehead. Maverick didn't quite add in mass like Blue Ridge did... but then again maybe Blue Ridge was playing catch-up. As I've said earlier, there are usually some commonalities between the portfolios of all the ex-Tiger Management gang. They undoubtedly still keep in touch and share their good ideas and then swarm them in mass. So, identifying the names that all of the funds hold collectively could create quite a killer portfolio. I'll actually be developing a model portfolio later based on the consensus ex-Tiger Management funds (ie: a portfolio of stocks that appear in all 3 funds' portfolios: Maverick, Lone Pine, and Blue Ridge). Now that I've covered the 3 major proteges of Julian Robertson, I can sift through the data to find all the commonalities and create a mock modern day Julian Robertson-esque Tiger Management portfolio to track.

Personal Favorites out of Maverick's portfolio: AAPL QCOM GILD AMX BNI TMO POT AMLN MYL DTV RMD

Most interesting move(s): 1. Bringing Avon Products up to the #4 fund holding 2. Doubling down on Autozone and making it the #11 fund holding 3. Substituting DISH in place of SATS 4. Seemingly shifting out of most of their retail plays (including selling off their entire huge chunk of CVS) 5. Continuing to slowly build positions in RMD, DTV, and MYL

Note/ Of their positions, I'm long: AAPL QCOM GILD AMX TMO POT

Names I want to research further: CCI DTV DISH MYL RMD

Keep an eye out for continued hedge fund 13f tracking when I cover Greenlight Capital (David Einhorn), Atticus Capital (Timothy Barakett), and a few other big funds/whales.

Hedge Fund Tracking: Caxton Associates 13F Filing (Bruce Kovner)

(Note: Before reading this update, make sure you check out the preface to the series I'm doing on Hedge Fund 13F's here).

Time to continue the Hedge Fund tracking series! If you've missed them, I've already covered Jeffrey Gendell's Tontine Partners here, Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital here, Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital here, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital here, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital here, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital here, Boone Pickens' BP Capital here, Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management here, and Paul Tudor Jones' Tudor Investment Corp here. This week, I'm taking a slightly different approach to the hedge fund tracking series. I'm doing so because the 13F SEC filings are filed on a quarterly basis, so these materials are time sensitive and the next ones are due out in November. I stated in my series preface that you need to treat these as a lagging indicator, because that's what they are. The holdings discussed below reflect portfolio holdings as of June 30th, 2008. So, since these forms are so tedious to sort through, I've condensed the rest of the hedge funds I track to summarize their major moves and top holdings.

Additionally, the majority of the rest of the funds I follow are macro funds. And, since 13F filings only detail equity holdings, we're left with a bit of a problem. Macro funds typically employ strategies that encompass many financial markets. Be it commodities, currency, futures, foreign markets.... you name it. So, these funds are much harder to track. Since they are not required to disclose positions held in those markets, we only get to see their equity holdings. But, at the same time, I still find the information useful because many of these funds have numerous large equity positions which give you a broad sense as to what their strategies may be.

So, next in the macro hedge fund tracking series we have Caxton Associates, ran by Bruce Kovner. Taken from Wikipedia, Kovner's bio is as follows: "Kovner's first trade was for $3,000, borrowed against his MasterCard, in soybean futures contracts. Realizing growth to $40,000, he then watched the contract drop to $23,000 before selling. He later claimed that this first, nerve-racking trade taught him the importance of risk management. In his eventual role as a trader under the legendary Michael Marcus at Commodities Corporation (now part of Goldman Sachs), he purportedly made millions and gained widespread respect as an objective and sober trader. This ultimately led to the establishment of his current company, Caxton Associates, in 1983, which today manages over $10 billion in capital and has been closed to new investors since 1992." Year-to-date, Caxton Associates was up 5% as of a few weeks ago, as I wrote in my hedge fund year-to-date performance update.

If you want to hear some insightful thoughts from Bruce Kovner himself, head over to my post on Hedge Fund manager interviews. So, now that we've got a background on Kovner and Caxton Associates, let's take a quick look at his portfolio highlights. Keep in mind that this is merely a brief summary of Caxton's top holdings. Due to the time sensitive nature of the 13F material, I wanted to get this information posted before the next set of filings come out in November.

Top 20 Holdings by % of portfolio
1. Compania Cervecerias Unidas (CCU) - Increased position by 72934%, from 25,000 shares to 18,233,668 shares
2. Electronic Data Systems (EDS) - New Position
3. Activision (ATVI) - New Position
4. Monsanto (MON) - Increased position by 41 %
5. Rockwood Holdings (ROC) - Increased position by 68.8%
6. W-H Energy Services (WHQ) - Increased stake by 195%
7. Occidental (OXY) - Increased stake by 65%
8. ChoicePoint (CPS) - Decreased position by <>
9. DirecTV (DTV) - Decreased stake by 25%
10. W.R. Grace (GRA) - Boosted stake by 8%
11. Qualcomm (QCOM) - Boosted stake by 44.6%
12. Coca Cola (KO) - Decreased position by 12.5%
13. Rural Cellular (RCCC) - Increased stake by 12.4%
14. Research in Motion (RIMM) - Boosted stake by 8.7%
15. Service Corporation (SCI) - Increased position by 32%
16. Nucor (NUE) - Boosted position by 37%
17. (ANST) - New position
18. XTO (XTO) - Boosted stake by 150%
19. Stewart Enterprises (STEI) - Increased position by 12%
20. Gilead (GILD) - Decreased position by 26.7%

