Touradji Capital Management (Paul Touradji) 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 Touradji Capital ran by Paul Touradji. Touradji is one of many well-known 'Tiger Cubs' who started their own firms after leaving Julian Robertson's Tiger Management. We've already covered many of the 'Tiger Cub' funds including Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, Chase Coleman's Tiger Global, Chris Shumway's Shumway Capital Partners, and John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital. Taken from our post on 'Tiger Cub' biographies, "Paul Touradji is the President and Chief Investment Officer of Touradji Capital Management LP, a New York-based hedge fund specializing in fundamental research and active investment in commodities and related assets. The firm manages approximately $3.5 billion and invests in both the public and private markets. Mr. Touradji has well over a decade of experience investing in the commodity, equity, and macro markets. Mr. Touradji began his commodities career at Tiger Management in the mid '90s, where he managed the commodities team; it was at Tiger that he developed his fundamental approach to analysis and investment in commodities. Prior to Tiger, Mr. Touradji’s specialty was quantitative arbitrage, principally with O’Connor Partners. Mr. Touradji is a 1993 graduate of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and a Certified Financial Analyst."

Towards the end of last year at a 'Tiger Cub' hedge fund manager panel, Touradji advocated shorting Copper as the world deleverages and the velocity of money drops, and that thesis played out just as predicted. It would be interesting to get his updated take on copper now that it has rallied back a little bit. We just recently noticed that Touradji was one of the Top 25 highest paid hedge fund managers in 2008, coming in at number 16. Also, back in January we mentioned that Touradji was starting an additional fund. Please note that Touradji specializes in commodities and those holdings are not reported in 13F filings. But, he still has some equity positions and we check in on those each quarter. We keep tabs on him for his Tiger background, his solid overall performance, and to see if he is playing any investment themes. But, we want to make sure everyone realizes that he is different than the typical hedge funds we cover and he has limited equity exposure.

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 Electric (GE)
Jacobs Engineering (JEC)
Gushan (GU)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
Sandridge Energy (SD): Increased by 291%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Encore Acquisition (EAC): Reduced position by 50%
Chesapeake (CHK): Reduced position by 48.8%
McDermott (MDR): Reduced position by 39.7%
Whiting Petroleum (WLL): Reduced position by 30%
Delta Petroleum (DPTR): Reduced position by 27.5%
Baker Hughes (BHI): Reduced position by 5.4%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Spdr S&P500 (SPY)
Hornbeck Offshore (HOS)
Cano Petroleum (CFW)
Frontier Oil (FTO)
Tesoro (TSO)
BMB Munai (KAZ)
Storm Cat (SCU)
Mosaic (MOS)
Continental Resources (CLR)
Steel Dynamics (STLD)
Nucor (NUE)
Devon Energy (DVN)
Terra Industries (TRA)
XTO Energy (XTO)
Transocean (RIG)
Select Sector Energy (XLE)
Hess (HES)


Top 15 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. General Electric (GE): 51.5% of portfolio
2. Petrohawk (HK): 12.64% of portfolio
3. Baker Hughes (BHI): 5.8% of portfolio
4. Jacobs Engineering (JEC): 5.73% of portfolio
5. Comstock Resources (CRK): 3.68% of portfolio
6. Sandridge Energy (SD): 3.6% of portfolio
7. Delta Petroleum (DPTR): 2.56% of portfolio
8. Range Resources (RRC): 1.5% of portfolio
9. McDermott (MDR): 1.2% of portfolio
10. Chesapeake Energy (CHK): 1.2% of portfolio
11. Apache (APA): 1.1% of portfolio
12. Anadarko Petroleum (APC): 1.1% of portfolio
13. Talisman Energy (TLM): 1% of portfolio
14. Noble Energy (NBL): 1% of portfolio
15. CVR Energy (CVI): 0.93% of portfolio

As we mentioned above, please again note that Touradji has very limited equity exposure and is primarily in commodities and other markets. We track him to monitor any themes he may be playing and from his holdings it looks like he likes natural gas a little bit via Petrohawk and Chesapeake. They also boosted their stake in Sandridge pretty substantially. But, by far the most notable move in their portfolio was the addition of General Electric. They started it as a new position and brought it up to over 50% of their portfolio, which is a very peculiar thing to see (even for a fund that isn't usually in equities). We'll have to see if this was merely a trade or something more. It's very rare to see funds with such a large concentration of their assets in one equity like this. Assets from the collective long US equity, options, and note holdings were $150 million last quarter and were $146 million this quarter. Again, note that that this $146 million is only one small fraction of his overall assets under management. Lastly, we wanted to point out that Touradji recently sent out an investor letter regarding the illiquid portion of their portfolio. 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:

