What We're Reading ~ 3/8/18

On interest rates and stock prices: it's complicated [Aswath Damodaran]

Why software is the ultimate business model [Medium]

Profile of JAB: the secretive company that pours America's coffee [WSJ]

Lessons from Spotify [Stratechery]

The state of the subscription economy [Forbes]

The economy is soaring & so is the deficit: that's a bad combination [538]

Ray Dalio sees 70% chance of recession before 2020 [Reuters]

Why Priceline or Expedia might be the next great hotel brand [Skift]

Pitch on Newell Brands [InvestPBA]

Persuasion as a skill and habit [First Round]

Fun little online game: can you run a struggling mall? [Bloomberg]

What We're Reading ~ 9/20/17

You need to do what others don't [Ian Cassel]

The case for stock buybacks [Harvard Business Review]

5 common mental errors that sway your decision making [James Clear]

Why is value investing so difficult? [Behavioural Investment]

Best Buy's secrets for thriving in the Amazon age [NYTimes]

Why augmented reality is about to take over your world [Buzzfeed]

What's the true total addressable market of search? [Value Venture]

Google Travel is worth $100 billion - even more than Priceline [Skift]

Profile of JD.com's founder [FT]

'Netflix for theaters' sending industry into a frenzy [NYPost]

When will self-driving cars make conventional cars worthless? [Quartz]

Why listen to earnings calls when artificial intelligence can do it better? [Institutional Investor]

The big data breach at Equifax has alarming implications [The Economist]

How Casper wants to sell you sleep [Wired]

What We're Reading ~ 8/2/17

Profile of the founders of payments company Stripe [Bloomberg]

Staying competitive as the world changes [Collaborative Fund]

The unreformed stock picker: profile of Bill Miller [Forbes] 

Investment case for Gilead Sciences [WertArt Capital]

Netflix has $20 billion in debt - can it keep borrowing its way to success? [LA Times]

Palantir, the 'special ops' tech giant that wields as much power as Google [The Guardian]

Craft beer, brought to you by Big Beer [NPR]

On the threat of European grocery discounters [FBIC Group]

Priceline: the world's largest online travel company [Economist]

Electric vehicle outlook [Bloomberg]

Mental models: how to train your brain to think in new ways [James Clear]

The best path to long-term change is slow, simple and boring [NYTimes]

The 4 keys to learning anything [Zen Habits]
 

What We're Reading ~ 9/2/15

Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX): a detailed look inside a dangerous story [AZ Value]

Thoughts on shorting [Fritz Investments]

When to deploy capital [Aleph Blog]

A look at Ed Borgato's process [Richard Chignell]

Analysis of Liberty Global's Latin American assets (LILA) [Clark Street Value]

The China growth story is now broken [Salient Partners]

The Fed is set to make a dangerous mistake [FT]

A roadmap for a world without drivers [Alex Rubalcava]

How Tesla will change the world [Wait But Why]

The FCC imposes Netflix's broadband policy [WSJ]

An internet mortgage provider reaps the rewards [NYTimes]

Lurking problems with exchange traded funds [Zero Hedge]

Market plunge provides harsh lessons for ETF investors [Barrons]

Mexico's economy was supposed to soar; it's starting to flop [Washington Post]

Hotels fight back against sites like Expedia and Priceline [NYTimes]

Is Silicon Valley in another bubble and what could burst it? [Vanity Fair]

Goldman Sachs VIP List: Most Important Stocks To Hedge Funds: Q1 2012

Goldman Sachs is out with its Q1 2012 Hedge Fund Trend Monitor report.  In it, they reveal the latest VIP list of 50 stocks that are most important to hedge funds.  These are the positions that appear most frequently in the top 10 holdings of fundamental focused hedge funds.

This quarter, they've also released a new list of very important short positions to hedge funds which we've posted up as well.

Goldman's VIP list of the most important holdings is accessible on Bloomberg via < GSTHHVIP >.  It has "outperformed the S&P 500 by 55 bp on a quarterly basis since 2001."