Kovner's Caxton Associates definitely disassociate themselves from the rest of the macro pack when it comes to the equity side of their portfolio. While their portfolio does hold typical energy and technology names often seen in other hedge fund portfolios, they also hold seemingly obscure names that I have yet to see pop up in any other funds I track. So, Kovner and his team may have discovered some diamonds in the rough here. In particular, I want to focus on his top holding: Compania Cervecerias Unidas (CCU). In the quarter prior to the filing, he held just 25,000 shares of this name. Then, over this past quarter, he ratcheted up his holdings in the name big time. He increased his position by 72,934%, bringing it all the way up to his firm's top holding, with a market value of over $642 million at the time of the filing. Needless to say, they bought this name with conviction. And, although I've seen numerous other funds buying up shares of Latin & South American beverage companies, this is the first fund I've seen pick up this name. So, definitely keep an eye on it.

Additionally, I want to point out his holdings in Rocwood Holdings (ROC), W-H Energy Services (WHQ), and Service Corporation (SCI). These are three other names I am seeing for the first time amongst the hedge funds I track. And, he was adding across the board to all three names. Caxton added to WHQ the most, increasing their position by 195%.

Now, turning to the 'hedge fund favorite' names that tend to pop up in numerous hedge fund portfolios that I track, we see Caxton holds positions in Qualcomm (QCOM), Research in Motion (RIMM), XTO Energy (XTO), Occidental (OXY), and Gilead (GILD). Caxton was out adding pretty moderately to all these names. OXY and XTO are easily two of the favorite equity energy plays amongst various hedge funds. And, you have to wonder how they affected their portfolio, given the volatile ride energy stocks have seen as of late. Turning to tech, we see that Caxton, like so many other funds, enjoy large positions in both QCOM and RIMM. As I've noted before, QCOM is easily a top five most common equity holding among the hedge funds I track. And, just like energy, technology stocks have been whipsawed around a lot recently. So, although Caxton was out adding this past quarter, we'll have to see if they were still adding to these names come the next 13F filing.

We already knew hedge funds (and macro funds in particular) had a rough July, as I noted here. And, it's easy to see why, with the heavy commodity exposure many of them had. What we don't yet know is how they've rebounded (if at all). Lastly, I just want to re-emphasize that since Caxton is a macro fund, they obviously have the majority of their positions in the commodity, currency, futures, or other markets. But, at the same time, they still have a sizable chunk of money in the equity markets.

Caxton Associates' full 13F filing listing every position can be found at the SEC.

Hedge Fund Tracking: Tudor Investment Corp's 13F Filing (Paul Tudor Jones)

(Note: Before reading this update, make sure you check out the preface to the series I'm doing on Hedge Fund 13F's here).

Time to continue the Hedge Fund tracking series! If you've missed them, I've already covered Jeffrey Gendell's Tontine Partners here, Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital here, Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital here, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital here, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital here, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital here, Boone Pickens' BP Capital here, and Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management here.

This week, I'm taking a slightly different approach to the hedge fund tracking series. I'm doing so because the 13F SEC filings are filed on a quarterly basis, so these materials are time sensitive and the next ones are due out in November. I stated in my series preface that you need to treat these as a lagging indicator, because that's what they are. The holdings discussed below reflect portfolio holdings as of June 30th, 2008. So, since these forms are so tedious to sort through, I've condensed the rest of the hedge funds I track to summarize their major moves and top holdings.

Additionally, the majority of the rest of the funds I follow are macro funds. And, since 13F filings only detail equity holdings, we're left with a bit of a problem. Macro funds typically employ strategies that encompass many financial markets. Be it commodities, currency, futures, foreign markets.... you name it. So, these funds are much harder to track. Since they are not required to disclose positions held in those markets, we only get to see their equity holdings. But, at the same time, I still find the information useful because many of these funds have numerous large equity positions which give you a broad sense as to what their strategies may be.

So, next up in the macro hedge fund tracking series we have Tudor Investment Corp, the brainchild of Paul Tudor Jones. Taken from Wikipedia, the bio of PTJ is as follows: "In 1980 he founded Tudor Investment Corporation which is today a leading asset management firm headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Tudor Group, which consists of Tudor Investment Corporation and its affiliates, is involved in active trading, investing and research in the global equity, venture capital, debt, currency and commodity markets. One of Jones' earliest and major successes was predicting Black Monday in 1987, tripling his money during the event due to large short positions. Jones uses a global macro strategy when trading in some of his funds. This strategy can be seen in the 1987 PBS film "TRADER: The Documentary". The film shows Mr. Jones as a young man predicting the 1987 crash. Jones' firm currently manages$17.7 billion (as of June 1, 2007). Their investment capabilities are broad and diverse, including global macro trading, fundamental equity investing in the U.S. and Europe, emerging markets, venture capital, commodities, event driven strategies and technical trading systems." So, as you can see, PTJ is quite an accomplished gentleman, earning him the title of THE macro trader.

