Hedge Fund News: Soros, Citadel, Atticus, Caxton & More

We're back with our latest compilation of the most recent news out of hedge fund land. Our goal here is to give you all of the major hedge fund news in quick little hits. If you've missed some of our previous updates, we highly recommend checking them out our September update, as well as our July hedge fund news. Let's dive right into the latest updates from some prominent players:

George Soros, Soros Fund Management

Legendary investor and hedge fund manager George Soros 'bought the dip' in financial markets as he saw it as a buying opportunity to make some money. This just goes to show that no matter your economic thoughts, you have to play the market for what it is, as irrationality often abounds. He still thinks we are facing structural long-term problems, but that has not stopped him becoming more bullish for the short-term. His main concern is the deleveraging of the US consumer over a longer period of time which will hurt consumer spending and thus growth going forward.

While he 'bought the dip,' Soros is now cautious as he notes the market to be very overextended and at the risk of another drawdown. While he thinks a downturn is coming, he says that the market will be fine for the rest of the year. The problems, he says, will come in 2010 once the reality of weak global growth hits. In terms of recent portfolio activity, we highlighted when Soros adjusted three of his positions. To check out Soros' thoughts on financial markets in their latest iteration, we recommend checking out his latest book, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means.


Ken Griffin's Citadel Investment Group

Investors can finally redeem their money out of Citadel's largest funds, Kensington and Wellington. After being locked up for almost an entire year, we wonder how many investors will pull their funds purely out of rage from being locked up so long. They probably will take at least a little consolation in the fact that after a horrendous performance in 2008, Citadel's funds have at least bounced back as they are up 57% this year. Citadel has $14 billion in assets under management and apparently Citadel's funds are positioned to "withstand a catastrophic market event" so they have learned from their mistakes. In terms of their recent activity, Citadel has been busy with their ETrade stake and we also noted their UK positions here. Bloomberg also has a recent in-depth profile of Griffin up here as well.


Timothy Barakett, Atticus Capital

While Barakett may have left the hedge fund manager game, he has not ceased being an investor. Apparently, Barakett is set to invest in the various new fund launches by former Atticus employees. Atwater is a hedge fund being launched by Lee Pollock and Kris Green who formerly plied their trade at Atticus. Atwater is supposedly planning to raise $500 million by the end of next year and will focus on merger arbitrage and special situations.

Another fund Barakett is set to invest in is being launched by former Atticus Capital analyst Ed Bosek and Noam Ohana, who previously invested Atticus' partner money in other hedge funds. They have founded Beacon Light Capital, a hedge fund that will trade global equities. Bosek will be portfolio manager while Ohana will be the chief operating officer of the fund. Whenever the time comes, we'll check out whatever SEC filings may come out of both these new ventures.


Hugh Hendry, Eclectica Fund

Our resident deflationist is hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry of the Eclectica Fund. His latest media appearances have him noting that markets are crowded right now and are "all one trade." He thinks that stocks and gold now have a risk that everyone could all want to exit at the same time, saying that now investors are either in the market or not at all. One interesting point he does bring up is the fact that the rally has been ramping higher on questionable volume. He notes the absence of typical volume associated with healthy rallies in this video interview embedded below (email readers come to the blog to view it):



Hendry's commentary is always good reading and you can read some of his recent letters here as well as here.


Jeremy Grantham, GMO

The resident perma-bear and 'grumpy old man' (we mean that with respect) Jeremy Grantham is out with his latest commentary and it is a good read as usual. Here's a notable excerpt from his latest piece where he chimes in on the current market:

“Corporate ex-financials profit margins remain above average and, if I am right about the coming seven lean years, we will soon enough look back nostalgically at such high profits. Price/earnings ratios, adjusted for even normal margins, are also significantly above fair value after the rally. Fair value on the S&P is now about 860 (fair value has declined steadily as the accounting smoke clears from the wreckage and there are still, perhaps, some smoldering embers). This places today’s market (October 19) at almost 25% overpriced, and on a seven-year horizon would move our normal forecast of 5.7% real down by more than 3% a year. Doesn’t it seem odd that we would be measurably overpriced once again, given that we face a seven-year future that almost everyone agrees will be tougher than normal?"

It's always good to hear both sides of an argument and if you want your fair dose of pessimism, head Grantham's way (some his past commentary here). You can check out his full recent commentary via .pdf here.


Bruce Kovner's Hedge Fund Caxton Associates

Interestingly enough, we see that Caxton Associates has helped executives at the firm raise $500 million to launch new Lucidus Capital Partners. The new hedge fund will focus on high yield and will be managed by Darryl Green and Geoffrey Sherry. Caxton has taken a 25% stake in this new firm. What's interesting here is that Sherry will continue to run Caxton's $1 billion bond fund as well. We'll have to see if this new trend of hedge funds funding new funds spawned from inside their own walls continues. This can be quite successful, as evidenced by Julian Robertson's network of seeded 'Tiger Cub' funds. Back in our June performance update post, we noted that Caxton was barely up for the year at that time, at 2.21%.


Abu Dhabi Investment Fund (Aabar Investments)

This Abu Dhabi investment fund has taken a $328 million stake in a Spanish financial firm's new Brasilian arm, Banco Santander Brasil. Aabar has been one of the most active funds out of Abu Dhabi as they also have a 9.1% stake in Daimler, a 30% stake in Virgin Galactic, and a 4% stake in Tesla Motors. Aabar is controlled by the Abu Dhabi government through a majority stake in the International Petroleum Investment Company.


Paolo Pellegrini, hedge fund PSQR Management

We recently covered the ex-Paulson & Co hedge fund manager's trade ideas and we see that he is back in the media yet again. Pellegrini recently laid out the 'only attractive bet' for investors is to short long-term US debt. He says, "“I always like to think about assets that are likely to experience a breakdown; the only thing I’m pretty comfortable with right now is U.S. Treasury securities and U.S. agency mortgage-backed securities. I think that those are overpriced so they are attractive shorts ... The dollar has depreciated more than it should for the short term ... And if you ask me where am I putting my money now, I am on the sidelines.” Make sure to check out Pellegrini's recent thoughts on shorting treasuries and longing oil.


Bruce Berkowitz (Fairholme Funds)

Noted equity mutual fund manager Bruce Berkowitz of the Fairholme Fund (FAIRX) is launching a new bond fund that will invest over the entirety of the bond universe. While Berkowitz is unquestionably a good equity fund manager, it raises the question if he is also a good bond fund manager? His equity fund has an annual return of over 9% over the past 5 years. While many investors will undoubtedly jump on this fund due to the name recognition, be aware that it has a $25,000 minimum initial investment, over 10x his other fund. It will be interesting to see if Berkowitz can also prove his worth in the bond arena, as few managers out there can dabble successfully in both.


Stanley Fink, International Standard Asset Management

Former Man Group CEO Stanley Fink is releasing a new fund at his new firm. International Standard Asset Management will release a gold fund in December, even against Fink's liking, as he isn't fond of single commodity funds. However, you can never turn down an opportunity that investors clearly desire. Fink's fund will thus join a large cast of prominent hedge fund players in the gold trade including David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital and John Paulson of hedge fund Paulson & Co, amongst many others.


Thanks for checking out our latest edition of hedge fund quick-hits and make sure to check out our September hedge fund news as well.

Hedge Fund Atticus Capital Shutting Down

Big news out of hedge fund land as manager Timothy Barakett has decided to close his Atticus Capital funds. To be honest, this didn't surprise us too much. After all, we have been covering Atticus' portfolio for some time now and it has been a ridiculous rollercoaster of a ride. We'd been postulating that Atticus' ship was never truly stabilized after they survived a scare in 2008. Barakett says in his farewell letter that he wants to spend more time with family and on philanthropic efforts but it's hard not to wonder if the hellish 2008 for them made his decision that much easier. While redemption issues are not to blame here, it's almost as if they've had trouble recuperating and adjusting to the volatility and wild swings of a bear market.