Goldman Sachs VIP List (Q1 2012)

Stock: Number of funds with stock as top 10 holding

1. Apple (AAPL): 106
2. Google (GOOG): 73
3. Express Scripts (ESRX): 56
4. Microsoft (MSFT): 46
5. Qualcomm (QCOM): 38
6. Citigroup (C): 31
7. General Motors (GM): 29
8. Priceline.com (PCLN): 29
9. JPMorgan Chase (JPM): 27
10. Liberty Media (LMCA): 26
11. Delphi Automotive (DLPH): 24
12. BP (BP): 23
13. Pfizer (PFE): 23
14. Tyco (TYC): 22
15. Visa (V): 21
16. Yahoo (YHOO): 21
17. LyondellBasell (LYB): 20
18. Anadarko Petroleum (APC): 19
19. Bank of America (BAC): 17
20. Ford Motor (F): 17
21. WellPoint (WLP): 17
22. American International Group (AIG): 16
23. Charter Communications (CHTR): 16
24. eBay (EBAY): 16
25. Rock-Tenn (RKT): 16


It's no surprise that Apple (AAPL) is the most widely owned top position amongst fundamental hedge funds.  But despite that, Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn argued hedge funds actually have less than 2% of assets in his Ira Sohn conference presentation.  We've also posted Dan Loeb's thesis on AAPL as he was a big buyer of shares.

Both Tyco and Priceline were featured in the equity analysis section of our Q4 2011 Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter due to heavy ownership by top funds.  TYC is an event-driven play while PCLN is a huge growth and international play.


Here's the rest of Goldman's VIP list:

26. Seagate Technology (STX): 16
27. Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B): 15
28. Cisco Systems (CSCO): 15
29. Equinix (EQIX): 15
30. Hertz Global (HTZ): 15
31. Liberty Interactive (LINTA): 15
32. Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD): 15
33. Visteon (VC): 15
34. Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX): 15
35. Wells Fargo (WFC): 15
36. Baidu (BIDU): 14
37. Dollar Thrifty (DTG): 14
38. Hess (HES): 14
39. Mastercard (MA): 14
40. News Corp (NWSA): 14
41. Williams Companies (WMB): 14
42. Barrick Gold (ABX): 13
43. CIT Group (CIT): 13
44. Capital One (COF): 13
45. Calpine (CPN): 13
46. Devon Energy (DVN): 13
47. EMC (EMC): 13
48. Hewlett Packard (HPQ): 13
49. Illumina (ILMN): 13
50. Salesforce.com (CRM): 12

Of the above, we've previously highlighted why Passport Capital likes LINTA.  And in the brand new issue of our Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter, we've analyzed Equinix (EQIX), a big new position by Philippe Laffont's Coatue Management and John Thaler's JAT Capital.

Some of the stocks on the list are brand new additions as enough hedge funds boosted their positions in Q1: ABX, AIG, BRK.B, COF, CPN, CRM, DVN, EBAY, EMC, EQIX, F, HES, HTZ, ILMN, RKT, WLP.


Be sure to also check out Goldman's brand new list of hedge fund very important short positions.

Stephen Mandel's Ira Sohn Presentation: Long Kohl's, Bearish on Fixed Income

We're posting up notes from the Ira Sohn Conference.  Lone Pine Capital's Stephen Mandel gave a presentation on how he's bearish on fixed income and how he likes Kohl's (KSS) & companies that shrink their share counts, as well as tech leaders.

Mandel runs $12 billion in global equities.  He started in 1997, previously covered retail stocks at Tiger Management and Goldman Sachs.

Where He Doesn't See Value

Fixed income:. "Heads I win very small, tails, I lose very big." Governments printing money, and want to inflate their ways out of debt. Pensions and individuals are using the rear view mirror to flood into fixed income.


Where He Sees Value

Equities have several significant areas of value. Can't mention specific stocks.

