Pershing Square Gains 15% in November, Skeptics Emerge - A Lesson in Hedge Fund Tracking

Bill Ackman's hedge fund firm Pershing Square Capital Management returned 15% gross and 12.2% net for the month of November and has returned 35.5% gross and 27% net for 2010. Fantastic numbers, no? Given the somewhat outlandish results in one month, it's not necessarily a surprise that skeptics have emerged. It's perfectly acceptable to be skeptical/suspicious/curious given the cloud of secrecy that largely surrounds the hedge fund industry. However, when skeptics don't know how to track a hedge fund properly, their argument immediately loses credibility.

So, what's all the fuss about here? We hesitated even bringing this up for fear of drawing further attention to the article, but we couldn't bear it any longer. Earlier, Dealbreaker reported Pershing's performance numbers. Then, a site called Insider Monkey published an appalling article and the shit hit the fan. After "analyzing" the returns of Pershing Square's investments in November, Insider Monkey concludes that, "either Ackman made another secret investment which returned a gazillion percent or... Dealbreaker was duped."

First and foremost, any reader of Dealbreaker knows that the site posts performance updates directly from top hedge funds from time to time (i.e. printed on the hedge fund's letterhead). So, for Insider Monkey to insinuate that Dealbreaker posted up a 'duped' document is a bit asinine considering Bess Levin's pristine track record of posting authentic material. Bess is probably straight up laughing at Insider Monkey's insinuation. Next: onto the important stuff.

The crux of Insider Monkey's misstep is that they completely failed to assess Ackman's FULL portfolio. This highlights rule number one when tracking hedge funds: never rely solely on the 13F filing. If they had also read Ackman's various 13G's, 13D's and Form 4's filed with the SEC regarding Pershing's position in General Growth Properties (GGP), they would have realized where the bulk of the fund's performance came from and wouldn't have penned that nonsensical article.

A cursory look over the hedge fund's other SEC filings reveals that GGP emerged from bankruptcy on November 9th and obtained $6.8 billion in new equity capital and restructured $15 billion of debt. Pershing Square owned GGP equity and GGP unsecured debt. Additionally (and probably most importantly), Pershing Square purchased 46 million shares of new GGP at $10 per share and warrants as part of the restructuring (with shares now trading around $16).

So voilà, there's your answer. Insider Monkey was using a 13F filing that disclosed positions as of September 30th to determine a hedge fund's performance when one of the fund's main holdings saw a major corporate event a month after the 13F was filed, altering their position size. While Insider Monkey makes note of GGP's spin-off of the Howard Hughes Co (HHC), they completely fail to recognize the full extent of Ackman's position in the various securities of the company. Needless to say, Ackman owns much more GGP/HHC than what is reported on the latest 13F filing.

Not to mention, they completely omit the fact that Ackman holds other assets that SEC 13F filings don't require disclosure of. Assets falling into this category that Ackman owns include cash settled total return swaps and stock options, real estate hedges (via short sales and/or other non-disclosed positions), as well as a past position in BP (BP) credit default swaps. Lastly, Ackman could possibly hold various debt positions as well.

On their Seeking Alpha article, commenters have also pointed out Insider Monkey's misstep. What's comical is that after this revelation in the comments, Insider Monkey claims, "it looks like our conclusion is correct," referring to their conclusion that, "Ackman made another secret investment which returned a gazillion percent."

Umm, no. There was NOTHING secret about this investment (or any other investment that could have contributed to Pershing's performance). Within our article alone, we've already linked to Ackman's updated aggregate economic exposure to GGP, his various stock options plays, as well as updates on all of his portfolio holdings. Again, it just goes back to Insider Monkey's complete lack of attention to detail. Had they simply read the various SEC filings made by Pershing not titled 13F, they would have found their answer as Ackman disclosed the extent of his aggregate economic exposure (and reason for the bulk of his strong performance) long ago.

So, what has Insider Monkey's folly taught us? It reinforced the fact that when tracking hedge funds, you have to take 13F filings with a grain of salt. Additionally, you have to track the full gamut of information (all SEC filings, investor letters, presentations, manager comments etc). This is what Market Folly strives to do on a daily basis. We simply wanted to use this as an opportunity to present a lesson in hedge fund tracking and why it's important to track MUCH more than just a fund's SEC 13F filing.

Based on this, we'll be launching a series of educational articles on the various aspects of hedge fund tracking and how to do it, so stay tuned! In the mean time, scroll through all of our coverage of hedge fund portfolios here and remember that MarketFolly.com is your go-to source for the full spectrum of hedge fund analysis.

Hedge Fund 13F Filings: First Quarter 2010

This post is the preface to the series we will be doing in the coming weeks here at Market Folly that details what many prominent hedge funds have been up to in the first quarter of 20010 as per their just released SEC 13F filings.

Four times a year (once each quarter), hedge funds & asset managers with greater than $100 million AUM (assets under management) are required to disclose their holdings to the SEC. These filings only disclose long US equity positions, options (calls & puts), as well as notes and convertibles. The 13F filing does not disclose positions in commodities, currencies, or other markets. It also does not showcase short positions or cash.

As such, it is typically wise to only track long/short equity managers as equities will be the primary assets held in their portfolio. While we can't see their shorts, we do get a look at their exposure on the long side. Additionally, it is generally recommended to only track value oriented managers or funds with a longer investment horizon and not trading oriented firms. This is advised because of the timelag associated with 13F filings. The most recent filings that are just now being released (first quarter 2010) disclose hedge fund portfolio positions as of March 31st, 2010. As you can see, there is a 45 day time lapse between when the portfolio snapshot is taken and when the information is disclosed to the public. While many firms will have undoubtedly shifted their portfolio around a bit since then, you still get a glimpse at their core holdings.

We check these 13F filings quarterly to get a sense as to where these funds are putting their money. If you just sit down and do some simple number crunching between this quarter's 13F and the one prior, you can see exactly where they've shifted their portfolio. Why bother doing this, you ask? Well, it's simple: following select hedge fund managers can provide some great investment ideas to do more research on.

Not to mention, if you wanted to 'piggyback' their positions, you'd be surprised at some of the outperformance you'd see. Using Alphaclone, you can backtest hedge fund portfolios to determine what kind of performance you would have seen by simply mirroring various managers. Alphaclone aggregates all the data directly from the SEC and analyzes what hedge funds have been buying and selling on a quarter over quarter basis. Not to mention, you can combine multiple hedge fund managers into a custom portfolio that aggregates some of the managers' shared investment ideas. It's the best hedge fund replicator out there, hands down. We're pleased that Market Folly readers can receive a special free 30 day trial to Alphaclone if you're interested in checking it out. It is the source we use for all of our hedge fund tracking.