Let's quickly walk through the timeline of Atticus' portfolio we've covered here on Market Folly. Back in September of 2008 we saw that their European fund was -42.5% for the year and their Global fund was -27.2%, thus subjecting them to liquidation rumors. While those rumors proved to be untrue, the poor performance and mass of investors heading for the exits was certainly the first (and largest) warning sign that things were not necessarily well at the firm. As such, Atticus found themselves ranked #2 on a list of the Top 10 Asset Losers in hedge fund land.

The massive deleveraging that went on at their hedge fund was evident in their SEC filings as they went from reporting a portfolio worth billions of dollars down to reporting only $500 million. This was the first drastic turn on the rollercoaster known as Atticus' portfolio. Then from Q3 of 2008 to Q4 of 2008, Atticus' reported assets rose from $500 million back up to $1.9 billion. It was evident that they liquidated positions the quarter prior in an effort to stop the bleeding and to meet any redemptions. The following quarter, they then ramped their portfolio back up. However, the vast majority of their positions were bought via Call options, something we hadn't seen from them before. (We detailed the portfolio changes in their entirety here). What's even more intriguing is that for the most part, they bought the exact same positions they held previously. Except, instead of buying common stock like last time, they were now almost exclusively using Call options. This was the second major peculiar act we took note of.

Then, when we examined their first quarter 2009 portfolio, we saw that they held a mere five long equity positions. While Atticus typically ran a concentrated portfolio, they by no means ran a book as small as this prior to that particular filing. Yet again, we wondered what exactly they were doing over there. In early August they started to sell shares of Sotheby's and Transatlantic Holdings. Then just last week we covered the fact that Atticus was selling shares of their only holding in UK markets. And below, we learn that Barakett has been selling the rest of his portfolio as he winds down his funds.

Here is the letter Barakett sent out to investors announcing the closure, posted up by FT Alphaville:

"
August 11, 2009

Dear Investor in Atticus Global, Ltd. and Atticus Global, LP:

I am writing to inform you of my decision to close the funds I manage, including Atticus Global, Ltd. and Atticus Global, LP (together, the “Atticus Global Fund”). This decision will come as a surprise to most of you, especially given that we have received redemptions of less than 5% of capital and your loyal support over the past 15 years.

I have used the market’s recent strength to begin liquidating a significant amount of our holdings. We currently expect that the portfolio will be fully liquidated by September 30th and that we will be in a position to return approximately 95% of your capital in early October. The balance of investor capital will be returned after the final audit is completed, which should be later this year.

My decision is solely a personal one. After fifteen years of being singularly focused on building and managing Atticus, I believe it is time to reassess my future. I intend to spend more time with my family, pursue my philanthropic interests and establish a family office to manage my own capital and charitable foundation.

Atticus (the management company) will continue to operate, and the Atticus partnership will remain intact. In addition, it is my partner David Slager’s intention to continue to manage the Atticus European Fund.

I founded Atticus in 1995 and launched our first fund in January 1996 with less than $6 million under management. The Atticus Global strategy was launched in December 1996 and has compounded investor’s capital at over 19% net annually since inception.1 I am very proud of the Atticus Global track record and our net returns through July 2009 are shown below:

Atticus Global S&P 500
1 year -13.3% -20.0%
3 year 0.8% -6.2%
5 year 9.3% -0.1%
10 year 13.6% -1.2%
Inception 19.3% 3.9%
Cumulative 835.3% 62.3%

I am also very proud of Atticus’ overall investment results: from the inception of our first fund in January 1996 through July 2009, funds managed by Atticus have generated
almost $7 billion of profits for our investors.

I have been blessed with great investors, partners, employees, and a lot of good luck. I am thankful and sincerely appreciative of the trust and confidence you have placed in me and our organization.

Sincerely,

/s/ Timothy R. Barakett

Timothy R. Barakett
Founder, Chairman & CEO
"

It's sad to see Barakett go because he truly did have a solid track record minus the bump encountered over the past year or so. But that just goes to show you how hard bear markets can be to adapt to. We now add Atticus to an ever-growing list of hedge fund closures throughout this crisis. And while Atticus did not truly implode like many other funds on the list, they have still closed nonetheless. This is another major fund closing that we've covered on the blog, as we've previously detailed the closure of James Pallotta's Raptor Capital, William von Mueffling's Cantillon Capital, and Art Samberg's Pequot Capital among many other major names.

We'll end this piece re-emphasizing this interesting statistic that Barakett noted: "from the inception of our first fund in January 1996 through July 2009, funds managed by Atticus have generated almost $7 billion in profits for our investors." Now that is simply astonishing. To see the positions they hold/held/are liquidating, head to their hot-off-the-press 13F filing for Q2 2009 which was just released. Ironically, they finally now disclose a healthy & normal $4.5 billion worth of long positions. Imagine that.

R.I.P. Atticus, we'll miss tracking your rollercoaster of a portfolio.

Atticus Capital Sells Shares Of Unite Group, Their Only UK Holding

Just yesterday, the London Stock Market announced through the Regulatory News Service that Timothy Barakett's hedge fund Atticus Capital had reduced its stake in Unite Group from 4.1% to 3.8%. Unite Group Plc (UTG) is a developer and manager of student accomodation and is Atticus' only disclosed holding in a British company. Unite Group's share price fell significantly during the last couple of years from a high of 549P in February 2007 to a low of 39P in March of this year; that's quite some fall! If Atticus were clever enough to start accumulating Unite Group stock in February or March of 2009, it is likely that they will have turned a good profit on the small amount of shares they have just sold. However, we are unable to know for sure at what price Atticus paid for the first part of their position. This is due to the rules of UK disclosures, as funds are not required to disclose a position until they have acquired 3% or more of any given company.

In terms of U.S. positions, we also disclosed yesterday that Atticus Capital had amended two separate 13G filings. In the filings, we saw that Timothy Barakett's hedge fund was selling shares of Sotheby's (BID) and Transatlantic Holdings (TRH).

This article is a new edition to Market Folly's expanding hedge fund coverage. Typically, we've covered U.S. equity positions as disclosed to the SEC. Now, thanks to a reader's help, we are also detailing the changes prominent hedge funds make to their portfolios in the UK market. We kicked off our coverage in this regard yesterday by detailing the UK positions of Stephen Mandel's hedge fund Lone Pine Capital. And the post above regarding Atticus marks our second article in this new coverage. Stay tuned as we continue to cover both the U.S. and UK holdings of top hedge fund managers.

Below you will find the breakdown of Atticus' transaction. Lastly, for background information on Barakett & Atticus, head to our post here.

Unite Group Plc

Date of transaction	No. of shares	% of total shares	Estimate of price per share
04/06/2009	3852513	3.1	-
18/06/2009	5163291	4.1	125p
31/07/2009	4806652	3.8	128p

Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital Sells Shares Of Sotheby's (BID) & Transatlantic Holdings (TRH): 13G Filings

Atticus Capital has amended 2 separate 13G filings recently. In a 13G filed due to activity on July 31st, 2009, Timothy Barakett's hedge fund is now showing a 3.9% ownership stake in Sotheby's (BID) with 2,612,942 shares. They have decreased their position from a previous 5.4% stake when we covered their initial 13G filing on Sotheby's. That original disclosure was made due to activity on June 11th, 2009. So, in a little over a month, Atticus has sold 971,168 shares of BID.

In a second 13G filing made due to activity on July 29th, 2009, Atticus is also now showing a 2.4% ownership stake in Transatlantic Holdings (TRH) with 1,589,800 shares. This is a decrease from their previous 5.6% ownership stake reported when they filed their initial 13G on TRH in early June of this year. So, yet another position that Atticus has been selling down. Between June 8th and July 29th, Atticus sold 2,099,800 shares. To see what else Atticus holds, you can view the rest of their portfolio.

This is yet another development on the rollercoaster of a ride otherwise known as: "tracking Atticus' portfolio." In the past, we've detailed how Atticus has ramped up their portfolio, only to drastically scale it back... and then ramp it up again. These filings are the perfect illustration of that. They assembled large positions in both BID and TRH in early June and are already selling sizable pieces of their stake just over a month later. If you think about it, you can't really blame them as they will have locked in some nice profits over a short period of time. Still though, the whipsawing and rollercoastering is making us a bit seasick. Either things are still not quite totally stable over there after their rough 2008, or they are more concerned about locking in solid gains while they have them. Either way, the portfolio turnover game at Atticus plays on.