Likes "Tech Leaders." Companies that are leaders in their fields, internet search, PCs & mobile devices, travel. (Note: he owns Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), and Priceline.com (PCLN)). Generate high ROIC, lots of excess cash, yet trading to less than run of the mill low growth industrial companies. Close to 20% of long portfolio in these.

Likes "Share Count Shrinkers": Modest growth, but using FCF to shrink number of outstanding shares by 8% to 10% annually. 20% of portfolio here too. Kohl's (KSS) as an example. Over last 20 years, gone from 30 stores to national, higher sales than JCP. $46 stock, trades less than 10x 2012E eps, buying back stock. Took markdowns, viewed as obsolete, beaten by internet.


P.S. - Don't miss other presentations from David Einhorn, John Paulson, Bill Ackman & more: notes from Ira Sohn Conference 2012.

Why Passport Capital Likes Marathon Petroleum (MPC) & Top Equity Positions

John Burbank's hedge fund firm Passport Capital talked about their rationale for owning Marathon Petroleum (MPC) in their year-end letter.

Marathon Petroleum (MPC)

Passport writes, "Marathon has an $11.8 billion market capitalization and an enterprise value of $12.2 billion. We expect the company to generate $3.9 billion in EBITDA in 2012 and free cash flow (FCF) of $1.5 billion, for roughly a 14% FCF yield.

During the quarter, the company raised their quarterly dividend from $0.20/share to $0.25/share, resulting in approximately a 3% dividend yield at year end. During its first analyst day in December, the company emphasized its highly experienced management team, cycle-tested business model, unique integrated asset base, and sound financial position. MPC also emphasized organic projects in 2012 that could increase access to discounted crudes and increase yield of higher margin products like distillates. Their Detroit refinery upgrade (expected by the end of 2012) was reported to be on schedule and budget.

While the fourth quarter was weaker than originally expected given the decline in the Brent/WTI spread, it is typically the weakest quarter of the year. Importantly, the decline in the Brent/WTI spread does not impact our free cash flow estimate for 2012, which provides a yield of 14% and remains unchanged despite the decline in the spread."

So what other funds own Marathon Petroleum? Barry Rosenstein's JANA Partners is the second largest owner of MPC shares after assembling a massive new position in the fourth quarter.


As of December 31st, here were Passport's Top Ten Equity Positions:

1. Marathon Petroleum (MPC): 5% of NAV
2. Liberty Interactive (LINTA): 4%
3. Cytec Industries (CYT): 3%
4. Thoratec (THOR): 3%
5. Tarpon Investimentos (TRPN3.BZ): 2%
6. Cie Financiere Richemont SA (CFR.VX): 2%
7. Vivus (VVUS): 2%
8. C&J Energy Services (CJES): 2%
9. Priceline.com (PCLN): 2%
10. WebMD (WBMD): 1%

You can view an equity analysis of Priceline.com in the brand new issue of our Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter.

Also, we recently highlighted why Carl Icahn likes WebMD as well. Lastly, you can watch John Burbank's interview with Bloomberg where he talks about why he likes VVUS and why he thinks 2012 is a stockpicker's market.

For more of the hedge fund's commentary, we've also posted up why Passport Capital likes Liberty Interactive (LINTA).

Shumway Capital Returns Capital to Investors, Will Manage Internal Assets

Chris Shumway's hedge fund Shumway Capital Partners sent out a letter to investors today notifying them that the fund will be returning capital to outside investors. The firm will live on, instead only managing internal capital. Shumway, who has seen 17% annual returns, is one of the widely regarded Tiger Cub hedge funds started by former members of Julian Robertson's Tiger Management.

Late last year, Chris Shumway announced that he would be stepping down from his Chief Investment Officer role. This initiated a wave of redemptions as investors in the funds became wary. Shumway writes,

"In a sense, these changes created more risk for many of you who committed to stay invested in SCP and makes short term results of the fund a primary issue for us all. As a result, it has become more difficult for us to focus on long term investing as we have for the last nine years, which I believe has been a main driver of our success."

