Galleon Group's Raj Rajaratnam: Interview From 1997

We recently stumbled across an intriguing interview from HedgeFundNews with Galleon Group hedge fund manager and accused inside-trader Raj Rajaratnam from over a decade ago in 1997. This interview becomes all the more interesting when you look back at it with the bias that is prevalent now.

We've covered Galleon Group's demise as we posted back when Rajaratnam was charged and announced he was winding down the funds. Given all that has taken place, let's take a spin in the old time machine and head back to 1997 where Rajaratnam was interviewed a mere three months after founding Galleon (all bold emphasis is ours):

"Q. Could you describe your research process and where you see your edge?

A. We build the portfolio from the bottom-up, looking at sectors and within the sectors looking at companies. We have three analysts/portfolio managers who visit with approximately 400 companies every year. We all spend about a week a month on the West Coast doing that. Secondly, we have a network of 60 to 70 technology executives who are investors in our fund and they are a great resource to bounce ideas off. If we ask any of them which of their customers and suppliers are doing well or badly, we get four stock ideas, two on the long side, two on the short side. Also, we are engineers by training and have some understanding of technology.


Q. Could you describe the adjustment to being on your own and where would you like to take your business in terms of organization and assets under management?

A. One of the primary reason I left Needham was to focus on the investment management side. I was spending two to three hours a day as a shrink, dealing with people issues, organizational issues and strategic planning issues. It is a refreshing change to be able to focus on what I enjoy doing. Our assets are going to be limited by our ability to perform. If we find that we can't manage $400 million, we will go back to $250 million because I know we can manage that. At some point, you stop working for money, you work for pride. We want to win, we want to be the best investors in this emerging growth sector. Long term, what I would like to do is to build a technology fund as well as a healthcare fund and maybe a consumer/retail fund so that we offer investors broad exposure to the emerging growth sector."


Head here for the rest of the interview. It's interesting to look back and see his desire to become the "best investor" right from the get-go seemingly at all costs. It's been well documented that Galleon Group had a wide network of industry contacts and this interview from over a decade ago shows he utilized them to his advantage. For past resources on Rajaratnam, we took a look at Galleon Group's historical returns and had previously posted Galleon's September 2009 commentary.

Galleon Group's Historical Returns: Did They Gain Too Much Of An Edge?

It's been a little while since we checked in on the happenings at the current circus known as Galleon Group so we wanted to cover all the updates. Raj Rajaratnam's (R Squared) hedge fund is involved in one of the largest insider trading cases to rock Wall Street. But, of course, Raj says he is innocent in his letter to investors:

"October 21, 2009

Dear Galleon Employees, Clients and Friends,

I have decided that it is now in the best interest of our investors and employees to conduct an orderly wind down of Galleon’s funds while we explore various alternatives for our business. At this important time, I want to reassure investors of the liquidity of our funds and assure Galleon employees that we are seeking the best way to keep together what I believe is the best long / short equity team in the business.

As many of you know, we have built our business on the fundamental belief in rigorous investment analysis combined with active trading around core positions. We have encouraged and invited our investors to attend our daily research morning meetings. Many of you have done so and got a first hand look at our process. This research process is the core of our investment and trading strategy.

The privilege of managing investors’ capital is a responsibility that I have always taken very seriously. I want to reiterate that I am innocent of all charges and will defend myself against these accusations with the same intensity and focus I have brought to managing our investors’ capital.

For those who have been my partners and supporters over the last 17 years, I sincerely thank you. I also want to thank you for the innumerable expressions of support I have received from you over the past few days.

Sincerely

Raj Rajaratnam"


So, he says he is innocent yet he is winding down the funds... hmm. That probably has something to do with the fact that over the course of 3 days, he received $1.3 billion in redemption requests. On that note, it looks like he was trying to head off redeemers at the pass, given the inevitable. After all, many pension funds can't be doing business with alleged felons. Their largest fund had $1.3 billion in assets and typically wouldn't pay redeeming investors until the new year, but they are obviously trying to hand out payments before then. Their $350 million technology fund on the other hand allows monthly redemptions with 45 days notice.

What's also interesting here is that apparently, over $1 billion of the firm's assets is money from insiders of the firm, including Rajaratnam. We heard just a few days ago that Galleon has already liquidated 90% of their $3.7 billion portfolio. Some of their largest positions had been Yahoo, Tyco, Amazon and various other technology names. (But do keep in mind that those holdings were as of June 30th, 2009). So, maybe the recent market drop was everyone trying to get out of the way of Galleon's liquidation? Either way, that certainly seemed like a rather painless unwind.