(If you want to hear some insightful thoughts from Paul Tudor Jones himself, head over to my post on Hedge Fund manager interviews. Also, you can check out some additional thoughts from Paul here.)

So, now that we've got a background on Jones and Tudor Investment Corp, let's take a quick look at his portfolio highlights. Keep in mind that this is merely a brief summary of Tudor's top holdings. Due to the time sensitive nature of the 13F material, I wanted to get this information posted before the next set of filings come out in November.

Top 20 Holdings by % of portfolio
1. Plains Exploration and Production (PXP) - Added to his position by $160 million
2. Anadarko Petroleum (APC) - Nearly doubled his stake
3. Mirant (MIR) - Increased position by 21%
4. Elan (ELN) - Decreased position by 22%
5. SPDR Trust (SPY) - New position
6. Entergy (ETR) - New position
7. Occidental Petroleum (OXY) - New position
8. NRG Energy (NRG) - Added to his position very slightly
9. Alcoa (AA) - Increased stake by nearly 33%
10. Mastercard (MA) - Increased stake by 12%
11. Wellpoint (WLP) - New position
12. Williams Companies (WMB) - Decreased position by 34%
13. Qualcomm (QCOM) - Decreased position by 30%
14. DirecTV (DTV) - Literally added only 3 more shares
15. Marvell Technology (MRVL) - Increased stake by 3.6%
16. Allegheny Energy (AYE) - Decreased stake by 26%
17. Fidelity Information Services (FIS) - Increased position by 76%
18. Verisign (VRSN) - Increased stake by 49%
19. CSX Corp (CSX) - Decreased stake by 18.6%
20. Heinz (HNZ) - Decreased position by 20.7%

At the time of the filing, Tudor Investment Corp's total equity portfolio totalled around $5.7 billion. So, I just want to re-emphasize that since they are a macro fund, they obviously have additional positions in the commodity, currency, futures, or other markets. But, at the same time, they still have a sizable chunk of money in the equity markets.

Paul Tudor Jones was out adding brand new positions to his portfolio in a big way. He established new positions in: The Spiders (SPY), Entergy (ETR), Occidental (OXY), and Wellpoint (WLP). Not only did he start new positions in these names, but he brought them all up to top 10 holdings within one quarter. I want to highlight his stakes in Entergy and Occidental, as they are both energy related. I'm slowly but surely starting to see ETR pop up in numerous hedge fund portfolios, so it's definitely worth keeping any eye on. These funds could be establishing this as one of their ways to play the nuclear energy space, as the alternative energy train picks up steam. We'll see if he adds to this position in the next round of 13F filings. At the time of filing, his stake in ETR was worth a bit over $201 million. Secondly, Occidental (OXY) is another 'hedge fund favorite' energy play. This integrated energy producer has definitely been firing on all cylinders fundamentally. But, with the recent volatility in the commodities markets, one would have to assume that PTJ has felt some pain with this position. He had this position as of June 30th (the time of the filing), and around then OXY was trading around $87.50. In the coming months, OXY would drop to as low as $65, before rebounding to current levels of around $80. So, we'll wait and see next time if he bailed ship or if he stuck with this name. At the time of filing, his position in OXY was worth $181 million. If I were to bet, I would say that he did not add to this position, because one of his rules is never to average down on a loser.

Interesting to see that Paul Tudor Jones decreased his position in Qualcomm (QCOM) by 30%. QCOM is by far one of the most common names in hedge fund portfolios these days. So, whether he was taking profits or saw something he fundamentally disliked remains to be seen. We'll have to monitor this next quarter to see if he continues to sell down his position. It's always interesting to see how various funds handle a position they have in common with numerous other well-respected funds. Tudor's decision to sell off 30% comes while fellow global macro manager and friend Louis Bacon was adding to his QCOM position, as I wrote about in Moore Capital Management's 13F analysis.

I also want to point out his decision to add to his Verisign (VRSN) position. He upped his stake by nearly 50%, bringing it up to his 18th largest position. I haven't seen this name pop up in too many funds' portfolios, so I was intrigued to see him beef up his stake pretty substantially.

Lastly, just wanted to point out that, like his colleague Bacon, Tudor had pretty significant exposure to natural gas. In fact, Tudor's top 2 positions were both natural gas plays: PXP and APC. So, those positions undoubtedly forced him to make some decisions as they tanked over the past few months. It will be interesting to see how this potentially affected him, because his fund was up 3% year to date as of just a few weeks ago, as I wrote about in my hedge funds year-to-date performance update.

So, while last quarter's glimpse inside Tudor's portfolio is interesting, it will be much more interesting to see what they've done with these holdings come November. We already knew hedge funds (and macro funds in particular) had a rough July, as I noted here. And, it's easy to see why, with the heavy commodity exposure many of them had. But, as of a few weeks ago, Tudor was still up on the year, in a year when many funds are seeing red from all the whipsawing.

Tudor Investment Corp's full 13F filing listing every position can be found at the SEC.