Atticus was ranked #2 on the Top 10 Asset Losers for 2008 in hedge fund land. And as we mentioned above, their portfolio has been all over the place. Over the course of 3 quarters, they've gone from selling a ton of long equities exposure one quarter, loading up on options positions the next, then most recently only reporting 5 material long equity positions. In two weeks time when the next round of 13F filings come out, one can only guess what their portfolio will look like next.

Timothy Barakett received both his BA in Economics and his MBA from Harvard. It's very evident that Barakett employs macro based investment theses. Once he has decided on what the trend is, he will find the best company within that trend and he will place a big bet. And, when needed, he will step in and take an activist role, ensuring the company is performing to his liking. A fun fact about Barakett is that he was a Harvard hockey teammates with Philip Falcone of Harbinger Capital Partners, whom we also cover.

Taken from Google Finance,

Sotheby's is "an auctioneer of fine art, antiques and decorative art, jewelry and collectibles. The Company’s operations are organized into three business segments: Auction, Finance and Dealer. In addition to auctioneering, the Company’s Auction segment is engaged in a number of related activities, including the brokering of private purchases and sales of fine art, jewelry and collectibles."

Transatlantic Holdings "conducts its operations principally through its three operating subsidiaries: Transatlantic Reinsurance Company (TRC), Trans Re Zurich (TRZ) and Putnam Reinsurance Company (Putnam). The Company offers reinsurance capacity for a range of property and casualty products on both a treaty and facultative basis. These products are offered directly and through brokers, to insurance and reinsurance companies, in both the domestic and international markets."

Image courtesy of NewYorkSocialDiary

Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital Files 13G on Sotheby's (BID)

Timothy Barakett's hedge fund Atticus Capital has filed a 13G on Sotheby's (BID) disclosing a 5.4% ownership stake in the company. The filing was made due to activity on June 11th, 2009 and they now own 3,584,110 shares. This is a brand new position for Atticus, as they previously did not hold it when we examined their portfolio in its entirety.

It definitely looks as if Atticus is starting to move back into equity positions and put money to work. We recently also covered their 13G filing on Transatlantic Holdings (TRH). On the surface, these type of filings just represent portfolio holdings. But, below the surface, it could very well mean much more for Atticus. We say this because Atticus' portfolio over the last 3 quarters has been all over the place. They had a lot of assets tied up in stocks, then they moved the bulk of their portfolio to cash, and then they moved a chunk of money into mainly options positions. Then, this past quarter, we noticed that they only held 5 long positions.

Whether it was raising cash levels due to a cautious stance on the market or possibly continued worries regarding investor redemptions after their poor performance in 2008, Atticus has definitely been trying to steady their ship. Either way, its pure speculation on our part. All we know is that they moved a lot of assets out of the markets. But, 13G filings like these indicate to us that they are starting to put money to work again in the markets, which is a good sign for them. After all, last year Atticus was ranked 2nd on the top 10 asset losers list. For more background on Atticus and a look at their portfolio, head over to our Atticus article here.

Taken from Google Finance,

Sotheby's is "an auctioneer of fine art, antiques and decorative art, jewelry and collectibles. The Company’s operations are organized into three business segments: Auction, Finance and Dealer. In addition to auctioneering, the Company’s Auction segment is engaged in a number of related activities, including the brokering of private purchases and sales of fine art, jewelry and collectibles. The Company also operates as a dealer in works of art through its Dealer segment, conducts art-related financing activities through its Finance segment and is engaged, to a lesser extent, in licensing activities."

Atticus Capital (Timothy Barakett) Files 13G on Transatlantic Holdings (TRH)

In a 13G filed with the SEC yesterday, hedge fund Atticus Capital has disclosed a 5.6% ownership stake in Transatlantic Holdings (TRH) due to activity on June 8th, 2009. They now hold 3,689,600 shares. This is a brand new position for them, as we previously did not see it in their portfolio per their 13F filing. Timothy Barakett's hedge fund has been on a rollercoaster ride lately, to say the least. And it finally appears that they are getting back to business and establishing positions. When we checked their entire portfolio out last week, we saw that they only held 5 positions as of March 31st, 2009. So, this TRH position is a new addition for them.

Atticus had a rough year last year, as they were subject to liquidation rumors (which were later proven untrue) amidst poor performance. They were ranked #2 on the Top 10 Asset Losers for 2008 in hedge fund land. As such, their portfolio has been all over the place, loading up on options positions one quarter and then just recently only reporting 5 material long equity positions. So, this stake in TRH makes it seem like they are ready to get back to investing after stabilizing their ship.

Background on Atticus: Barakett received both his BA in Economics and his MBA from Harvard. Its very evident that Barakett employs macro based investment theses. Once he has decided on what the trend is, he will find the best company within that trend and he will place a big bet. And, when needed, he will step in and take an activist role, ensuring the company is performing to his liking. A fun fact about Barakett is that he was a Harvard hockey teammates with Philip Falcone of Harbinger Capital Partners, whom we also cover. Check back each day as we cover a new hedge fund in our portfolio tracking series.

Taken from Google Finance,

Transatlantic Holdings "conducts its operations principally through its three operating subsidiaries: Transatlantic Reinsurance Company (TRC), Trans Re Zurich (TRZ) and Putnam Reinsurance Company (Putnam). The Company offers reinsurance capacity for a range of property and casualty products on both a treaty and facultative basis. These products are offered directly and through brokers, to insurance and reinsurance companies, in both the domestic and international markets."

Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital Drastically Scales Back Portfolio: 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 Atticus Capital, the hedge fund ran by Timothy Barakett. In 2005, Atticus' funds were up a combined 45%. And, they finished well over 30% for 2006. Barakett founded the firm at age 29 in 1995 and focuses on taking large, concentrated positions in companies. One of Atticus' most famous investments was Phelps Dodge, a miner which was bought out by Freeport McMoran (FCX). At one point, Atticus owned more than 9% of Phelps.

Barakett received both his BA in Economics and his MBA from Harvard. Its very evident that Barakett employs macro based investment theses. Once he has decided on what the trend is, he will find the best company within that trend and he will place a big bet. And, when needed, he will step in and take an activist role, ensuring the company is performing to his liking. A fun fact about Barakett is that he was a Harvard hockey teammates with Philip Falcone of Harbinger Capital Partners, whom we also cover.

You may have heard about Atticus over the past year simply because their performance has not been up to par, to put it politely. In a September 2008 hedge fund performance update, we noted that Atticus European was -42.5% for 2008 while Atticus Global was -27.2% over the same timeframe. And, consequently, Atticus was a victim of liquidation rumors, which were quickly denied.

More recently, we turned our focus again to Atticus when we checked out the 2009 Hedge fund rankings: Top 10 Asset Losers. Unfortunately for them, Atticus was #2 on that list, as their assets dropped 60% on a year over year basis. Something is definitely afoot over there, but the only SEC filed development we have seen is sales of Legend International (LGDI).