Galleon's history has now become very questionable given the fact that news has surfaced regarding them 'badgering and bullying' brokers for information on what firms were trading what shares. They were essentially trying to front-run firms who were dumping large amounts of shares. Raj wove a massive web of contacts throughout Silicon Valley and Wall Street given that he operated a hedge fund often focused on technology stocks. Galleon was conducting hundreds of trades a day, generating some nice commissions for brokers. Raj even mentioned one time that Galleon dished out $250 million in commissions to brokerage firms each year. That would easily put them in the top echelon of broker spending. It's said that Galleon would use this dominant client position to then garner handfuls of shares of upcoming IPO's, where apparently a lot of their profits came from. And reports suggest that Galleon tried to use their status to bully information out of people so they could benefit. To Galleon's credit though, they were also very research intensive and did plenty of due diligence. They just apparently wanted so much information that they crossed boundaries. Raj always liked to get an 'edge' on any given company.

While at first glance it appeared this might be a one-off insider trade, it is now becoming more clear that this sort of activity was much more frequent. As such, it calls into question their entire performance history. Thanks to the Pragmatic Capitalist, we see a table of Galleon's historical returns and the results are quite astonishing, which makes you wonder even more.

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

We'll continue to monitor the developments but this certainly has the potential to get more interesting as the digging gets deeper. If you've somehow missed out on this circus, check out the initial insider trading charges. And for those curious, we've posted up Galleon's September commentary and exposures sheet that they sent out to investors before the scandal emerged.

Hedge Fund Galleon Group September Commentary

Courtesy of Dealbreaker, here is the September commentary and exposures from hedge fund Galleon Group. We thought it would be goo to post these up given the recent insider trading charges surrounding Raj Rajaratnam's fund. It will be interesting to see how these charges effect the firm as a whole and in particular, their portfolios.

Embedded below is their investor letter (September commentary) which you can also download here (.pdf):




And embedded below next is their September exposures sheet, which you can also download here (.pdf).



We'll continue to monitor the developments in the insider trading case.

Insider Trading: Raj Rajaratnam Of Hedge Fund Galleon Group Charged

Raj Rajaratnam, founder of hedge fund Galleon Group has been charged with insider trading in a $20 million case as he and five other people were allegedly involved, including a former Bear Stearns executive and an IBM executive. The charges say that the six accused used insider information in two schemes where they traded shares of Google (GOOG), Polycom (PLCM), Hilton Hotels, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

This case is interesting in that it is the first time wiretaps have been used to target insider trading. The insider information apparently came from numerous sources, including other hedge funds, investor relations firms, and the companies listed above whose shares they traded. Rajaratnam faces 12 total fraud and conspiracy counts, many of which have up to a 20-year maximum sentence. Prosecutors had been investigating this case ever since 2007 when a non-named person began complying with the FBI. That person apparently had been using insider information and tipping off Rajaratnam since 2006.

The Wall Street Journal has dug into one particular case of the insider trading events regarding shares of now private Hilton Hotels. They write,

"The deal is the early July LBO of Hilton Hotels. According to the regulator, on July 2 at 2:20 p.m., Hilton executives called the lead analyst covering the hotel for Moody’s. The purpose of the 7-minute call isn’t detailed. The SEC does say that at some point in the call the Hilton executives informed Moody’s that their company was being taken private by Blackstone Group and that the deal likely would be announced sometime before the Fourth of July.

There are two Moody’s analysts mentioned in the complaint, a vice president and senior analyst that was the credit rater’s lead analyst on Hilton and an associate analyst “involved” in rating Hilton. The lead analyst took the Hilton call. One analyst then told someone identified as “the cooperating witness” of the pending deal. The SEC says it reviewed phone records for the Moody’s analyst’s cellphone that show the analyst made three phone calls to the cooperating witness from 3 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. that same day. The cooperating witness provided the Hilton information to Rajaratnam, saying that it was “a sure thing.” The SEC says trading records show that Galleon Technology Funds on the following day, July 3, bought 400,000 shares of Hilton at an average price of $35.13 a share.

After the market closed that day, Hilton announced it had agreed to be acquired by Blackstone for $20.1 billion, or $47.50 a share. On July 5 and July 16, Galleon sold all 400,000 shares at prices ranging from $45.25 to $45.63. The SEC says the trades reaped Galleon a profit of $4 million. For passing along the tip, the Moody’s analyst received $10,000."