• Well known gurus such as: Carl Icahn, Warren Buffett, & George Soros
• 'Tiger Cub' portfolios: Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, Chase Coleman's Tiger Global, Chris Shumway's Shumway Capital Partners, and John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital
• Global macro giants: Bruce Kovner's Caxton Associates, Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management, Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital, & Paul Tudor Jones' Tudor Investment Corp
  
• Value & Activist players like: Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, Art Samberg's Pequot Capital, & David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital
• Concentrated portfolios like: Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital, & Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital
• Some solid names: Paulson & Co (John Paulson), Thomas Steyer's Farallon Capital Management, and Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital
• Newer funds on the scene: James Pallotta's Raptor Capital Management, Anand Parekh's Alyeska Investment Group, & David Stemerman's Conatus Capital
• Troubled funds: Jeffrey Gendell's Tontine Associates

We cover a new hedge fund each day and you can see the complete list of hedge fund portfolios here.

Eric Mindich's Eton Park 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 Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital, who was ranked 53rd in Alpha's hedge fund rankings. Mindich received an Economics degree from Harvard and then worked at Goldman Sachs' risk-arbitrage desk. After becoming the youngest partner in the history of Goldman Sachs at the age of 27, it was clear he had a bright future. In 2004, he started his hedge fund Eton Park Capital with a record $3 billion in assets and a $5 million minimum investment required of investors. Today, Mindich manages over $6 billion. Typically, Eton Park invests in long/short equity and convertible arbitrage strategies. Additionally, as much as 30% of the fund can be invested in private investments. In our recent January & February 2009 hedge fund performance numbers post, we saw that Eton Park was up 3% for the month of January. We had also previously noted that Mindich was starting to see opportunity in the markets in an excerpt from an investor letter.

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):
iShares Emerging Markets (EEM) Calls
Citigroup (C)
Viacom (VIA-B)
Google (GOOG)
Zimmer Holdings (ZMH)
Potash (POT) Calls
Constellation Energy (CEG)
Akamai Technologies (AKAM)
General Motors Corp (GRM)
iShares Brazil (EWZ)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
Walter Industries (WLT): Increased position by 121.5%
VimpelCom (VIP): Increased position by 95%
Goodyear Tire (GT): Increased position by 55%
Ebay (EBAY): Increased position by 37.5%
Hansen Natural (HANS): Increased position by 26.6%
Verisign (VRSN): Increased position by 25%
Mobile Telesystems (MBT): Increased position by 25%
Gold Fields (GFI): Increased position by 17.2%
Beckman Coulter (BEC): Increased position by 15%
Wells Fargo (WFC): Increased position by 11.6%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Potash (POT) Puts: Reduced position by 72%
SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) Calls: Reduced position by 70%
Qualcomm (QCOM) Calls: Reduced position by 50%
Calpine (CPN): Reduced position by 32%
iShares Silver (SLV): Reduced position by 32%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Endeavour International (END)
Verisign (VRSN) Calls
Clear Channel (CCO)
Baringpoint (BE)
Yahoo (YHOO) Puts
Ralcorp (RAH)
TFS Financial (TFSL)
Kinross Gold (KGC)
Motorola (MOT) Calls
Net1 UEPS Tech (UEPS)
Best Buy (BBY) Bonds
Teco Energy (TE)
Goodyear Tire (GT) Calls
Comcast (CMCSA) Calls
Deere (DE) Puts
Vale (RIO) Calls
Kraft (KFT)
Ikon Office (inactive)
UST (UST) Calls
Lorillard (LO) Puts
Alpharma (ALO)
Alpha Natural Resources (ANR)
Barr Pharma (BRL)
SLM (SLM)
Cemex (CX) Puts
Comcast (CMCSK) Calls
Genentech (DNA)
Merrill Lynch (MER)
iShares Emerging Markets (EEM) Puts


Top 20 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. iShares Emerging Markets (EEM) Calls: 9.37% of portfolio
2. Wells Fargo (WFC) Puts: 8.38% of portfolio
3. SPDR Gold (GLD) Calls: 7.64% of portfolio
4. SPDR Gold (GLD): 7.11% of portfolio
5. Hansen Natural (HANS): 7.1% of portfolio
6. Verisign (VRSN): 6.6% of portfolio
7. Qualcomm (QCOM): 5.3% of portfolio
8. Citigroup (C): 5.1% of portfolio
9. Viacom (VIA-B): 3.5% of portfolio
10. Hospira (HSP): 3.4% of portfolio
11. Goodyear Tire (GT): 3.3% of portfolio
12. Google (GOOG): 2.6% of portfolio
13. Zimmer Holdings (ZMH): 2.6% of portfolio
14. Ebay (EBAY): 2.3% of portfolio
15. Potash (POT) Calls: 2.2% of portfolio
16. Comcast (CMCSA): 1.75% of portfolio
17. Gold Fields (GFI): 1.6% of portfolio
18. Lorillard (LO): 1.1% of portfolio
19. Beckman Coulter (BEC): 1.13% of portfolio
20. Spirit Aerosystems (SPR): 1.1% of portfolio