The following were Atticus' 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):
Wyeth (WYE)
Costco (COST) Puts
Nokia (NOK)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
n/a


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Mastercard (MA): Reduced by 92%
Visa (V): Reduced by 79%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Google (GOOG) Calls
Mastercard (MA) Calls
Potash (POT)
Microsoft (MSFT)
Microsoft (MSFT) Calls
Boeing (BA) Calls
NYSE Euronext (NYX)
Baidu (BIDU)
Google (GOOG) Puts
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)
CME Group (CME)
CSX (CSX) Calls
Vale (RIO) Calls
Union Pacific (UNP)
Oracle (ORCL) Calls
Emerging Markets ETF (EEM)
Boeing (BA) Puts
CME Group (CME) Puts
CME Group (CME) Calls
Burlington Northern (BNI)
Oracle (ORCL)
Monsanto (MON)
Boeing (BA)
CSX (CSX)
Norfolk Southern (NSC)
Freeport McMoran (FCX) Calls
Valero (VLO)
Mastercard (MA) Puts
NYSE Euronext (NYX) Calls
NYSE Euronext (NYX) Puts


Their Entire Long Portfolio (by % of portfolio)

1. Wyeth (WYE): 47.2% of portfolio
2. Costco (COST) Puts: 40.36% of portfolio
3. Visa (V): 5.74% of portfolio
4. Nokia (NOK): 3.46% of portfolio
5. Mastercard (MA): 3.24% of portfolio

Yes, you are reading that correctly; Atticus has only listed 5 positions. They have yet again drastically reduced their portfolio size. On a quarter to quarter basis, this hedge fund's portfolio is most akin to a rollercoaster. They initially scaled back their portfolio to an extreme when they were faced with poor performance and redemption requests back in Q3 2008. Once they survived that scare, they ratcheted positions back up in Q4 2008, but curiously enough in the form of many options positions, rather than their typical plays of common stock. Then, we arrive at the present. Assets from the collective holdings reported to the SEC via 13F filing were only $118 million this quarter compared to $1.9 billion last quarter. And, obviously, that's quite a change.

A lot of the positions they sold out of over the first quarter 2009 were their options positions that they had purchased the quarter prior. Of the positions they still hold, they cut their Mastercard and Visa stakes substantially, which is notable considering how we've seen so many hedge funds invested in those two payment processors. Of their other holdings, we note a large position in Wyeth (WYE), as they too seem to be playing the arbitrage/event-driven game with that name. Concurrent with their MA and V positions, their Wyeth position is also widely held amongst hedge funds we cover in our series. They started their WYE stake as a new holding this past quarter and it is worth around $55 million. While it is listed at an obscene 47% of their portfolio, you also have to consider that their invested long portfolio decreased substantially.

We're not going to begin to speculate about what is going on over there, but we're starting to get nauseous with all the swings back and forth. This constant level of portfolio re-shuffling is odd to say the least and we'll save our torts for when we have concrete information. We'll continue to monitor the developments and hopefully the portfolio will stabilize sometime soon (though at this rate we're not exactly counting on that). 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, and Seth Klarman's Baupost Group.

2009 Hedge Fund Rankings: Top 10 Asset Losers

After covering Alpha's 2009 hedge fund rankings, we thought it would also be prudent to cover the firms who suffered the most in 2009. The top of Alpha's list is full of cream-of-the-crop hedge funds with a boatload of assets under management. Hidden in their annual rankings are also a few hedge funds that while still ranked, they truly had a bad year in terms of amassing AUM. In fact, they didn't amass assets, but rather lost them seemingly with ease. Listed below are the hedge funds that suffered the biggest year over year decrease in capital.

1. Harbinger Capital Partners: Assets -60.8% year over year

2. Atticus Capital: Assets -60% year over year

3. Marshall Wace: Assets -56% year over year

4. GLG Partners: Assets -51.9% year over year

5. Gartmore Investment Management: Assets -51.4% year over year

6. Glenview Capital Management: Assets -50.5% year over year

7. Cantillon Capital Management: Assets -46.8% year over year

8. Citadel Investment Group: Assets -46.4% year over year

9. AllianceBernstein: Assets -46% year over year

10. BlackRock: Assets -45.5% year over year


Now, keep in mind that these decreases in assets could be any combination of poor performance, redemptions, and other circumstances. Barely escaping this list were Thomas Steyer's Farallon Capital Management and Jim Simons' Renaissance Technologies. Farallon saw a 44.4% decrease in assets year over year while Renaissance saw a 39.9% decrease YoY. Interestingly enough, even with such large year over year decreases, they are still both tied for 10th place in the hedge fund rankings, clinging desperately to their coveted place in the top 10.

Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners and Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital definitely experienced some of the most severe drops in terms of their ranking from 2008 to 2009. Atticus dropped from being 13th last year to 51st this year. Harbinger, on the other hand, dropped from 16th last year down to 57th this year. While all the funds listed about definitely slipped in the rankings, these two funds saw arguably the most meaningful moves.

Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners

Curiously enough, Harbinger Capital Partners has been absurdly busy with SEC filings and portfolio re-shuffling. And, this very slippage in assets under management is undoubtedly one of the major sources of the problem. As we've detailed very recently, Harbinger has been decreasing their Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF) position, selling off some of their Calpine (CPN), and is seeing bidders for their NYT stake, among many other portfolio moves. When you run a portfolio concentrated with some big stakes, you're bound to experience volatility. And, couple that with 2008 being the most volatile year in a while and you see just where Harbinger is hurting. When they began selling some of their CLF stake, they issued a statement that they were merely bringing portfolio metrics back in line. With all of the volatility they've experienced, their portfolio has undoubtedly been thrown out of whack. Harbinger's Offshore fund finished -22.7% for 2008. They were up 0.95% for January 2009, 4.64% for February, and +0.74% for March, leaving them at +4.06% year to date as of then. And, we also got word that Falcone would be returning to his roots in terms of investing style and would be opening a new fund. You can view Harbinger's portfolio here.

Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital

Atticus has had their fair share of scares as well. Way back when the market turmoil started to heat up around September 2008, Atticus' Global fund and European funds were down anywhere from 30-to-40% at certain times. And, as such, they were subject to flying liquidation rumors. However, they did not liquidate and are still very much alive today. We detailed their panic as we saw their portfolio holdings drop massively in terms of assets reported to the SEC. Their portfolio deleveraged from multiple-billions of dollars down to around $500 million. Then, from Q3 of 2008 to Q4 of 2008, Atticus' reported assets (long positions) rose up from $500 million back up to $1.9 billion in Q4. So, they essentially took off a lot of positions and moved to cash to stop the bleeding and to meet any redemptions.

After dealing with their crisis and stabilizing their boat, they began to put money back to work last quarter. Interestingly enough, they mainly moved into Call options on some of the very positions they held common stock in previous to their debacle. (We detailed the portfolio changes in their entirety here). So, after being down as much as 30-40% in 2008, Atticus was hoping for a better start to 2009. In terms of recent performance, we've seen that their European fund was -0.8% for February and sat -10% for 2009 at the end of that month, as noted in our series of January & February hedge fund performance numbers (March numbers here). So, while they have seemingly crawled back from the grave, they are not yet out of the hedge fund graveyard. As always, we'll continue to monitor their situation and recently detailed their sales of some Legend International (LGDI).

Ken Griffin's Citadel Investment Group

Lastly, touching on Ken Griffin's firm, we see that while he slipped in the rankings, he is still within striking distance. His firm fell from 13th in 2008 down to 33rd this year as their assets dropped over 46% year over year. Much of this can be attributed to his flagship funds' poor performance (Kensington and Wellington). In 2008, those funds were down around 55% for the year. Things got so bad that they had to halt redemptions and then subsequently sent out this investor letter regarding their situation. Yet, Griffin seems to have turned Citadel's fortunes around as they were up 5% for January, and up another 2.6% for February (as per our performance numbers list). And, most recently, Kensington & Wellington were +3% in March, bringing them to +11% year to date as of then. And, since those flagship funds won't be seeing performance fees for a while due to poor performance, Citadel has started new hedge funds in an effort to boost their revenues and get a fresh start.

Even through all the trauma, both Ken Griffin and Philip Falcone still find themselves on Forbes' billionaire list. And, for all of the funds listed above, 2008 was a year to forget. While some have started off 2009 on a much better foot, there is still a long way to go.

You can view the performance numbers of various hedge funds in our 2008 performance numbers list, as well as their recent performance in our March performance list. Make sure to also check out the 2009 hedge fund rankings.

Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital Files Form 4 on Legend International (LGDI)

Hedge fund Atticus Capital ran by Timothy Barakett has filed a Form 4 with the SEC and has disclosed some small sales in their Legend International Holdings (LGDI) position. Our apologies for not posting this sooner, as the filing was made on March 31st, 2009 due to sales made by Atticus on March 27th. They sold 50,000 shares at $0.6105 and another 65,700 shares at $0.6069. After the sales, their holding in LGDI sits at 30,654,300 shares remaining.