Very interesting stuff as this will undoubtedly lead to further questions as to possible other instances of insider trading across hedge fund land. In the past, insider trading cases had caught 'small' culprits, but this one is quite the opposite. Rajaratnam is the head of a major hedge fund that had $7 billion in assets under management at their peak. Galleon Group will certainly have quite the overhang of dark clouds now as their founder undergoes charges. We recently saw another large hedge fund shut down due to such a cloud of negativity as Art Samberg's Pequot Capital could not shake the bad image that had been bestowed upon them for past allegations. It will be interesting to see if Galleon suffers the same fate.

We haven't covered Galleon's holdings for some time, but those interested can view their portfolio from Q1 2009. Galleon was founded by Raj Rajaratnam in 1997 and currently manages in excess of $5 billion. Raj previously worked for Needham & Company and when he left was responsible for a compounded rate of return of 37% over 4 years while overseeing $250 million. Raj received a Bsc in Engineering and then an MBA in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania. Raj's work had also recently landed him on Forbes' billionaire list. His firm's track record landed two of their funds on Barron's top 100 hedge funds rankings list. But obviously with all of this news being uncovered, his success and track record will certainly be called into question. You can see Galleon's positions as of June 30th as filed with the SEC here. For more on the insider trading case, head to articles from the WSJ here and here.


Photo courtesy of NYDailyNews

Raj Rajaratnam's Galleon Group Playing the S&P500 Straight Up: 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 on our series is Galleon Group. Galleon was founded by Raj Rajaratnam in 1997 and currently manages in excess of $7 billion. Raj previously worked for Needham & Company and when he left was responsible for a compounded rate of return of 37% over 4 years while overseeing $250 million. Raj received a Bsc in Engineering and then an MBA in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania. Galleon Group's Buccaneer fund was up 13.39% as of late February 2009. Additionally, their Diversified fund was up 9.87% through the same time period, as noted in our January & February hedge fund performances (March '09 numbers here). We'll be posting up more recent metrics here soon.

Taken from their website, the Galleon Group “manages a series of funds that specialize in the technology and healthcare industries. Currently The Galleon Group manages five different long/short equity funds: Technology, Healthcare, New Media (Internet), Communications and Life Sciences. Galleon’s philosophy and approach differs from that of other hedge funds in the fundamental belief that it is possible to deliver superior returns to our investors without employing leverage. Combine strong fundamental investment analysis with superior trading capability Galleon places a strong emphasis on both fundamental investment analysis and trading. This enables us to identify companies with superior long-term growth prospects while maintaining the flexibility to profit from short-term market fluctuations.”

We find it ironic that their previous description above says they think they can deliver returns without leverage, yet their portfolio is littered with options positions (which is technically leverage). But, oh well, they have a solid track record nonetheless. Raj's success has also recently landed him on Forbes' billionaire list. His firm's solid track record is very evident as they managed to land 2 of their funds on Barron's top 100 hedge funds rankings list. They were one of the few hedge fund firms who managed to do so, and they are definitely in good company as John Paulson's Paulson & Co was one of the others to have multiple funds on the list. (Barron's tracks on a rolling 3 year annualized return basis).

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


Some New Positions (Brand new positions that they initiated in the last quarter):
S&P 500 (SPY) Puts, Ishares Russell 2000 (IWM) Puts, Walmart (WMT), Intel (INTC) Puts, Sun Micro (JAVA), General Electric (GE) Puts, Broadcom (BRCM) Puts, Semiconductor ETF (SMH) Puts, Netease (NTES), SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), Procter & Gamble (PG), Novellus (NVLS), Texas Instruments (TXN) Puts, Eli Lilly (LLY), Strayer Education (STRA), Microsoft (MSFT) Calls, Intel (INTC) Puts, Goldman Sachs (GS), Priceline (PCLN), Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR), Netapp (NTAP) Calls, Baidu (BIDU), HSBC (HBC), Novell (NOVL), Symantec (SYMC), Sohu (SOHU), OSI Pharma (OSIP), NVidia (NVDA),