Let's turn next to the list of hedge funds we track here at Market Folly. Firstly, we obviously detail the latest portfolio movement from some very notable value & activist funds. Click the links below to be taken to the respective portfolio update:

- Seth Klarman's Baupost Group
- David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital
- Dan Loeb's Third Point LLC
- Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management
- Eddie Lampert's RBS Partners/ESL Investments
- Ricky Sandler's Eminence Capital
- Mohnish Pabrai's Investment Fund
- Bruce Berkowitz's Fairholme Capital

We also follow the 'Tiger Cubs'. These are investment managers that were former proteges under Julian Robertson at legendary hedge fund Tiger Management. They learned and excelled within Tiger's intensive research process and eventually went on to start their own funds. Additionally, we'll also track the disclosures of Julian Robertson as his Tiger Management LLC still files with the SEC. Here are the Tiger Cubs we track:

- John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital
- Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital
- Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital
- Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global
- Roberto Mignone's Bridger Management
- Shumway Capital Partners (Chris Shumway)
- Philippe Laffont's Coatue Capital Management
- David Gerstenhaber's Argonaut Capital Management
- Tom Brown's Second Curve Capital
- Rob Citrone's Discovery Capital Management
- Robert Karr's Joho Capital
- Robert Bishop's Impala Asset Management
- John Lykouretzos' Hoplite Capital Management
- Anu Murgai's Suranya Capital Partners

We'll also be tracking the aptly named 'Tiger Seeds.' These funds were actually seeded by Julian Robertson after he wound down Tiger Management and many of these promising young managers still office at Tiger's Park Avenue address:

- Chase Coleman's Tiger Global
- Charles Anderson's Fox Point Capital Management
- Jonathan Auerbach's Hound Partners
- Dane Andreeff's Maple Leaf Partners
- Manish Chopra's Tiger Veda Management
- Kris Kristynik's Longhorn Capital Partners
- Quincy Fennebresque's Venesprie Capital Management
- Tom Facciola's Tigershark Partners
- Pat McCormack's Tiger Consumer Management
- Marc Anderson & Eliav Assouline's Axial Capital Management
- Pasco Alfaro and Richard Tumure's Miura Global Management

We will also be following what we have termed the 'Tiger GrandCubs' (we realize the terminology is a bit ridiculous, any other ideas?) These are funds started by former employees of some of the Tiger Cubs on the first list above. We're tracking the following managers, but please contact us if you know of any others:

- David Stemerman's Conatus Capital (Stemerman was formerly at Lone Pine)
- David Gallo's Valinor Management (Gallo was previously at Bridger Management)
- Lee Hobson's Highside Capital (Hobson left Maverick to start his fund)
- Matt Iorio's White Elm Capital (Iorio also started his fund after working at Lone Pine)
- John Thaler's JAT Capital (Thaler was previously at Shumway Capital Partners)

Next, we'll turn our focus to the Commodities Corporation "offspring" which have gone off to start their own funds and typically employ a global macro strategy. We don't track them for their specific equity holdings since they typically deal in futures markets. We mainly check in on them to see what sectors they might be flocking to and whether or not they have large exposure to US equities.

- Tudor Investment Corp (Paul Tudor Jones)
- Moore Capital Management (Louis Bacon)
- Caxton Associates (Bruce Kovner)

We also follow an assortment of funds that employ strategies ranging from risk arbitrage to event-driven and often run concentrated portfolios. We track these funds due to their solid returns over the years and their prominence within the hedge fund industry:

- John Paulson's Paulson & Co
- David Tepper's Appaloosa Management
- Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners
- Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital
- Boone Pickens' BP Capital
- Barry Rosenstein's Jana Partners
- Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital
- Thomas Steyer's Farallon Capital Management
- John Burbank's Passport Capital
- Ken Griffin's Citadel Investment Group
- Jeffrey Gendell's Tontine Associates
- Anand Parekh's Alyeska Investment Group (Parekh was formerly at Citadel)
- Passport Capital (John Burbank)
- Sprott Asset Management (Eric Sprott)
- Balyasny Asset Management (Dmitry Balyasny)

And last, but certainly not least, we watch the movements of well known investment gurus as well:

- Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway)
- Carl Icahn (Icahn Partners)
- George Soros (Soros Fund Management)

As you can see, we've taken on quite a workload of fund coverage. While Market Folly is a one-man team, we've enlisted the help of a few others for this series so that there will be as much hedge fund content as possible on a daily basis. We've also fielded a lot of reader requests and plan to also cover the following requested funds: Paul Reeder's PAR Capital, Mathews Capital (Phil Mathews), Marko Dimitrijevic's Everest Capital, Roc Capital Management, Manatuck Hill Partners, RWC Biltmore Fund, Roderick Wong's RTW Investments, Alex Klabin & Doug Silverman's Senator Investment Group, Li Lu's Himalaya Capital Management, Scout Capital, Plural Investments, Pollen Capital, Xenion, Matrix Capital Management, and AYM.

Over the coming weeks we'll touch on some of the important portfolio moves these funds and market gurus have made. As always, if you have access to any investor letters or presentations from the funds listed above, please get in contact with us at the top of the site (rest assured, we treat all contributions as anonymous). The hedge fund portfolio tracking series (first quarter 2010 edition) starts today, so spread the word and check MarketFolly.com daily for updates. First up in separate posts: Seth Klarman's Baupost Group and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

Tracking Hedge Fund Positions in the UK

We had previously published a brief look at how to track a hedge fund's positions in the UK. We wanted to update that piece a bit and break it down to make it easier to understand. After all, we occasionally cover hedge fund holdings in UK markets. Recently, we've detailed how hedge fund Eton Park expanded their UK positions and you can view the rest of our UK updates here. So, let's examine how to do this:

The UK differs from the US in that disclosure is not required on a periodic basis (as in the case of disclosures required quarterly on a 13F in the US). Instead of “across the board” disclosure on a regular basis the UK system is more event driven. There are four main sets of circumstances under which investment funds and hedge funds are required to disclose long and short positions in UK listed companies.

1. Large holdings in a company

Shareholders with a substantial long position of greater than 3 per cent of a company's outstanding equity are required to disclose it. Note that this includes rights to acquire shares via derivatives at a later date such as Contracts for Difference (CFDs) or options.

Once a fund crosses above 3% of a company’s equity it has to report any further changes at 1% increments (regardless of whether it is a purchase or a sale). For example, if a fund moves from 3 to 4% of total ordinary shares or from 4 to 5%, they must disclose the change. They must also report sales, for example, from 7 down to 6% until they fall below the 3% threshold where one final filing is required to acknowledge that the fund no longer has a concentrated ownership stake.

Large shareholders in companies that trade on the main market are required to simultaneously inform the issuer and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of changes to major holdings using a TR-1 form. Substantial shareholders in companies that trade on the exchange-regulated markets (such as AIM or Plus Markets) need only inform the issuer of changes to major holdings in that issuer's shares. Issuers must then disclose this information to the wider market via the Regulatory News Service of the London Stock Exchange.

2. Takeovers

Under Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code if a fund holds 1% or more of the stock of the offeror or the offeree in a takeover all dealings (including derivatives) must be disclosed by no later than 3.30 pm (London time) on the day following the date of the relevant transaction. This requirement continues throughout the offer period. A disclosure table giving details of the companies involved in takeovers is available for the public to view on the Takeover Panel’s website.