It's obvious from the above that Shumway is not fond of Wall Street's and an investor's focus on short-term performance. We'd venture to guess that Shumway also somewhat tired of the 'corporate' nature of running a large investment firm. Catering to each investor's concerns meant less and less of his time was dedicated to investing.

Shumway isn't alone in his desire to focus on investing for the long-term. Fellow Tiger Cub manager Roberto Mignone of Bridger Management closed to new investors, effectively capping assets under management so that he could focus on investing rather than having to worry about running a large organization.

It will be interesting to see who stays behind at Shumway to manage internal capital and who leaves to start their own funds. There are already a few notable Shumway alums managing their own funds including John Thaler's JAT Capital, Anu Murgai's Suranya Capital Partners, and Matthew Crakes' Greenhart Capital. The reason we mention these established and potentially future Shum-alum funds is that some former SCP investors could potentially allocate capital there.

Shumway will return outside capital by the end of the first quarter, which undoubtedly means they'll be selling partial positions. Here are Shumway's top 10 holdings as of September 30th, 2010. We'll get an updated look at their holdings here in a few weeks, so keep in mind the below is quite dated:

1. Apple (AAPL)
2. Citigroup (C)
3. Priceline.com (PCLN)
4. Pfizer (PFE)
5. Las Vegas Sands (LVS)
6. Baidu (BIDU)
7. SPRD Gold Trust (GLD)
8. Target (TGT)
9. Air Products & Chemicals (APD)
10. BP (BP)

A screenshot of Chris Shumway's letter is posted below via ZeroHedge:

(click to enlarge)

It will be interesting to see what happens to Shumway's portfolio once outside capital has been returned and the fund is only managing internal capital.

Chase Coleman's Tiger Global: Portfolio Update (13F Filing)

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.

The next hedge fund in our series is Chase Coleman's Tiger Global. Coleman is a 'Tiger Cub' because he learned to ply his trade under mentor Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. However, Coleman is also a 'Tiger Seed' in that he is one of the few managers that Robertson actually seeded himself in an effort to recognize talent. Tiger Global is one of the hedge funds that comprises the Tiger Cub Portfolio created with Alphaclone where you can replicate their positions and enjoy 15.5% annualized returns since 2000.

Here's some Wall Street trivia for you: Which hedge fund manager is a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the man who built the wall that gave Wall Street its name? Yep, Chase Coleman. Chase attended Williams College and his focus in the markets has always been on smaller cap names and on technology. Although, he has since expanded his horizons. In 2007, Tiger Global returned 70%, and from 2001-2007 Coleman returned 47% on average. This year started off rough for Tiger as financial and REIT short positions hurt portfolio performance, something they talked about in a past investor letter. In terms of recent portfolio activity out of Tiger, we've seen them selling Longtop Financial shares for quite some time now.

Keep in mind that the positions listed below were Tiger'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:
PepsiCo (PEP)
Monsanto (MON)
Yahoo (YHOO)
Electronic Arts (ERTS)
McDonalds (MCD)
Airvana (AIRV)


Some Increased Positions
Positions they already owned but added shares to:
Discovery Communications (DISCA): Increased position by 137.7%
ETrade Financial (ETFC): Increased by 80%
Cablevision (CVC): Increased by 2.8%
Transdigm (TDG): Increased by 25.4%
Qualcomm (QCOM): Increased by 22.3%


Some Reduced Positions
Stakes they sold shares in but still own:
Gushan (GU): Reduced position by 55.3%
Longtop Financial (LFT): Reduced by 52%
Priceline (PCLN): Reduced by 40%
Advisory Board Company (ABCO): Reduced by 35.4%
American Tower (AMT): Reduced by 31%
Apple (AAPL): Reduced by 29.3%
Teradata (TDC): Reduced by 27.4%
Visa (V): Reduced by 21.8%
Lorillard (LO): Reduced by 12%