Atticus Capital, the hedge fund ran by Timothy Barakett saw their combined funds up 45% in 2005. In 2006, they gained over 30%. Yet, in a complete reversal of fortunes, Atticus survived a nightmarish year last year, having been down more than 30% at one point. With a fresh year in tow, they were eager to set out on the right foot for 2009. However, their pain somewhat continued. Their European fund was -0.8% for February and sits -10% for 2009 as of that time, as noted in our series of January & February hedge fund performance numbers (March numbers here). Barakett founded the firm at age 29 in 1995 and focuses on taking large, concentrated positions in companies. One of Atticus' most famous investments was Phelps Dodge, a miner which was bought out by Freeport McMoran (FCX). At one point, Atticus owned more than 9% of Phelps. Barakett received both his BA in Economics and his MBA from Harvard. Its very evident that Barakett employs macro based investment theses. Once he has decided on what the trend is, he will find the best company within that trend and he will place a big bet. And, when needed, he will step in and take an activist role, ensuring the company is performing to his liking. A fun fact about Barakett is that he was a Harvard hockey teammates with Philip Falcone of Harbinger Capital Partners, whom we also cover.


Taken from Google Finance,

Legend International Holdings Inc is an "exploration stage company. The Company is engaged in mineral exploration and development activities. Legend primarily focuses in the development of its phosphate interests in the Georgina Basin in Queensland. The Legend landholdings, prospective for phosphate, diamonds and base metals, cover 40,525 acres in Queensland, Australia, and 4.7 million acres in the Northern Territory, Australia."

Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital Hedge Fund 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, we have Atticus Capital, the hedge fund ran by Timothy Barakett. In 2005, Atticus' funds were up a combined 45%. And, they finished well over 30% for 2006. Barakett founded the firm at age 29 in 1995 and focuses on taking large, concentrated positions in companies. One of Atticus' most famous investments was Phelps Dodge, a miner which was bought out by Freeport McMoran (FCX). At one point, Atticus owned more than 9% of Phelps. Barakett received both his BA in Economics and his MBA from Harvard. Its very evident that Barakett employs macro based investment theses. Once he has decided on what the trend is, he will find the best company within that trend and he will place a big bet. And, when needed, he will step in and take an activist role, ensuring the company is performing to his liking. A fun fact about Barakett is that he was a Harvard hockey teammates with Philip Falcone of Harbinger Capital Partners, whom we also cover.

You may have heard about Atticus over the past year simply because their performance has not been up to par, to put it politely. In a September hedge fund performance update, we noted that Atticus European was -42.5% for 2008 back in September while Atticus Global was -27.2% over the same timeframe. And, consequently, Atticus was a victim of liquidation rumors, which were quickly denied. We previously analyzed Atticus' holdings back in June and noticed that they had significant natural resource and mining positions at the time.

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):
Google (GOOG)
Peabody (BTU)
Mastercard (MA) Puts
CME Group (CME) Calls
Wells Fargo (WFC)
Google (GOOG) Puts
CME Group (CME) Puts
CME Group (CME)
Mastercard (MA)
USG (USG)
Monsanto (MON)
Burlington Northern (BNI)
Baidu (BIDU)
Visa (V)
Google (GOOG) Calls
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)
Norfolk Southern (NSC)
Boeing (BA)
Mastercard (MA) Calls
NYSE Euronext (NYX) Puts
Boeing (BA) Puts
NYSE Euronext (NYX) Calls
CSX (CSX)
Ebay (EBAY)
Valero (VLO)
Potash (POT)
Emerging markets index (EEM)
Vale (RIO)
Boeing (VA) Calls


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
Union Pacific (UNP)
Freeport McMoran (FCX)


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Emisphere (EMIS)


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Financial ETF (XLF) Puts
Synvista (SYI)
Crown Castle (CCI)
Russell 2000 (IWM) Puts
Gold Fields (GFI)
Newmont Mining (NEM)
Occidental Petroleum (OXY)
Western Union (WU)
Telekomunikasi Indonesia (TLK)
KT Corp (KTC)
China Telecom (CHA)
Grupo Aeroportuario Pacifico (PAC)
Grupo Aeroportuario Sureste (ASR)
Sony (SNE)
Petrochina (PTR)


Top 20 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. Google (GOOG) Calls: 10.17% of portfolio
2. Mastercard (MA) Calls: 6.9% of portfolio
3. Potash (POT): 6.3% of portfolio
4. Microsoft (MSFT) Calls: 5.9% of portfolio
5. Microsoft (MSFT): 5.25% of portfolio
6. Boeing (BA) Calls: 4.34% of portfolio
7. NYSE Euronext (NYX): 3.94% of portfolio
8. Baidu (BIDU): 3.5% of portfolio
9. Google (GOOG) Puts: 3.13% of portfolio
10. Intercontinental Exchange (ICE): 2.87% of portfolio
11. CME Group (CME): 2.79% of portfolio
12. CSX (CSX) Calls: 2.7% of portfolio
13. Vale (RIO) Calls: 2.7% of portfolio
14. Union Pacific (UNP): 2.27% of portfolio
15. Oracle (ORCL) Calls: 2.25% of portfolio
16. Emerging Markets Index (EEM): 2.23% of portfolio
17. Boeing (BA) Puts: 2.17% of portfolio
18. Mastercard (MA): 2.1% of portfolio
19. CME Group (CME) Calls: 2.1% of portfolio
20. CME Group (CME) Puts: 2.1% of portfolio

Atticus returned to many of their 'normal' portfolio holdings this past quarter having sold off a lot of equities amidst the liquidation rumors. Basically, they previously owned a bunch of the names you see in their top 20 holdings. They sold them. Then they bought a lot of them back. Isn't market volatility fun? Assets from the collective long US equity, options, and note holdings were $1.9 billion this quarter, back up from the $500 million they had last time around (which again highlights the massive deleveraging they saw during their little scare). So, things appear to be slowly stabilizing for them. This is just one of many funds in our Q4 2008 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, and Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global. Look for our updates as we cover a new fund each day.

Hedge Fund Tracking: Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital - 13F Filing 3rd Quarter 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'll be bringing you the long equity portfolios of numerous prominent hedge funds. Hedge funds we track here at MarketFolly.com include: Tudor Investment Corp, Greenlight Capital, Blue Ridge Capital, Moore Capital Management, and literally many, many more. We're aiming to cover 35 or so prominent funds this time around and we'll be releasing the 13f analysis of each individual fund here in the coming weeks. 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, and Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital.

Fund Background: Next up, we have Atticus Capital. Atticus Capital is a hedge fund ran by Timothy Barakett. In 2005, Atticus' funds were up a combined 45%. And, they finished well over 30% for 2006. Barakett founded the firm at age 26 in 1995 and focuses on taking large, concentrated positions in companies. One of Atticus' most famous investments was Phelps Dodge, a miner which was bought out by Freeport McMoran (FCX). At one point, Atticus owned more than 9% of Phelps. And, they continue to hold some of their position in what is now the combined FCX. Barakett received his BA in Economics from Harvard and his MBA from Harvard as well. Its very evident that Barakett employs macro based investment theses. Once he has decided on what the trend is, he will find the best company within that trend and he will place a big bet. And, when needed, he will step in and take an activist role, ensuring the company is performing to his liking.

You may have heard about Atticus over the past few weeks because they have not been performing well at all this year. In our September hedge fund performance update, we noted that Atticus European was -42.5% for the year as of September while Atticus Global was -27.2% over the same timeframe. And, consequently, Atticus was a victim of liquidation rumors, which were quickly denied. We previously analyzed Atticus' portfolio holdings back in June and noticed that they had significant natural resource and mining positions at the time. We'll get into the details below, but you can take a guess as to where a lot of their losses are coming from this year. Overall, it's been one of the worst years for hedge funds in a long time. And although Atticus still exists as a fund, they have definitely had a rough year and have been selling off assets.

The following were Atticus' long equity and options holdings as of September 30th, 2008 as filed with the SEC.