If two or more hedge funds act together to acquire an interest in the securities of the offeror or the offeree company they are deemed to be a single entity and need to disclose as such. Under Rule 8.1 all transactions in the stock of the offeror or of the offeree company by the offeror or the offeree company must be disclosed by no later than 12.00 noon (London time) on the business day following the date of the relevant transaction.

3. Rights issues and short positions

Hedge funds that have a short position of 0.25% or greater in a UK listed company that is undertaking a rights issue are required to disclose it. The deadline for disclosures is 3.30 pm on the business day following the day the short position threshold was crossed

4. Financial companies and short positions

Hedge funds that are net short of a UK financial sector company are required to disclose the position if it is greater than 0.25% of the firm’s issued share capital. In addition, the fund must disclose each time it increases the short by 0.1% of issued share capital (e.g., at 0.35%, 0.45%). The list of companies deemed to be “fianancial sector companies” is available in PDF format on the FSA website .

We'll continue to cover hedge fund movements in UK markets. Click here to follow our coverage on UK portfolio updates thus far.

Further Reading

Disclosure of Contracts for Difference - Questions & Answers - Version 2 [PDF]

List! Issue No. 14 - Transparency Directive - December 2006 [PDF]

List! Issue No. 14 (Updated) - April 2007 [PDF]

Additional information on the responsibilities of major shareholders is also available.

Information about third country investment manager disclosure non-EEA investment managers. [PDF]

The Takeover Panel’s website.

Need Help From Readers: Which Hedge Funds To Track First?

Yep, it's hedge fund 13F filing season for the third quarter of 2009. We will have no life for the next week or two, but it's okay because let's face it... we love tracking hedge funds. Earlier this morning, we posted up a list of hedge funds whose portfolios we'll update.

We have two simple questions for you:

1. Which hedge funds do you want us to cover first?

2. Besides the ones already on our list, what other hedge funds do you want us to track?


You are the ones reading, so tell us what you want to see!

Site visitors, please click on the 'comments' button below this post and let your voice be heard.
RSS readers, come to the blog to post up your comment, or email us.
Email newsletter readers: Simply reply to the daily email you receive from us.
Twitter followers: Just '@' reply to us with your picks.

Thanks for your help!

Tracking A Hedge Fund's UK Positions

Before we continue to look at the positions prominent hedge funds hold in UK markets, we thought it would be prudent to post up an informational piece regarding the nature of the UK regulatory system as it applies to hedge fund disclosure. Firstly, there is no UK equivalent to the SEC’s 13F filing in which funds have to file their holdings on a quarterly basis here in the United States. In the UK, hedge funds do not have to file on a periodic basis at all. Instead, large shareholders are only required to flag long holdings that are greater than 3% of a company’s issued equity. This means that small hedge funds often do not register on the filing radar at all unless they invest in very small companies. Large funds on the other hand often leave a footprint and we can track their activities with ease (particularly when they are buying small and medium sized companies). Their investments in large cap companies, however, often go (legally) unreported and unnoticed because they do not trigger the 3% threshold. This is most similar to an SEC 13G filing (or 13D filing sans the activism) in the United States whereby a fund has to disclose after they have acquired a 5% or greater ownership stake in a company. We routinely cover 13G filings here at Market Folly and these UK filings can be regarded as their regulatory version of a 13G.

In the UK, once a fund crosses above 3% of a company’s equity in issue it has to report any further changes at 1% increments (regardless of whether it is a purchase or a sale). For example, if a fund moves from 3 to 4% of equity in issue or from 4 to 5, they must report. They must also report sales, for example, from 7 down to 6% until it gets below the 3% threshold where one final filing is required to acknowledge that the fund no longer has a concentrated ownership stake.

The additional filings made at 1% increments are interesting because the funds have to provide the trading date on which the threshold was crossed. This date can then be used to make a rough estimate of the price the fund was willing to pay for a company. Arguably, purchase price information is particularly useful if the fund being tracked is well known for excelling at fundamentally driven or deep value research. It is perhaps less meaningful if the fund follows momentum driven investment strategies such as those used by many Commodity Trading Advisers as these funds often move in and out of positions with much more alacrity and disregard for valuation.

Finally, just like in the United States, we can only provide information on a fund's long positions in UK markets. Short positions do not have to be disclosed except if they are in financial companies or companies involved in rights issues. We will cover the UK disclosure rules on shorts and disclose some hedge fund short positions in a later article, so stay tuned.

Hopefully this gives everyone unfamiliar with the subject a brief background on how regulatory disclosures work in the UK. Now that we've presented this preface, look for more articles relating to various positions hedge funds hold in UK markets going forward. We've already covered Lone Pine Capital's UK holdings, Lone Pine's recent movements, Sprott Asset Management's defensive UK portfolio, as well as Citadel's positions. Then later this morning we’re also going to take a look at the UK holdings of legendary macro investor, Louis Bacon. And, as always, we'll continue to track the US holdings of prominent hedge funds in our portfolio tracking series, so check back daily.

Hedge Fund Portfolio Tracking Q1 2009: 13F Filings

Yep, it's thaaaaaaat time again. Buckle up for a whirlwind of first quarter 2009 hedge fund portfolios. This post is the preface to the series we will be doing in the coming weeks that details what many prominent hedge funds have been up to in the prior quarter.

Four times a year (once each quarter), hedge funds & asset managers with greater than $100 million AUM (assets under management) are required to report to the SEC their long holdings from the previous quarter. These filings do not show the funds' short positions and require them to disclose their long holdings in equity markets. Additionally, they are required to file various puts or calls purchased in the options market as well as notes & bonds. These filings do not cover commodities, currencies, or other markets. So, we just wanted to clarify that for people new to 13f filings. We check these 13F filings quarterly just to get a sense as to where these funds are putting their money. If you just sit down and do some simple number crunching between this quarter's 13F and the one prior, you can see exactly where these funds have been moving their money. And, if you create a cloned portfolio based on these top hedge fund holdings, you can see 17% annualized returns like our custom Market Folly portfolio created with Alphaclone.

Please note that these 13F's should be treated as a lagging indicator simply because the 13F's that are being released currently (May 15th-20th 2009) show the funds' portfolio holdings as of March 31st, 2009. So, in the past month and a half, they could have completely changed their portfolio. But, at the same time, its easy to see which sectors they are flocking to and what their concentrated positions are.

We like to specifically follow equity focused hedge funds as they are the easiest to track. We focus on value based (or growth-at-a-reasonable-price) hedge funds in the hope that they won't experience ridiculously high turnover and thus allow us to somewhat track their movements as they build up concentrated positions. Specifically, we follow the 'Tiger Cubs' (otherwise known as the proteges of former hedge fund Tiger Management legend Julian Robertson). Many of these former proteges/right-hand men have started their own funds and here are the ones we've been following. (Note that all the links below are to the respective holdings from Q4 2008 & will be replaced with the Q1 '09 links as we go along).