Removed Positions
Positions they sold out of completely:
Philip Morris International (PM)
Gymboree (GYMB)
Partnerre (PRE)
Crown Holdings (CCK)
Broadridge (BR)
Altria Group (MO)
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR)
Cognizant Technology (CTSH)
JPMorgan Chase (JPM)
Netezza (NZ)
Solarwinds (SWI)


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

1. Mastercard (MA): 10.31%
2. Google (GOOG): 10.02%
3. Lorillard (LO): 8.06%
4. Pepsico (PEP): 6.87%
5. Visa (V): 5.91%
6. Transdigm (TDG): 5.85%
7. Priceline (PCLN): 5.45%
8. Mercadolibre (MELI): 5.23%
9. Monsanto (MON): 5.12%
10. American Tower (AMT): 4.18%
11. Longtop Financial (LFT): 4.17%
12. Yahoo (YHOO): 4.04%
13. Discovery Communications (DISCK): 3.31%
14. Qualcomm (QCOM): 3.27%
15. Cablevision (CVC): 2.82%
    

Notable moves in hedge fund Tiger Global's portfolio include starting a brand new stake in PepsiCo (PEP) and bringing it up to their fourth largest holding. This could possibly be arbitrage driven as John Paulson's hedge fund Paulson & Co detailed some Pepsi arbitrage in their investor letter. Additionally, Tiger's new stakes in Yahoo (YHOO) and Monsanto (MON) were pretty sizable and are worth mentioning as well. Their position in Priceline (PCLN) certainly fared well for them as shares have risen sharply over the past few months. As such, they've reduced their position in it by 40%.

Another change worth mentioning is their continued selling of Longtop Financial. We've detailed those sales right after they've happened given that Tiger had to file amended 13D's on this position each time a major sale took place. They also sold off nearly a third of their American Tower (AMT) position and we mention this because shares of AMT have been a favorite stock amongst hedge funds, and particularly amongst Tiger Cub hedge funds. The only major position they sold completely out of was Philip Morris (PM), but even that was only a marginal position for them in the past, at 2.89% of the portfolio previously.

Assets from the collective holdings reported to the SEC via 13F filing were $2.38 billion this quarter compared to $2.15 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 and Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global so check back daily as we'll be covering new hedge fund portfolios.

Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital Bet Big On Technology Stocks

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 is Lee Ainslie's hedge fund firm Maverick Capital. Ainslie learned his ways under the guidance of hedge fund legend Julian Robertson and is a member of the Tiger Cub family. (You can view a Tiger Cub family tree here). As such, Maverick is a part of the Tiger Cub portfolio clone created with Alphaclone that is seeing great returns and is comprised of holdings widely held by all of the Tiger Cub hedge funds.

Maverick manages well over $8 billion and focuses on straight up stock picking on both sides of the book (long and short) but they do not employ pairs trades. They have six industry heads and each team handles their respective sector. Risk management is a big focus at Maverick and position sizes typically don't go above 5-8% of the portfolio. They focus on value and growth at a reasonable price (GARP) investments and they like to compare enterprise value to sustainable free cash flow. To learn more about this hedge fund, check out our profile/biography on Lee Ainslie & Maverick.

Keep in mind that the positions listed below were Maverick'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:
Corning (GLW)
Qualcomm (QCOM)
Citigroup (C)
Macys (M)
CVS Caremark (CVS)
Itron (ITRI)
Pfizer (PFE)
Bank of America (BAC)
Microsoft (MSFT)
Williams Sonoma (WSM)
Rovi Corporation (ROVI)
Google (GOOG)
Equinix (EQIX)
Whole Foods (WFMI)


Some Increased Positions
Positions they already owned but added shares to:
First Solar (FSLR): Increased position by 307.5%
Visa (V): Increased by 88.2%
Apollo Group (APOL): Increased by 49.4%
Gilead Science (GILD): Increased by 48.9%
Marvell Technology (MRVL): Increased by 42.9%
Priceline (PCLN): Increased by 42.2%
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B): Increased by 40%
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A): Increased by 37%
Amgen (AMGN): Increased by 31.3%