New Positions (Brand new positions that they initiated in the last quarter):
Russell 2000 Index (IWM) Puts
CSX Corp (CSX) Calls
Financial select sector (XLF) Puts


Added to (Positions they already owned but added more shares)
Vale (RIO) Calls
Emisphere Technologies (EMIS)


Reduced Positions (Positions they sold some shares of)
Union Pacific (UNP)
Crown Castle (CCI)
Nyse Euronext (NYX)
Occidental Petroleum (OXY)
Freeport McMoran (FCX)
Gold Fields (GFI)
Freeport McMoran (FCX) Calls
Newmont Mining (NEM)
Western Union (WU)
KT Corp (KTC)
Telekomunikasi Indonesia (TLK)
China Telecom (CHA)
Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (PAC)
Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASR)
Sunair Services (SNE)
Petrochina (PTR)


Positions with no change
Synvista Therapeutics (SYI)


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Conoco Philips (COP)
Burlington Northern (BNI)
Conseco (CNO)
Peabody (BTU)
Mastercard (MA)
Norfolk Southern (NSC)
Genomic Health (GHDX)
Visa (V)
Focus Media (FMCN)
Nyse Euronext (NYX) Puts
Banco Itau (ITU)
Boeing (BA)
Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ)
Uhaul (UHAL)
Baidu (BIDU)
Banco Bradesco (BBD)
Companhia Saneamento Basico (SBS)
Praxair (PX)
National Financial Partners (NFP)
Unibanco (UBB)
Visa (V) Calls
Conoco Philips (COP) Calls
CSX (CSX)
Clean Energy (CLNE)
General Motors (GM)
BHP (BHP)
XTO Energy (XTO)
Marriott (MAR)
Starwood Hotels (HOT)
Nymex (NMX)
Cisco (CSCO)
Microsoft (MSFT)
American Tower (AMT)
Chesapeake (CHK)
Sandridge (SD)
Monsanto (MON)
Potash (POT)
Research in Motion (RIMM)
Apple (AAPL)
Google (GOOG)


Top 20 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. CSX (CSX) Calls
2. Vale (RIO) Calls
3. Freeport McMoran (FCX) Calls
4. Union Pacific (UNP)
5. Financial select sector (XLF) Puts
6. Crown Castle (CCI)
7. Russell 2000 index (IWM) Puts
8. Occidental Petroleum (OXY)
9. NYSE Euronext (NYX)
10. Newmont Mining (NEM)
11. Freeport McMoran (FCX)
12. Telekomunikasi Indonesia (TLK)
13. Western Union (WU)
14. Emisphere Technologies (EMIS)
15. Gold Fields (GFI)
16. China Telecom (CHA)
17. Synvista Therapeutics (SYI)
18. Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASR)
19. KT Corp (KTC)
20. Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (PAC)
    

Atticus was definitely out liquidating a lot of assets. In the quarter prior, they had nearly $8 billion in their long equity portfolio. This quarter, they had only around $500 million worth of positions. That is some serious deleveraging and unwinding. This is the seventh hedge fund we've covered in our 3rd quarter 2008 edition of 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, and Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital.

Stay tuned this week and next week as we detail the portfolio holdings of more funds. Overall, its been one of the worst years ever for hedge funds, as we noted in our recent October 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. Here are some funds to look forward to that we will be tracking: David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, Paul Tudor Jones' Tudor Investment Corp, Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management, and many, many more.

More on Barakett & Atticus:
- Atticus Capital's 2nd quarter '08 portfolio holdings
- October Hedge Fund Performance update

Atticus Capital Letter to Investors (European Fund)

As we've noted in our most recent hedge fund performance update, Atticus European was -15.8% in September and is -42.5% year-to-date. You can view Atticus' most recent portfolio holdings here (as last updated with the SEC).

***EDIT: Removed per request of representatives from Atticus

Goldman Sachs Conviction Buy List Update

Yesterday (10/2), Goldman Sachs (GS) was out making some changes to its esteemed conviction buy list. They removed Freeport McMoran (FCX) from the list, but still reiterated a normal 'buy' rating on the name. Additionally, they have added Suncor (SU) to the list.

Copper mining giant Freeport McMoran (FCX) hit a new 52-week low of $45.17 yesterday as it continues to get obliterated. Just a few months back, it was trading as high as $125. Nowadays, amidst the commodity sell-off, deleveraging, and hedge fund redemptions, FCX is getting no love. Its valuation is borderline absurd, trading at around a 5 trailing PE and a 3.9 forward PE. But, valuation got thrown out a long time ago in this market environment. Hedge fund giants such as Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital and Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital had massive positions in FCX as of their most recent respective 13F filings with the SEC. Undoubtedly, the decline in FCX's share price has hit these funds hard. And, they most likely have been contributing to the selling. Last time we checked various hedge fund's year-to-date performances, Atticus was down 25% for the year and Harbinger, after being up 42% for the year, now finds themselves up only 2% (more numbers here). You can view Atticus' portfolio holdings here and Harbinger Capital's portfolio holdings here. Additionally, you can read more about Harbinger's exploits here.

Suncor (SU), on the other hand, was being added to the conviction buy list as shares continued to tumble. SU has fallen from a high of $73 to current levels of $33. Canadian Oil Sands giant Suncor (SU) is owned by numerous hedge funds, including legendary oil maverick T. Boone Pickens' BP Capital. And, as you can imagine, the share price depreciation in SU has affected Boone's portfolio in a negative way. Although not the sole reason for his funds' decline, Boone still finds himself down $1 billion for the year. You can view all of T. Boone Pickens' BP Capital equity holdings here.


Source: StreetInsider 1, 2

Hedge Fund Tracking: Atticus Capital's 13F Filing (Managed by Timothy Barakett)

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

It's time to continue the Hedge Fund tracking series. If you've missed them, I've already covered Jeffrey Gendell's Tontine Partners, Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital, Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, Boone Pickens' BP Capital, Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management, Paul Tudor Jones' Tudor Investment Corp, and Bruce Kovner's Caxton Associates. And, if you want to hear some insightful thoughts from many of the hedge fund managers listed above, head over to my post on Hedge Fund manager interviews. 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.

Atticus Capital is a $13 billion hedge fund ran by Timothy Barakett. In 2005, Atticus' funds were up a combined 45%. And, they finished well over 30% for 2006. Barakett founded the firm at age 26 in 1995 and focuses on taking large, concentrated positions in companies. One of Atticus' most famous investments was Phelps Dodge, a miner which was bought out by Freeport McMoran (FCX). At one point, Atticus owned more than 9% of Phelps. And, they continue to hold their position in what is now the combined FCX. Barakett received his BA in Economics from Harvard and his MBA from Harvard as well. Its very evident that Barakett employs macro based investment theses. Once he has decided on what the trend is, he will find the best company within that trend and he will place a big bet. And, when needed, he will step in and take an activist role, ensuring the company is performing to his liking.

You may have heard about Atticus over the past few weeks because they have not been performing well at all this year. In my last hedge fund year-to-date performance update, we noted that Atticus was -25% for the year. And, consequently, Atticus was a victim of liquidation rumors, which have since been denied. We previously analyzed Atticus' portfolio holdings back in June and noticed that they had significant natural resource and mining positions at the time. I'll get into the details below, but you can take a guess as to where a lot of their losses are coming from this year. Overall, it's been one of the worst years for hedge funds in a long time.