- Blue Ridge Capital (John Griffin) - Q1 updated
- Lone Pine Capital (Stephen Mandel) - Q1 updated
- Maverick Capital (Lee Ainslie) - Q1 updated
- Viking Global (Andreas Halvorsen) - Q1 updated
- Tiger Global (Chase Coleman)
- Touradji Capital (Paul Touradji)
- Shumway Capital Partners (Chris Shumway)

Additionally, we also like to follow the Commodities Corporation "offspring" which have gone off to start their own funds and typically employ a global macro strategy.

- Tudor Investment Corp (Paul Tudor Jones)
- Moore Capital Management (Louis Bacon)
- Caxton Associates (Bruce Kovner)

Additionally, we like to follow other "whales" well known for their investing prowess. These include:

- Warren Buffett
- Carl Icahn
- George Soros (Soros Fund Management LLC)

Next, there is an assortment of funds that employ various strategies ranging from activist to global macro and often run concentrated portfolios. We track these funds due to their solid returns over the years, as well as the spotlight that has been cast on a few of them in this turbulent market.

- Atticus Capital (Timothy Barakett) - Q1 updated
- Tremblant Capital (Bret Barakett)
- Clarium Capital (Peter Thiel)
- Pequot Capital Management (Art Samberg)
- Harbinger Capital (Philip Falcone)
- BP Capital (Boone Pickens)
- Paulson & Co (John Paulson) - Q1 updated
- Jana Partners (Barry Rosenstein)
- Eton Park Capital (Eric Mindich) - Q1 updated
- Farallon Capital Management (Thomas Steyer)
- Galleon Group (Raj Rajaratnam)
- Citadel (Ken Griffin)

A few deep value & activist funds:

- Third Point (Daniel Loeb)
- Pershing Square (Bill Ackman)
- Greenlight Capital (David Einhorn) - Q1 updated
- Baupost Group (Seth Klarman) - Q1 updated
- Tontine Associates (Jeffrey Gendell)

For our readers, we also track some quant and highly active trading funds. We do not track these firms to gain insight for portfolio investing ideas. Instead, it's merely for fun because for whatever reason, people like to see what they are doing. It's basically useless to track them due to their quant or high frequency trading nature and none of us could really tell you the rhyme or reason behind any one of their positions.

- SAC Capital (Stevie Cohen)
- D.E. Shaw (David Shaw)
- Renaissance Technologies (Jim Simons)

We also track a few spin-off and newer funds on the scene that are run by managers with storied pasts:

- Conatus Capital (David Stemerman, ex-Lone Pine)
- James Pallotta's Raptor Capital Management (ex-Tudor)
- Alyeska Investment Group (Anand Parekh, ex-Citadel)

And, a few other funds we're beginning to track due to high demand from our readers. We receive a lot of suggestions and take the ones we see recurring the most and add them:

- Passport Capital (John Burbank)
- Sprott Asset Management (Eric Sprott)
- Balyasny Asset Management (Dmitry Balyasny)
- Hilltop Park Fund (Stanley Shopkorn, ex-Moore)

Over the coming weeks we'll touch on some of the important position moves these funds and whales have made (new positions, removed positions, etc). That list of funds brings our coverage to 40+ prominent hedge funds. If you would like to see a specific hedge fund covered here on MarketFolly.com, post up a comment in the comments section below. We're always looking to add more funds that readers would like to see, so please drop in your suggestions. Each quarter we'll add a few more funds that the overwhelming majority of readers want to see.

Last, but not least, we're always looking for people to help us cover these hedge funds, as it gets to be a bit tedious (this is a one-man show here). If you're interested in helping out posting up 13F information, please get in contact with us at the top of the site. The hedge fund tracking series 1st quarter 2009 edition starts today, so spread the word and check back daily.

Bret Barakett's Hedge Fund Tremblant Capital 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 Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital. Tremblant is a $3 billion hedge fund based in New York and is run by Bret Barakett, who is a former portfolio manager at Moore Capital Management (the hedge fund run by the great Louis Bacon, whom we also track). If the last name of 'Barakett' sounds familiar, its because his brother, Timothy Barakett, manages fellow hedge fund Atticus Capital, whose portfolio we recently covered. Taken from their site, Tremblant Capital Group's objective is "to achieve superior risk adjust returns for our investors through our focused and disciplined investment process." Barakett has worked with some of the best in the macro game and obviously is quite knowledgeable himself. But, as we noted back in September, Tremblant had a rough year. Over the course of last year, they disclosed a 5.2% stake in Advanced Medical Optics (EYE) and a stake in PharmaNet (PDGI). But, more recently, they've made a 13G filing on Chipotle, where they have been adding to their large position. We'll check out what else they've been up to below.

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):
Monsanto (MON)
Costco (COST)
Molson Coors (TAP)
Life Technologies (LIFE)
Energizer (ENR) Calls
Catalyst Health (CHSI)
Cheesecake Factory (CAKE)
Kellogg (K)
Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO)
DirecTV (DTV)
Dell (DELL)
Pharmaceutical Product Dev (PPDI)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
Walmart (WMT): Increased position by 1,843%
Advanced Medical Optics (EYE) Calls: Increased position by 658%
Google (GOOG): Increased position by 523%
Research in Motion (RIMM) Calls: Increased position by 110.6%
Mastercard (MA): Increased position by 86.8%
McKesson (MCK): Increased position by 71.5%
Red Hat (RHT): Increased position by 66.8%
Baidu (BIDU): Increased position by 49.8%
Chipotle Mexican (CMG-B): Increased position by 47%
Research in Motion (RIMM): Increased position by 21.4%
Apple (AAPL): Increased position by 16.7%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Hologic (HOLX) Calls: Reduced position by 77.6%
CVS Caremark (CVS) Calls: Reduced position by 74.9%
Hologic (HOLX): Reduced position by 69.5%
Eclipsys (ECLP): Reduced position by 63%
Ntelos (NTLS): Reduced position by 59.9%
Red Hat (RHT) Calls: Reduced position by 24.7%
Visa (V): Reduced position by 18.9%
Burlington Northern (BNI): Reduced position by 18.9%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Charter Communications (CHTR) Calls
Charter Communications (CHTR)
Focus Media (FMCN) Calls
MEMC Electronics (WFR) Calls
Virgin Media (VMED)
Nuance Communications (NUAN)
IPCS (IPCS)
Exide (XIDE)
Airmedia Group (AMCN)
Navisite (NAVI)
Colfax (CFX)
Geoeye (GEOY)
Williams (WMB)
KBW Regional Banking ETF (KRE)
SXC Health (SCI)
Discovery Holding (DSY)
American Public Education (APEI)
Homebuilders ETF (XHB)
Hughes Communication (HUGH)
Monster (MNST)
Financials ETF (XLF)
Paetec Holding (PAET)
Focus Media (FMCN)
Gafisa (GFA)
Centennial Communications (CYCL)
Advanced Medical Optics (EYE)
Commscope (CTV)
Corning (GLW)
NYSE Euronext (NYX)