Some Reduced Positions
Stakes they sold shares in but still own:
Gap (GPS): Reduced position by 46.7%
Lorillard (LO): Reduced by 44.9%
PepsiCo (PEP): Reduced by 35.8%
Lender Processing (LPS): Reduced by 26%
Palm (PALM): Reduced by 22.3%
America Movil (AMX): Reduced by 18.9%
Davita (DVA): Reduced by 18.8%
Apache (APA): Reduced by 18.7%
Covidien (COV): Reduced by 9.9%


Removed Positions
Positions they sold out of completely:
Wyeth (WYE)
Walgreen (WAG)
Netapp (NTAP)
Research in Motion (RIMM)
Mastercard (MA)
State Street (STT)
Eaton (ETN)
Leap Wireless (LEAP)
CTrip (CTRP)
Hanesbrands (HBI)
Discovery Communications - Series C (DISCK)
Jetblue (JBLU)
Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB)
Finish Line (FINL)
Orthofix (OFIX)
BPW Acquisition (BPW-U)
Liberty Media Corp - Series A (LCAPA)
MSCI (MXB)
Officemax (OMX)


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

1. Apple (AAPL): 3.38%
2. Hewlett Packard (HPQ): 3.37%
3. Corning (GLW): 3.1%
4. Qualcomm (QCOM): 2.8%
5. Priceline (PCLN): 2.52%
6. Apollo Group (APOL): 2.5%
7. JPMorgan Chase (JPM): 2.5%
8. Gilead Sciences (GILD): 2.48%
9. Citigroup (C): 2.46%
10. Macys (M): 2.43%
11. Marvell Technology (MRVL): 2.42%
12. Amgen (AMGN): 2.3%
13. Liberty Media (LMDIA): 2.28%
14. Progressive (PGR): 2.21%
15. First Solar (FSLR): 2.2%
    

Maverick added to technology names the most on a quarter over quarter basis. Four of their top 10 holdings were brand new positions just added. Half of those were technology names (Qualcomm & Corning) and they were Maverick's third and fourth largest holdings respectively. Not to mention, Maverick's top two holdings were also tech plays in Apple and Hewlett Packard. Do you see a theme here?

Lee Ainslie's hedge fund also added largely to shares of Priceline, Apollo Group, and JP Morgan Chase. This is intriguing mainly because other 'Tiger Cub' hedge funds were buying the exact same names (see Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global which we just covered this morning). A few other names Ainslie added to that are more unique to their portfolio include Gilead Sciences as well as First Solar, a name that they tripled their exposure in.

We also want to focus on their new portfolio addition in CVS Caremark. Way back in the first quarter of this year, Maverick sold out of CVS in favor of competitor Walgreens. Now, fast forward to the third quarter of this year and we see that Maverick has done the opposite and has sold completely out of Walgreens and started a new stake in CVS Caremark again. Possibly the most interesting aspect of this whole 'switcheroo' is that Lee Ainslie was at an investing conference in late October at the University of Virginia and he mentioned one of his current favorite plays was CVS. He obviously just added this name in the third quarter and then a few days after the conference on November 5th we saw shares of CVS drop from $36 to $28 and wondered if Ainslie was buying or not. Shares are now trading around the $30 mark. We'll definitely be interested to see what Ainslie did with this position when the fourth quarter portfolio disclosures are released given that he has been flip-flopping on various pharmacy plays throughout the year.

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

(click to enlarge)

And also:

(click to enlarge)

Assets from the collective holdings reported to the SEC via 13F filing were $8.3 billion this quarter compared to $6.4 billion last quarter, so they deployed almost $2 billion into long US equities on a quarter over quarter basis. 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 and Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global so check back daily as we'll be covering new hedge fund portfolios.