So, now that we've got a background on Barakett and Atticus Capital, let's take a quick look at his portfolio highlights. Keep in mind that this is merely a brief summary of Atticus' 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. Union Pacific (UNP) - Increased position by 61%
2. Conoco Philips (COP) - Stake rasied by only 0.3%
3. Mastercard (MA) - Decreased position by 13%
4. Burlington Northern (BNI) - Decreased stake by 6%
5. Freeport McMoran (FCX) - Decreased position by nearly 52%
6. NYSE Euronext (NYX) - Sold off 9.3% of their position
7. Occidental Petroleum (OXY) - Decreased stake by 7%
8. Crown Castle (CCI) - Decreased by only 0.4%
9. Peabody Energy (BTU) - New position
10. Baidu (BIDU) - Increased stake by 65%
11. Norfolk Southern (NSC) - Increased position by 36%
12. Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ) - Decreased stake by 16.6%
13. Visa (V) - New position
14. Boeing (BA) - Boosted stake by 440% (no, not a typo)
15. Praxair (PX) - New position
16. Focus Media (FMCN) - New position
17. Unibanco (UBB) - Sold off 36% of position
18. Amerco (UHAL) - Decreased stake by 32%
19. Conseco (CNO) - Sold off 8.8% of position
20. Vale (RIO) - New position

So, if you didn't already notice, Atticus definitely favors positions in the rails. And, you can't blame them. Those investments have paid off significantly over the course of the year. Atticus has large positions in most of the majors: Burlington (BNI), Norfolk (NSC), and Union Pacific (UNP). Atticus also holds a position in CSX Corp (CSX), but it just isn't a top 20 holding. Atticus boosted their stake in UNP by 61%, propelling it all the way up to the fund's top holding. Numerous other hedge funds have very large positions in the rails as I've noted before. Not to mention, Warren Buffett has some pretty large stakes in some of the rails as well.

Next, I noticed that Atticus was selling off a chunk of their Mastercard (MA). This position could potentially be another one that has been causing them some pain lately. Although they sold 13% last quarter when the share price was trading around $270-300, MA has since plumetted, and is currently hovering around $185. And, considering it was/is their 3rd largest holding, it has to be causing them some pain.

Freeport McMoran (FCX) comes in at the fund's 5th largest holding and could equally be responsible for the fund's poor performance this year. As I noted earlier, they gained these FCX shares through their purchase of Phelps Dodge (who was acquired by FCX). And, up until now, they had pretty much held onto the shares of the new company. But, this past quarter, we saw Barakett unload nearly half his position. At the time of this sale, FCX was trading anywhere from $100-120. But, recently, FCX has traded way down to $63. This name has seen brutal selling over the past few months and you have to think that either Atticus was getting mauled by the sell-off, or they were partly responsible for it. We'll see what the verdict is come November when the next 13F filings are released.

Atticus also added some new holdings this past quarter, and they were adding with conviction. They initiated a position in Peabody (BTU) and brought it up to the fund's 9th largest holding. Additionally, they initiated Visa (V) as their 13th largest holding, Praxair (PX) as their 15th, and Focus Media (FMCN) as their 16th largest. Also, although they already owned Boeing (BA), they boosted their stake by a whopping 440%, bringing it way up to the fund's 14th biggest position.

Overall, it's easy to see where some of Atticus' pain may be coming from this year. Barakett runs a smaller, highly concentrated portfolio. And, when it wins, it wins big. But, as you're seeing now, it can also lose big as well. To see all of Atticus Capital's holdings, you can view their entire 13F filing with the SEC.

Hedge Fund Year to Date Returns (Paulson, D.E. Shaw, SAC, & More)

Well, we recently got an update as to just how poorly hedge funds are performing year to date. Don't get me wrong, there are of course some standout performers. But, for the most part, they are taking it on the chin. So, if you are an individual investor getting your ass handed to you in this market.... you're not alone. Even some of the best and brightest in the game are right there with you. Hell, you're probably even outperforming some of these funds. Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, we get a look at many notable hedge fund's performance year to date.

The Standout Performers

• $35 billion Paulson & Co: +18% ytd
• $26.3 billion Brevan Howard: +16% ytd
• $37.1 billion D.E. Shaw: +8% ytd
• $30.9 billion Bridgewater Associates: +6% ytd
• $33.3 billion Och-Ziff Capital: +0.5% ytd
• $16 billion Winston Capital: +10% ytd
• $10 billion Caxton Associates: +5% ytd
• $17 billion Tudor Investment Corp: +3% ytd
• $16 billion SAC Capital: +1.5% ytd
  

The Not-so Standout Performers

• $49.3 billion Highbridge/JP Morgan (Multistrat fund): -2% ytd
• $33 billion Farallon Capital: -6% ytd
• $23.7 billion GLG Partners: -14% ytd
• $13 billion Eton Park Capital: -1% ytd
• $19 billion Citadel Investment Group: -6% ytd
• $18 billion Lone Pine Capital: -8.5% ytd
• $12.5 billion TPG-Axon: -11% ytd
• $8 billion Cantillon Capital: -12% ytd
• $15 billion Atticus Capital: -25% ytd

The Slightly Mixed Bag

• $29.5 billion Renaissance Technologies: One of their funds is -1% ytd, while their signature Medallion fund is +40% ytd
• $26.9 billion Goldman Sachs: One of their funds is -2% ytd, while their Global Alpha fund is +17% ytd

And, according to Hedge Fund Research, Inc., hedge funds are having their worst year since 1990 (when they started tracking). They show that the average hedge fund is -3.43% ytd compared to -12.65% in the S&P500 and +1.05% in the Lehman Bros Bond Index.

So, results all across the board. Interesting to note though, that Atticus Capital is down 25% year to date. Just yesterday, there were rumors circulating that they were liquidating as I wrote about here. Tim Barakett, the founder of Atticus, came out and denied those rumors. The reason for such a large decline is pretty easy to pinpoint. As I've written about before, their portfolio had very heavy exposure to the likes of Freeport McMoran (FCX), Mastercard (MA), and NYSE Euronext (NYX); all of which have really been beaten down badly as of late. So, the rumors of liquidation weren't completely illogical, seeing as how the fund is down big this year. But, I want to reiterate again that they have denied the rumors that they were liquidating.

On another note, the algorithm master Jim Simons and his Renaissance Technologies Medallion fund are up big this year; very big. That's all I can really say about that, seeing as his entire operation is one giant quant enigma. D.E. Shaw & Co, fellow quant masters, are doing decently, up 8% year to date in this horrid tape.

Lone Pine Capital, managed by Stephen Mandel, (whom I frequently cover here on the blog), isn't having the best of years, but isn't getting slaughtered like Atticus is. Lone Pine is down a little over 8% year to date. You can view their most recent portfolio holdings as I analyzed here.

The "Commodities Corp Offspring," Paul Tudor Jones and Bruce Kovner have been playing the commodities markets smartly with their macro funds it seems. Jones' Tudor Investment Corp is up 3% ytd, while Kovner's Caxton Associates is up 8% ytd. With the wild swings in the commodities markets claiming the life of the Ospraie fund, I'm sure Tudor Jones and Kovner are happy to turn a profit. This year has been one wild ride, to say the least.

And, lastly, John Paulson is still kicking ass and taking names; up 18% year to date. You'll remember that Paulson correctly pegged the subprime crisis last year and profited handsomely from it.

So, there you have it. See how you stack up against some of the most revered names in the game. Some are dominating, while others are getting dominated. Welcome to the bear market.

Source: WSJ

More Hedge Fund Liquidation Rumors

Well, it certainly feels like funds are liquidating, doesn't it? After hearing news that the Ospraie Fund was closing its doors yesterday, concern mounted that they wouldn't be the last to do so. And, today rumors were swirling that $14 billion hedge fund Atticus Capital (whom we've covered here on the blog) was liquidating. Not so, claims Tim Barakett, Atticus' founder. Barakett says, "We're certainly not liquidating. In fact we have a large net cash position and are looking for opportunities to invest capital." So, Atticus denies the rumors. And, while they personally might be safe, some other funds most certainly are not. Its hard to believe that Ospraie would be the only fund to blow up in this big mess. The only reason I bring this up is because more liquidations = the market heading even lower.

Source: WSJ

Hedge Fund Tracking: Atticus Capital's 13F (Timothy Barakett)

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

Atticus Capital is a $13 billion hedge fund ran by Timothy Barakett. In 2005, Atticus' funds were up a combined 45%. And, they finished well over 30% for 2006. Barakett founded the firm at age 26 in 1995 and focuses on taking large, concentrated positions in companies. One of Atticus' most famous investments was Phelps Dodge, a miner which was bought out by Freeport McMoran (FCX). At one point, Atticus owned more than 9% of Phelps. And, they continue to hold their position in what is now the combined FCX. Barakett received his BA in Economics from Harvard and his MBA from Harvard as well. Its very evident that Barakett employs macro based investment theses. Once he has decided on what the trend is, he will find the best company within that trend and he will place a big bet. And, when needed, he will step in and take an activist role, ensuring the company is performing to his liking. And, much more often than not, he wins.