Top 20 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. Qualcomm (QCOM) Calls: 11.43% of portfolio
2. Visa (V): 7% of portfolio
3. Apple (AAPL): 6.5% of portfolio
4. Research in Motion (RIMM): 5.9% of portfolio
5. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR): 5% of portfolio
6. Qualcomm (QCOM): 4.6% of portfolio
7. McKesson (MCK): 4.5% of portfolio
8. Red Hat (RHT): 4.3% of portfolio
9. Mastercard (MA): 3.7% of portfolio
10. Baidu (BIDU): 3.6% of portfolio
11. Walmart (WMT): 3.1% of portfolio
12. Melco Entertainment (MPEL): 2.9% of portfolio
13. Chipotle (CMG-B): 2.9% of portfolio
14. Corning (GLW) Calls: 2.55% of portfolio
15. Research in Motion (RIMM) Calls: 2.34% of portfolio
16. Red hat (RHT) Calls: 2.2% of portfolio
17. CVS Caremark (CVS) Calls: 1.76% of portfolio
18. Monsanto (MON): 1.57% of portfolio
19. NYSE Euronext (NYX) Calls: 1.45% of portfolio
20. Costco (COST): 1.43% of portfolio

Very interesting to see some similarities between his and his brother's portfolio (Atticus). Many of these positions are and have been on Goldman Sachs list of most common hedge fund holdings. Assets from the collective long US equity, options, and note holdings were $2.1 billion last quarter and were $ 1.6 billion this quarter. This is just one of many funds in our hedge fund portfolio tracking series in which we're tracking 35+ prominent funds. We've already covered Paulson & Co (John Paulson), Carl Icahn, Warren Buffett, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, George Soros, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, and Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital. Look for our updates as we will be covering a new fund each day.

Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital 13F Filing: Q4 2008

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

Next up is Clarium Capital Management, LLC ran by Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal. Clarium is a $2 billion global macro hedge fund that currently has the majority of its holdings in the debt and currency markets. Keep in mind that the equity portion of their portfolio has always been minimal, so the stocks below only represent a small sliver of their overall holdings. 2008 was a roller coaster year for Thiel and company, to say the least. Earlier in 2008, they were up over 45%. But, with a mistimed move into equities, they began to give back their gains and found themselves -4.5% for 2008 as we noted in our year end post of hedge fund performance numbers. The bulk of the losses were sustained in October, where they were down 18% for the month. Assets under management had recently ballooned to the highest amount in Clarium's history, but that didn't last long as redemption requests rolled in and markets continued to tank.

Thiel's fund is unique in that it employs a slightly different management fee structure than most of the hedge fund world. Typical funds charge a flat 2% management fee on assets and then a 20% performance fee. Clarium, on the other hand, does not charge a management fee, but charges only a 25% performance fee. They obviously have more incentive to perform well, to ensure they get paid. And, 2008 didn't go too well in that regard. Thiel recently sat down and opined on numerous macro topics, including whether the US is the next Japan. And, to those who want a little more background on Thiel & his investment style, we first wrote about him here. Clarium has started off 2009 on a positive note, finishing the month of January up 6.7%, as we noted in our latest Clarium update. We'll have to see if they give back the gains like they did in 2008; hopefully they've learned from their mistakes.

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):
S&P 500 (SPY)
Walgreen (WAG)
Intel (INTC)
Playboy (PLA)
Teradata (TDC)
NCR Corp (NCR)
Meadow Valley (MVCO)
National Coal (NCOC)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
American Express (AXP): Increased position by 1020%
T3 Energy (TTES): Increased position by 318%
Altria (MO): Increased position by 106%
NRG Energy (NRG): Increased position by 75%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Burlington Northern (BNI): Reduced position by 95%
Hewlett Packard (HPQ): Reduced position by 91%
Exxon Mobil (XOM): Reduced position by 90%
Procter & Gamble (PG): Reduced position by 85%
Philip Moriss International (PM): Reduced position by 84%
Interval Leisure (IILG): Reduced position by 83%
Microsoft (MSFT): Reduced position by 79%
Mastercard (MA): Reduced position by 73%
Schering Plough (SGP): Reduced position by 39%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Pimco Municipal fund (PMF)
Wendys (WEN)
Nvidia (NVDA)
Oracle (ORCL)
Pimco Floating Rate fund (PFN)
Mylan (MYL)
Iron Mountain (IRM)
Consolidated Edison (ED)
Kimberly Clark (KMB)
Natus Medical (BABY)
Colgate Palmolive (CL)
Walmart (WMT)
Chevron (CVX)
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
CVS Caremark (CVS)
Ishares Municipal Bond fund (MUB)
Lazard (LAZ)
United States Oil Fund (USO)
Ishares Brazil (EWZ)
Canadian Superior Energy (SNG)
SPDR Gold Trust (GLD)
Occidental Petroleum (OXY)
Fairfax Financial (FFH)
Conoco Phillips (COP)
US Natural Gas fund (UNG)
McDonald's (MCD)
Google (GOOG)
Yahoo (YHOO)
Select Sector Financial (XLF)


Top 20 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. S&P 500 (SPY): 21.35% of portfolio
2. American Express (AXP): 16.38% of portfolio
3. Walgreen (WAG): 11.67% of portfolio
4. Altria Group (MO): 8.55% of portfolio
5. NRG Energy (NRG): 5.15% of portfolio
6. Microsoft (MSFT): 4.9% of portfolio
7. Procter & Gamble (PG): 3.9% of portfolio
8. Philip Morris International (PM): 3.43% of portfolio
9. Schering Plough (SGP): 3.29% of portfolio
10. Mastercard (MA): 3.16% of portfolio
11. Hewlett Packard (HPQ): 2.86% of portfolio
12. Alabama Aircraft (AAII): 2.2% of portfolio
13. Diageo (DEO): 1.8% of portfolio
14. Intel (INTC): 1.4% of portfolio
15. Playboy (PLA): 1.28% of portfolio
16. Exxon Mobil (XOM): 1.23% of portfolio
17. T3 Energy (TTES): 1.17% of portfolio
18. Teradata (TDC): 1.17% of portfolio
19. Burlington Northern (BNI): 0.96% of portfolio
20. MFA Mortgage (MFA): 0.93% of portfolio

Clarium's assets listed in the filing decreased, undoubtedly because of their move away from equities and into other asset classes. They completed sold out of some of their massive holdings from last quarter: GOOG, YHOO, & XLF. This isn't the first time that Thiel has had only a tiny sliver of his portfolio in equities. Assets from the collective long US equity, options, and note holdings were $2.8 billion last quarter and were $31 million this quarter. This is just one of many funds in our hedge fund portfolio tracking series in which we're tracking 35+ prominent funds. We've already covered Paulson & Co (John Paulson), Carl Icahn, Warren Buffett, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, George Soros, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, and Seth Klarman's Baupost Group. Look for our updates as we will be covering a new fund each day.