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
VMWare (VMW): Increased by 1,501%
Mattel (MAT): Increased by 669%
Hewlett Packard (HPQ): Increased by 680%
Apollo Group (APOL): Increased by 333%
AT&T (T): Increased by 333%
Dell (DELL): Increased by 221%
Linear Tech (LLTC): Increased by 212%
Microchip Tech (MCHP): Increased by 175%
Verigy (VRGY): Increased by 158%
Motorola (MOT): Increased by 127%
Yahoo (YHOO): Increased by 126%
Nokia (NOK): Increased by 90%
Wyeth (WYE): Increased by 83%
SPDR S&P 500 (SPY): Increased by 69%
Schering Plough (SGP): Increased by 52%
First Solar (FSLR): Increased by 51%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Semiconductor ETF (SMH): Reduced by 45%
Applied Materials (AMAT): Reduced by 26%
Mylan (MYL): Reduced by 19%
Ultrashort Real Estate (SRS): Reduced by 12%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
SAP AG Walldorf (SAP) Puts, Intel (INTC) Puts (old set), Bank of America (BAC) Calls, PNC Financial (PNC), Atmel Corp (ATML), Semiconductors (SMH) Calls, AMAG Pharma (AMAG), Corning (GLW), SAP (SAP), Genentech (DNA), Western Digital (WDC), Starbucks (SBUX), FTI Consulting (FCN), America Movil (AMX), CIT Group (CIT), Amphenol (APH), NRG Energy (NRG), Navistar (NAV), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Kellogg (K), Compuware (CPWR), US Airways (LCC), Honeywell (HON), BB&T (BBT), Colgate Palmolive (CL), Cerner (CERN), Retail ETF (RTH), Walgreen (WAG), SBA Communications (SBAC)


Top 15 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. SPDR S&P 500 (SPY): 17.83% of portfolio
2. SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) Puts: 3.93% of portfolio
3. Ishares Russell 2000 (IWM) Puts: 3.53% of portfolio
4. Walmart (WMT): 2.96% of portfolio
5. Wyeth (WYE): 2.1% of portfolio
6. Intel (INTC) Puts: 1.93% of portfolio
7. Sun Microsystems (JAVA): 1.6% of portfolio
8. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Bonds: 1.6% of portfolio
9. Hewlett Packard (HPQ): 1.55% of portfolio
10. General Electric (GE) Puts: 1.47% of portfolio
11. Broadcom (BRCM) Puts: 1.4% of portfolio
12. Semiconductor ETF (SMH) Puts: 1.3% of portfolio
13. Netease (NTES): 1.25% of portfolio
14. First Solar (FSLR): 1.25% of portfolio
15. SPDR Gold Trust (GLD): 1.21% of portfolio

As we've grown accustomed to seeing in our past Galleon portfolio snapshots, they still employ numerous options positions in their portfolio. Even though their SPY position is hedged, it has obviously been a big contributor to Galleon's solid performance thus far this year.

We also noted their large position in Wyeth (WYE) in what seems to be a massive trend in hedge fund land. Nearly all the funds we cover have had a position in WYE as they game the merger arbitrage/event-driven trade. Additionally, Raj's firm has a gold position via GLD, just like a ton of other hedge funds out there. Even though it is a smaller stake at only 1.2% of their portfolio, it is yet another hedge fund to add to the gold trade list. The other notable activity we saw was their bearish stance on semiconductors and chips. They have puts on the semiconductors index, Broadcom, and Intel. Lastly, while they sold out completely of various positions (listed above), they were all smaller positions relative to the overall portfolio, typically under 1% each.

Assets from the collective holdings reported to the SEC via 13F filing were $2 billion this quarter compared to $1.1 billion last quarter, so there was definitely a noticeable tick up in assets invested on the long side of the portfolio. 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 John Paulson's hedge fund firm Paulson & Co, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital, and David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital, Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global, Timothy Barakett's Atticus Capital, and Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital.

Raj Rajaratnam's Hedge Fund Galleon 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 Galleon Group. Galleon was founded by Raj Rajaratnam in 1997 and currently manages in excess of $7 billion. Raj previously worked for Needham & Company, and when he left was responsible for a compounded rate of return of 37% over 4 years while overseeing $250 million. Raj received a Bsc in Engineering and then an MBA in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania. And, in 2009 we saw that Raj's accomplishments have paid off as he is on Forbes' billionaire list. Galleon Group's Buccaneer fund was up 13.39% as of late February 2009. Additionally, their Diversified fund was up 9.87% through the same time period, as noted in our January & February hedge fund performances (March '09 numbers here).