Well, just like David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital and John Paulson's Paulson & Co, Eric Mindich and his Eton Park team like gold. They have a large position in both GLD and GLD Calls, at the top of their long portfolio. They also own shares of Gold Fields (GFI), a gold producer. When you see a confluence of this many smart minds in the gold trade, you have to take notice. Another portfolio notable is Lorillard (LO), which we've seen pop up in numerous 'Tiger Cub' portfolios. Lastly, we couldn't help but notice the massive put position in WFC. But, given the recent action in financials and the fact that these holdings were as of December 31st, 2008, you have to wonder if they've held onto this position or not. Assets from the collective long US equity, options, and note holdings were $6 billion last quarter and were $3.39 billion this quarter so you can see some evidence of a combination of deleveraging, possible losses, and winding down long equity exposure. This is just one of many funds in our hedge fund portfolio tracking series in which we're tracking 35+ prominent funds. We've already covered Paulson & Co (John Paulson), Carl Icahn, Warren Buffett, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, George Soros, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital, Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital, David Stemerman's Conatus Capital, James Pallotta's Raptor Capital Management, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, Bruce Kovner's Caxton Associates, Paul Tudor Jones' Tudor Investment Corp, Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management, and Anand Parekh's Alyeska Investment Group. Look for our updates as we will be covering a new fund each day.

Hedge Fund Portfolio Tracking: Q4 2008 13F Filings

This post marks the first of a series we will be doing in the coming weeks that details what many prominent hedge funds have been up to in the last 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 only 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. 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 sector wise. 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.

Please note that these 13F's should be treated as a lagging indicator simply because the 13F's that are being released currently (February 10th-20th 2008) show the funds' portfolio holdings as of December 31st, 2008. 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 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 Q3 2008 & will be replaced with the Q4 links as we go along).

- Blue Ridge Capital (John Griffin)
- Lone Pine Capital (Stephen Mandel) *Q4 updated*
- Maverick Capital (Lee Ainslie) *Q4 updated*
- Viking Global (Andreas Halvorsen) *Q4 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) *Q4 Updated*
- Moore Capital Management (Louis Bacon) *Q4 Updated*
- Caxton Associates (Bruce Kovner) *Q4 Updated*

We follow a core of value funds in depth and then we also follow a core of global macro funds in depth. Over the next few weeks, I will be going into detail as to what those specific funds were up to this past quarter. Additionally, we like to follow other "whales" well known for their investing prowess. These include:

- Warren Buffett *Q4 updated*
- Carl Icahn *Q4 updated*
- George Soros (Soros Fund Management LLC) *Q4 updated*

Next, there is an assortment of funds which 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) *Q4 updated*
- Tremblant Capital (Bret Barakett) *Q4 updated*
- Clarium Capital (Peter Thiel) *Q4 updated*
- Pequot Capital Management (Art Samberg)
- Harbinger Capital (Philip Falcone)
- BP Capital (Boone Pickens)
- Paulson & Co (John Paulson) *Q4 updated*
- Jana Partners (Barry Rosenstein)
- Eton Park Capital (Eric Mindich)
- 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) *Q4 updated*
- Greenlight Capital (David Einhorn) *Q4 updated*
- Baupost Group (Seth Klarman) *Q4 updated*
- T2 Partners (Whitney Tilson)
- 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, its merely for fun as for whatever reason, people like to see what they are doing. It's basically useless to track Renaissance due to their quant nature, since none of us could tell you the rhyme or reason behind any one of their positions. SAC, on the other hand, simply trades in and out of positions far too often for us to really gain valuable insight for longer term positions.

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

And, a few newer funds on the scene:

- Conatus Capital (David Stemerman, ex-Lone Pine) *Q4 updated*
- James Pallotta's Raptor Capital Management (ex-Tudor) *Q4 updated*
- Highliner Investment Group (Anand Parekh, ex-Citadel)

Over the coming week 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 35+ 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!

The hedge fund tracking series 4th quarter 2008 edition starts tomorrow, so spread the word.