Seth Klarman's Baupost Group 13F Filing: Q4 2008

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

Next up is Baupost Group ran by Seth Klarman. Klarman received his MBA from Harvard Business School and started working at Baupost at age 25. Over the past 25 years, Baupost has seen an annual compound return of 20% and is ranked 49th in Alpha's hedge fund rankings. Klarman has always considered himself a value investor and has been patient through the market turmoil. The past few years they have had nearly half their $14 billion in assets in cash. But, with turmoil comes opportunity. And, as such, Baupost's cash has been gradually deployed by Klarman and Baupost's 100 employees, leaving them with around a fourth of assets left in cash. Klarman's investment process is detailed in his book Margin of Safety. In it, he lays out a "how-to" on risk-averse value investing. The book is no longer actively printed and is very hard to find. His take on recent market action can be viewed in his recent interview with Harvard Business School. Baupost was very active in filing numerous 13Gs in January, and again in February. They've also been buying more RHIE (RHI Entertainment).

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):
Facet Biotech (FACTV)
Theravance (THRX) Bond
Capital Source (CSE) Bond
IStar Financial (SFI-PG) Preferred G Bond
Liberty Media (LCAPA)
Capital Source (CSE)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
News Corp (NWS): Increased position by 237%
Capital Source (CSE) Bond: Increased position by 144%
Exterran Holdings (EXH): Increased position by 70%
Domtar (UFS): Increased position by 50%
Theravance (THRX): Increased position by 44%
Breitburn Energy Partners (BBEP): Increased position by 32%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Prepaid Legal (PPD): Reduced position by 75%
Atlas Pipeline Holdings (AHD): Reduced position by 40%
IAC Interactive (IACI): Reduced position by 22%
Linn Energy (LINE): Reduced position by 20%
Liberty Media (LMDIA): Reduced position by 13%
Horizon Lines (HRZ): Reduced position by 6%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Wellpoint (WLP)
Acusphere (ACUS)
NRDC Acquisition (NAQ)
Claimsnet (CLA)
Triplecrown (TCW)
Prospect Acquisition (PAX)
Enterprise GP (EPE)
SP Acquisition Holdings (DSP)
Unitedhealth (UNH)
Atlas Pipeline Partners (APL)
Sapphire Industrials (FYR)


Top 20 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. News Corp (NWS-A): 12.95% of portfolio
2. Linn Energy (LINE): 10% of portfolio
3. Theravance (THRX): 9.4% of portfolio
4. Exterran Holdings (EXH): 8.8% of portfolio
5. PDL Biopharma (PDLI): 7.5% of portfolio
6. Liberty Media (LMDIA): 6.1% of portfolio
7. Breitburn Energy (BBEP): 4.8% of portfolio
8. Domtar (UFS): 4.7% of portfolio
9. News Corp (NWS): 4.3% of portfolio
10. IAC Interactive (IACI): 3.6% of portfolio
11. RHI Entertainment (RHIE): 2.5% of portfolio
12. Viasat (VSAT): 2.5% of portfolio
13. Facet Biotech (FACTV): 2.2% of portfolio
14. Syneron Medical (ELOS): 2.2% of portfolio
15. Theravance (THRX) Bond: 2.1% of portfolio
16. CapitalSource (CSE) Bond: 1.8% of portfolio
17. GHL Acquisition (GHQ): 1.7% of portfolio
18. IStar Financial (SFI-PG) Preferred G Bond: 1.5% of portfolio
19. Alliance One International (AOI): 1.5% of portfolio
20. Liberty Media (LCAPA): 1.4% of portfolio

As you can tell, Baupost has a fondness for News Corp and Liberty Media. Additionally, it was interesting to see them add a range of bond holdings. Assets from the collective long US equity, options, and note holdings above were $1.1 billion this quarter. For more information about Klarman, check out his most recent thoughts on the market, as well as his hedge fund manager interview. This is just one of many funds in our hedge fund portfolio tracking series in which we're tracking 35+ prominent funds. We've already covered Paulson & Co (John Paulson), Carl Icahn, Warren Buffett, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, George Soros, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital, and David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital. Look for our updates as we will be covering a new fund each day.

David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital 13F Filing: Q4 2008

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

Next up is Greenlight Capital, a $6 billion fund ran by David Einhorn that specializes in spin-offs and value investing and has seen annual returns of over 20%. Einhorn's name has been popping up in the media a lot over the past year, as he talked about his well documented short position in Lehman Brothers (LEH). And, while that position paid off handsomely for him, it barely offset losses he experienced from other positions. He was caught in the massive Volkswagen short squeeze as he detailed in one of his latest investor letters. Einhorn has also recently detailed the saga between his fund and Allied Capital, a company he shorted, in his book Fooling Some of the People All of the Time: A Long Short Story. It gives you an inside perspective as to how Greenlight constructs and researches their investment theses and we highly recommend it. Greenlight approaches things by identifying mispricings in the markets and going from there.

He has recently advocated getting long gold (GLD), gold miners (GDX), and the Japanese Yen. And, at the same time, he has advocated shorting commercial real estate property REITs, saying that a drop in rents of 10% hurts values due to leverage and also points to the difficulty they will have trying to refinance debt coming due. We covered more of his recent thoughts and ideas in our Greenlight portfolio update. In terms of recent performance, his offshore fund finished 2008 -16.5% as detailed in our 2008 year end hedge fund performance numbers list.

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):
SPDR Gold Trust (GLD)
Allegheny Energy (AYE)
Commscope (CTV)
Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX)
MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR)
CF Industries (CF)
Dow Chemical (DOW)
Aspen Insurance (AHL)
Proshares Ultrashort Treasuries (TBT)
JA Solar (JASO)
Focus Media (FMCN)
Cadence Design (CDNS)
Patterson-Uti Energy (PTEN)
Carpenter Technology (CRS)
Healthnet (HNT)
Foster Wheeler (FWLT)
McDermott (MDR)
Lawson Software (LWSN) Bond
Patriot Coal (PCX)
Western Digital (WDC)
Cadence Design (CDNS) Bond
Ensco International (ESV)
Colonial Properties (CLP)
Smithfield Foods (SFD)
Huntsman (HUN)
Aercap Holdings (AER)
Corning (GLW)
Duke Realty (DRE)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
EMC (EMC): Increased position by 437%
Ticketmaster Entertainment (TKTM): Increased position by 283%
Guaranty Financial (GFG): Increased position by 234%
URS Corp (URS): Increased position by 86%
Teradata (TDC): Increased position by 66%
Echostar (SATS): Increased position by 49%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS): Reduced position by 91%
MDC Holdings (MDC): Reduced position by 91%
Dana Holding (DAN): Reduced position by 72%
Triple-S Management (GTS): Reduced position by 50%
Helix Energy Solutions (HLX): Reduced position by 37%
Health Management Associates (HMA): Reduced position by 35%
Energy Partners (EPL): Reduced position by 34%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Ameriprise Financial (AMP)
Kinross Gold (KGC)
Pomeroy IT Solutions (PMRY)
Mercer (MERC)