I love covering Atticus simply because their investment style is the most similar to mine that I have found thus far, in terms of hedge funds. (Well, minus the activist part since I'm a measly retail investor haha.) I will be detailing the changes to Atticus' portfolio as referenced in their latest 13F filing, which shows the portfolio changes they made last quarter. I won't be going into as much detail on Atticus as I have on the ex-Tiger Management funds (Lone Pine, Blue Ridge, Maverick) simply because Atticus has fewer, more concentrated positions. So, I'll cover the major moves and give the jist of what's going on in their portfolio. Just remember that this is by no means all their positions; they have some more, but they are literally tiny positions. With Atticus, you want to be placing your money with their big bets. These are just the bigger/notable moves that they made.

New Positions:
AngloGold Ashanti (AU) 918,000 shares
Newmont Mining (NEM) 1,022,400 shares
Visa (V) 7,799,500 ipo shares

Added to:
Genomic Health (GHDX) increased by
Goldfields (GFI) increased by

Reduced Positions:
CSX Corp (CSX): sold out of all their CSX shares, and sold half of their CSX calls.
Freeport McMoran (FCX) Shares: reduced from 16,393,273 shares to 11,523,563 shares
Freeport McMoran (FCX) Calls: reduced Calls position from 10,014,400 shares through calls to 2,214,900 shares through calls
Mastercard (MA) Shares: reduced from from 4,093,290 shares to 3,621,683 shares
Mastercard (MA) Calls: reduced Calls position from 1,594,600 shares through calls to 194,600 shares through calls
Norfolk Southern (NSC) Shares: reduced from 5,634,016 shares to 1,921,900 shares
Norfolk Southern (NSC) Calls: reduced Calls position from 203,600 shares though calls to 0 shares through calls
NYSE (NYX) Shares: reduced from 15,261,911 shares to 13,955,540 shares
NYSE (NYX) Calls: reduced Calls position from 7,251,400 shares though calls to 0 shares through calls
Occidental Petroleum (OXY): reduced from 9,428,982 shares to 7,414,900 shares

Removed Positions:
Inverness Medical (IMA)
Monsanto (MON)
Moody's (MCO)
Praxair (PX)
Research in Motion (RIMM)
Verisign (VRSN)

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Breakdown: Alright, so after checking out the major moves from Atticus' portfolio, its very clear to see that Barakett is putting big bets on gold through the miners themselves. It appears as if they were taking profits from their long held Phelps Dodge (now FCX) and applying that cash to pick up and add to other miners. The weird thing here is that FCX, although their name has "Gold" in it, is mainly a copper producer. These other miners they added are mainly gold miners. So, since we cannot see commodity holdings through the 13f's, I would bet that Barakett owns some gold. Because otherwise, his choice to play this thesis through the miners baffles me, because he is exposed to the company specific risk. He has protected himself somewhat by diversifying amongst the miners, spreading his risk around. But still, a puzzling move to me. While I agree that the US faces heavier inflation fears than construed by many, his bet on the miners is taking some time for me to digest. I do not see the Gold etf GLD in his portfolio, so I would guess that he owns some of the actual commodity. That is, unless, he sees something completely different in the miners themselves. Clearly though, he was buying the dip in gold. And, although he takes some profits in FCX, it still continues to be the fund's #1 holding. Note though, that his position size in these miners pales in comparison to his various other top fund holdings, ie: the gold miners are not massive holdings in his portfolio, save for FCX, which is a copper play anyways, so there's a difference.

They got their hands on a massive allocation of Visa (V) ipo shares, and so that has undoubtedly paid off. I'm sure they will sell a little bit to take some profits, but hold the vast majority, as they have done with Mastercard (MA). It is very apparent that Barakett is a big believer in MA's global presence and expansion. He sold a little MA, but again, not substantial enough to be more than profit taking. After all, MA is up huge. V fits right in there with that same thesis so it makes sense for him to add in mass on the ipo where he got the shares dirt cheap (damn you!). His position in MA is worth twice as much as his position in V (in $ value). Look for him to possibly even add even more V on any dips.

What I haven't necessarily detailed here is Atticus' massive position in the rails. Although they sold out of most of their CSX, they have absolutely HUGE positions in BNI and UNP (in fact, they are the fund's #4 and #1 holdings respectively). So, they have slowly but surely traded out of CSX over the past few quarters in favor of BNI and UNP. No surprise here, as almost every smart guy on wall street is in big on the rails.

Ahh NYSE (NYX), good ole NYX. This is a pretty massive position for Atticus, still in the top 10 of holdings even though they've been selling some off. As a recent shareholder myself, I know the pain they must be feeling. The thesis behind investing in NYX makes perfect sense and I'm right with Barakett on it. But, it seems as if this is going to take much longer to play out than he has imagined. He's been reducing his position size a little bit to reduce his risk, considering he must have been taking quite a big hit from this position. We'll see if he has dwindled it down even further next quarter. If that's the case, it might be time to re-evaluate NYX as there might be fundamental problems with this name.

Barakett continues to play oil through Conoco Philips (COP) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY). Although he sold off some OXY, he still has a pretty large position. I would guess he was just taking profits in that name, as it is up pretty significantly. His position in COP is larger anyhow.

Other odds and ends worth pointing out is Atticus' tiny position in Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE). Sound familiar? Yep, this is Boone Pickens' company. And, Boone Pickens' BP Capital has a pretty hefty position in his own company too. Just thought that was interesting. Also worth noting is that Atticus has a pretty sizable stake in Crown Castle (CCI). I was puzzled as to why Maverick Capital had sold out of their CCI last quarter, but its reassuring to see Atticus still holding a large position in it. Having done more research on it over the past week, it really makes sense to me as an investment and I really am dumbstruck as to why Maverick sold it off. Also, just like practically every other well known hedge fund, Atticus holds decent positions in all 3 of the major Brazilian banks: Unibanco (UBB), Banco Bradesco (BBD) and Banco Itau (BBD). Typically, it seems that most hedgers have bigger bets on ITU and BBD. But, Atticus is the inverse in that their position in UBB is the size of their position in BBD and ITU combined. These are three of the staples for any Brazilian index fund. And, with good reason. These names are very compelling due to their positioning in a blossoming Brazilian financial scene. I haven't been in these names ever since I sold out to take profits, but am definitely at looking to get back in. I'm invested in a Brazilian index fund for my retirement account, but I need more Brazil exposure in my macro investment account.

The main thing that strikes me overall about Atticus' portfolio is the conviction with which Barakett invests in the trends he really believes in. His portfolio has either a tiny stake in the stock, or a massive stake in the stock, hardly much in between. There are only a handful of names in his portfolio that fall in the "in between" category. And, this is after the fact that I've taken into account that the sectors he's bet big on have appreciated a lot in value. Even after subtracting what I gauge to be "fair profit" in those names, his original positions in those names are still among the largest in his portfolio. So, the argument that they are his largest holdings due to their large appreciation is a non-factor. He's got massive bets on in payment processing, precious metals/mining (FCX), oil, and the rails. I'll be keeping a close eye on which of the "smaller" holdings suddenly become elevated into a large holding. Because when that happens, Barakett has come to his next macro conclusion and will have acted swiftly.

Personal Favorites out of Atticus' Portfolio: MA, V, OXY, FCX, (NYX - even though its a death trap), UBB, ITU, BBD, CCI

Most interesting moves: Using some profits from FCX to load up on various gold/precious metal miners. I've never thought the gold miners themselves to be that great of investments. I only like FCX so much because its not really a gold company, they're much more of a copper and molybdenum story. Selling completely out of RIMM was also interesting... I'm sure he'll be back once those shares come crashing down again. But, he still has a decent sized position in Baidu (BIDU) for 'tech' exposure.

Note, of their positions, I'm long: MA, V, OXY, FCX, NYX, BNI

Names I want to research further: CCI, BBD, ITU, UBB, PAC

Look out in the coming days as I wrap up the hedge fund coverage with a few last 'notorious' funds and whales.