Top 20 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. SPDR Gold Trust (GLD): 15.9% of portfolio
2. URS Corp (URS): 9.4% of portfolio
3. Allegheny Energy (AYE): 7.5% of portfolio
4. Target (TGT): 5.97% of portfolio
5. Commscope (CTV): 5.4% of portfolio
6. Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX): 5.4% of portfolio
7. MEMC Eletronic Materials (WFR): 5.2% of portfolio
8. EMC (EMC): 5.2% of portfolio
9. Teradata (TDC): 4.8% of portfolio
10. CF Industries (CF): 4.4% of portfolio
11. Einstein Noah Restaurant Group (BAGL): 3.1% of portfolio
12. Dow Chemical (DOW): 2.33% of portfolio
13. Echostar (SATS): 2.3% of portfolio
14. Helix Energy (HLX): 2.1% of portfolio
15. MI Developments (MIM): 2% of portfolio
16. Employers Holdings (EIG): 1.9% of portfolio
17. Health Management (HMA): 1.3% of portfolio
18. Aspen Insurance (AHL): 1.1% of portfolio
19. Guaranty Financial (GFG): 1.1% of portfolio
20. Republic Airways (RJET): 0.9% of portfolio

Considering how Einhorn brought Gold (GLD) up to his largest holding over the course of last quarter, he must be sitting pretty with the recent surge in gold, which is up over 18% or so since December. Assets from the collective long US equity, options, and note holdings above were $2 billion this quarter. This is just one of many funds in our hedge fund portfolio tracking series in which we're tracking 35+ prominent funds. We've already covered Paulson & Co (John Paulson), Carl Icahn, Warren Buffett, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, George Soros, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, and Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital. Look for our updates as we will be covering a new fund each day.

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.

Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global 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.

Andreas Halvorsen is one of the many 'Tiger Cub' fund managers we cover here on the blog. 'Tiger Cubs' are the progeny of legendary investor and hedge fund manager Julian Robertson of Tiger Management. Many of the critical members of Tiger started their own funds, and Halvorsen is no different. We've already covered one other 'Tiger Cub' portfolios in our hedge fund tracking series: Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital. Although both Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global and Stephen Mandel Jr. of Lone Pine Capital both learned the tricks of the trade under Robertson in their time at Tiger Management, both have taken what they've learned and added their own spice to the value oriented, yet growth at a reasonable price (G.A.R.P.) tolerable investment style. Viking employs a fundamental strategy, using a bottom-up process to pick stocks. Viking Global's Equities III fund was +1% for December and finished the year -1.14% as we noted in our hedge fund 2008 performance numbers. You can view their month by month performance breakdown here.

Halvorsen attended Williams College and received his MBA from Stanford, while his work history includes stays at Morgan Stanley and Tiger. In Alpha's latest hedge fund rankings, Viking was ranked #70 in the world. You can view Viking's most recent year end investor letter, as well as their Q3 2008 investor letter here in .pdf format.

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):
Alcon (ACL)
Axis Capital Holdings (AXS)
Bank of America (BAC)
BCE (BCE)
Illumina (ILMN)
ITT Education (ESI)
JP Morgan Chase (JPM)
Mastercard (MA)
McKesson (MCK)
ModusLink (MLNK)
NRG Energy (NRG)
Renaissance Re (RNR)
Sherwin Williams (SHW)
Vulcan Materials (VMC)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
Priceline (PCLN): Increased position by 28.6%
Verisign (VRSN): Increased position by 18.4%
Invesco (IVZ): Increased position by 2.6%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
First Horizon (FHN): Reduced position by 32%
Kroger (KR): Reduced position by 30%
Aon (AOC): Reduced position by 25.5%
Qualcomm (QCOM): Reduced position by 22%
Apollo Group (APOL): Reduced position by 21.9%
Davita (DVA): Reduced position by 10.6%
St Jude (STJ): Reduced position by 7.9%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Idearc (IDAR)
Monster Worldwide (MWW)
RH Donnelley (RHDC)
Associated Bancorp (ASBC)
Federated Mogul (FDML)
Och Ziff (OZM)
Arkansas Best (ABFS)
Fair Isaac (FIC)
Sina (SINA)
Alexander & Baldwin (AXB)
Jefferies (JEF)
Susquehanna (SUSQ)
Glacier Bancorp (GBCI)
Charles River Labs (CRL)
Whitney Holdings (WTNY)
The Stanley Works (SWK)
National Financial Partners (NFP)
Avalonbay Communities (AVB)
Transocean (RIG)
Herbalife (HLF)
National City (NCC)
Thor (THO)
Humana (HUM)
Expedia (EXPE)
Franklin Resources (BEN)
Autodesk (ADSK)
Coach (COH)
Blackrock (BLK)
Harley Davidson (HOG)
Beckman Coulter (BEC)
Keycorp (KEY)
Alliance Data (ADS)
Quest Diagnostic (DGX)
Mettler Toledo (MTD)
Visa (V)
Tidewater (TDW)
Ace (ACE)


Top 20 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. Apollo Group (APOL): 18.58% of portfolio
2. BCE (BCE): 11.21% of portfolio
3. Invesco (IVZ): 7.68% of portfolio
4. ITT Educational (ESI): 6.45% of portfolio
5. Bank of America (BAC): 6.32% of portfolio
6. Qualcomm (QCOM): 5.95% of portfolio
7. Davita (DVA): 5.76% of portfolio
8. Priceline (PCLN): 4.9% of portfolio
9. NRG Energy (NRG): 4.53% of portfolio
10. Mastercard (MA): 3.94% of portfolio
11. MSCI (MXB): 3.38% of portfolio
12. JP Morgan Chase (JPM): 2.9% of portfolio
13. Verisign (VRSN): 2.63% of portfolio
14. First Horizon (FHN): 2.15% of portfolio
15. McKesson (MCK): 2.1% of portfolio
16. Sherwin Williams (SHW): 2.1% of portfolio
17. Illumina (ILMN): 1.7% of portfolio
18. Aon (AOC): 1.63% of portfolio
19. Kroger (KR): 1.57% of portfolio
20. Macrovision (MVSN): 1.4% of portfolio

Viking changed up their portfolio a substantial amount over the last quarter. Take the bottom half of their portfolio from the previous filing, and chop it off. That's essentially what happened if you examine their filings quarter to quarter. And, they came in and replaced that void with a whole new slew of companies. Interesting to see them also basically swap out of Visa in favor of Mastercard. Assets from the collective long US equity, options, and note holdings were $3.5 billion last quarter and were again around $3.5 billion this quarter. This is just one of many funds in our hedge fund portfolio tracking series in which we're tracking 35+ prominent funds. We've already covered Paulson & Co (John Paulson), Carl Icahn, Warren Buffett, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, George Soros, and Bill Ackman's Pershing Square. Look for our continual updates each day over the next few weeks.

Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital 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 Pershing Square Capital Management. Bill Ackman runs Pershing Square Capital, a well known value/activist based hedge fund that started in 2003 after Gotham Partners broke up. The past few years, he has had notable short positions in the bond insurers such as MBIA (MBI) and Ambac (ABK). But, he has recently closed those shorts. Recently, he also detailed his plans for Target to spin-off its real-estate to unlock value. His Pershing Square IV fund, which invests solely in Target (TGT), has seen abysmal performance, as Ackman apologized for in their recent letter. We'll have to see if this proposal picks up any steam, but so far it hasn't. A great quote from Ackman has arisen from all the Target hoopla. He states, “The investment business is about being confident enough to know that you’re right and everyone else is wrong. Yet you have to be humble enough that you recognize when you’ve made a mistake. Earlier in my career, I think I had the confidence part pretty solid. But the humbleness part I had to learn.’’ We track Ackman on the blog extensively and have a lot of resources on him and his fund. Pershing has been busy lately, filing a 13D on General Growth Properties (GGP) and a 13G on Barnes & Noble (BKS). Furthermore, you can view Pershing Square's Q3 2008 investor letter here. Besides their recent 13D/G filings, let's look at what they've been up to with the rest of their portfolio.

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):
General Growth Properties (GGP)
Alexanders (ALX)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
EMC Corp (EMC)
Target (TGT)


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (DPS): Reduced position by 51%
Wendy's (WEN): Reduced position by 15%
Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD): Reduced position by 39.5%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Wachovia (WB)
Longs Drug Stores (LDG)
Barnes & Noble (BKS)
American International Group (AIG)
Mastercard (MA)


Top Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. Target (TGT): 37.91% of portfolio
2. EMC (EMC): 25.19% of portfolio
3. Wendys (WEN): 9.54% of portfolio
4. Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS): 7.22% of portfolio
5. General Growth Properties (GGP): 1.06% of portfolio
6. Sears (SHLD): 0.48% of portfolio
7. Borders Group (BGP): 0.17% of portfolio
8. Greenlight Capital Re (GLRE): 0.13% of portfolio
9. Alexanders (ALX): 0.09% of portfolio

Assets from the collective long US equity, options, and note holdings above were $2.4 billion this quarter. As you can tell, Ackman is running quite a slim, concentrated portfolio on the long side of things. His massive (and well documented) stake in Target continues to hurt him and the Pershing Square IV fund. While there has been much made over Ackman's foray into shares of GGP, you can also now see that he has added Alexanders into his portfolio, but at in small size relative to his portfolio as a whole. For more thoughts from Ackman, check out his insightful interview with Charlie Rose or his recent speech at the Value Investing Congress. This is just one of many funds in our hedge fund portfolio tracking series in which we're tracking 35+ prominent funds. We've already covered Paulson & Co (John Paulson), Carl Icahn, Warren Buffett, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, and George Soros. Look for our updates as we cover a different fund every single day.

Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital 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 Lone Pine Capital, managed by Stephen Mandel Jr. His $7 Billion fund has returned over 25% annually since its inception in 1997. But obviously, last year was rough on them and many others, as noted in our list of 2008 year end hedge fund performance numbers. Why is Mandel worth following you might ask? Well, he served as a consumer/retail analyst for Tiger Management back in the day for legendary investor Julian Robertson. Robertson's proteges/right-hand men have been nicknamed the "Tiger Cubs" and many have started their own funds. So, not only has Mandel learned from one of the best, but he has put up some very solid returns himself. Mandel is well versed in the ways of finding undervalued companies and his funds typically like to sniff out solid companies with good management that are trading below their intrinsic value. Before checking out this 13F, we recommend looking over their last portfolio update so you can put things in perspective.

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):
Activison (ATVI)
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF)
Carnival (CCL) paired certificate
Coach (COH)
Fomento Economico (FMX)
Google (GOOG)
JP Morgan Chase (JPM)
Las Vegas Sands (LVS)
Monsanto (MON)
SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) Calls
Charles Schwab (SCHW)
Union Pacific (UNP)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
Sears Holdings (SHLD) Puts: Increased position by 11,172%
Bunge (BG) Puts: Increased position by 9,900%
Mastercard (MA): Increased position by 197%
Visa (V): Increased position by 81%
Precision Cast Parts (PCP): Increased position by 45%
America Movil (AMX): Increased position by 33.3%
Teradata (TDC): Increased position by 15.9%
Qualcomm (QCOM): Increased position by 12.5%
Dolby Labs (DLB): Increased position by 9.8%
Lorillard (LO): Increased position by 6.1%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
XTO Energy (XTO): Decreased position by 66.7%
Sandridge Energy (SD): Decreased position by 52%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Crown Castle (CCI)
Dicks Sporting Goods (DKS)
Eagle Materials (EGLE)
Fastenal (FAST)
First Horizon (FHN)
Hansen Natural (HANS)
National City (NCC)
SAIC (SAI)
Weatherford (WFT)


Top 20 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. America Movil (AMX): 12.13% of portfolio
2. Qualcomm (QCOM): 11.84% of portfolio
3. Visa (V): 7.21% of portfolio
4. Mastercard (MA): 6.81% of portfolio
5. JP Morgan Chase (JPM): 6.34% of portfolio
6. Union Pacific (UNP): 5.37% of portfolio
7. Monsanto (MON): 4.85% of portfolio
8. Priceline (PCLN): 4.33% of portfolio
9. Google (GOOG): 4.23% of portfolio
10. Precision Cast Parts (PCP): 3.53% of portfolio
11. Lorillard (LO): 3.34% of portfolio
12. Carnivall (CCL) paired certificate: 3.14% of portfolio
13. MSC Industrial (MSM): 2.96% of portfolio
14. Activision (ATVI): 2.85% of portfolio
15. Dolby Labs (DLB): 2.6% of portfolio
16. SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) Calls: 2.48% of portfolio
17. Teradata (TDC): 2.42% of portfolio
18. XTO Energy (XTO): 2.29% of portfolio
19. Coach (COH): 2.09% of portfolio
20. Sears (SHLD) Puts: 2.01% of portfolio

Its interesting to note that while Lone Pine was selling National City (NCC), John Paulson's firm was adding it last quarter. Additionally, Lone Pine's removal of HANS from their portfolio is intriguing seeing as the shares have run up a lot recently and we had seen a large hedge fund presence in this name. If we were to guess, we'd say they deemed it 'too rich' for the time being, as they had ridden shares from the 20's up to the 30's. They added heavily to their various put positions, but they are still a small position relative to their total portfolio. They started new positions in names like GOOG, COH, ATVI, and UNP and brought them in as large positions in the portfolio. Assets from their long US equity, options, and note holdings were $5.2 billion last quarter and were $6.1 billion this quarter. These assets do not reflect collective firm holdings, but rather the sum of the holdings filed with the SEC. They obviously have short and cash positions as well (which aren't required in the filings). This is just one of many funds in our hedge fund portfolio tracking series where we're tracking 35+ funds and have already covered Paulson & Co (John Paulson), Carl Icahn, and Warren Buffett. We'll be covering a different fund each day so stay tuned.