Taken from their website, the Galleon Group “manages a series of funds that specialize in the technology and healthcare industries. Currently The Galleon Group manages five different long/short equity funds: Technology, Healthcare, New Media (Internet), Communications and Life Sciences. Galleon’s philosophy and approach differs from that of other hedge funds in the fundamental belief that it is possible to deliver superior returns to our investors without employing leverage. Combine strong fundamental investment analysis with superior trading capability Galleon places a strong emphasis on both fundamental investment analysis and trading. This enables us to identify companies with superior long-term growth prospects while maintaining the flexibility to profit from short-term market fluctuations.”

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&P500 (SPY) Calls, SAP AG (SAP) Puts, Intel (INTC) Puts, Bank of America (BAC) Calls, PNC Financial (PNC), Wyeth (WYE), Atmel (ATML), QQQ (QQQQ), Semi Conductor ETF (SMH) Calls, Genentech (DNA), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), Yahoo (YHOO), Starbucks (SBUX), FTI Consulting (FCN), AK Steel (AKS), Steel Dynamics (STLD), Schering Plough (SGP), America Movil (AMX), CIT Group (CIT), Amphenol (APH), Maxim (MXIM), Fedex (FDX), NRG Energy (NRG), AT&T (T), Lam Research (LRCX), Kellogg (K), Compuware (CPWR), Shaw Group (SGR), Linear Technology (LLTC), & Ascent Media (ASCMA)


Some Increased Positions (A few positions they already owned but added shares to)
United States Oil Fund (USO): Increased by 14,217%
Yingli Green Energy (YGE): Increased by 755%
Ultrashort Real Estate (SRS): Increased by 537%
Sandisk (SNDK): Increased by 400%
Corning (GLW): Increased by 313%
Seagate (STX): Increased by 120%
Semiconductor HOLDRS (SMH): Increased by 95%
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Bond: Increased by 68%
Ishares China (FXI): Increased by 58%
Western Digital (WDC): Increased by 44%


Some Reduced Positions (Some positions they sold some shares of - note not all sales listed)
Nokia (NOK): Reduced by 85%
Apple (AAPL): Reduced by 78%
Synaptics (SYNA): Reduced by 77%
Netapp (NTAP): Reduced by 76%
Qualcomm (QCOM): Reduced by 75%
Applied Materials (AMAT): Reduced by 72%
SPDR S&P500 ETF (SPY): Reduced by 52%
Amag Pharma (AMAG): Reduced by 45%
Microsoft (MSFT): Reduced by 43%
Electronic Arts (ERTS): Reduced by 43%
Marathon Oil (MRO): Reduced by 41%
First Solar (FSLR): Reduced by 40%
Mylan (MYL): Reduced by 40%


Removed Positions (Positions they sold out of completely)
Humana (HUM), Xilinx (XLNX), Qualcomm (QCOM) Calls, Oil Services (OIH) Puts, F5 Networks (FFIV), Cigna (CI) Puts, Shire (SHPGY), Walmart (WMT), Citigroup (C) Puts, Halliburton (HAL) Puts, Apple (AAPL) Calls, Marvell (MRVL), Eli Lilly (LLY) Calls, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Calls, Cisco Systems (CSCO) Puts, Transocean (RIG), SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), Intel (INTC), Eli Lilly (LLY), Analog Devices (ADI), Baidu (BIDU), People Support (inactive), Mastercard (MA), Select Sector Financials ETF (XLF), & Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)


Top 15 Holdings (by % of portfolio)

1. SPDR S&P500 ETF (SPY): 20.4% of portfolio
2. S&P500 (SPY) Calls: 7.6% of portfolio
3. SAP AG (SAP) Puts: 3.96% of portfolio
4. Intel (INTC) Puts: 3% of portfolio
5. Bank of America (BAC) Calls: 2.1% of portfolio
6. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): 2.1% of portfolio
7. United States Oil Fund (USO): 2.1% of portfolio
8. Microsoft (MSFT): 1.97% of portfolio
9. PNC Financial (PNC): 1.8% of portfolio
10. Wyeth (WYE): 1.7% of portfolio
11. Apple (AAPL): 1.66% of portfolio
12. Atmel (ATML): 1.66% of portfolio
13. QQQ (QQQQ): 1.6% of portfolio
14. Semiconductor HOLDRS (SMH): 1.48% of portfolio
15. Semi Conductor (SMH) Calls: 1.48% of portfolio

While they hold various puts and calls on numerous securities throughout their portfolio, their large position in SPY has to have paid Galleon off, assumming they held through the recent equity rally. At 20% of the portfolio, it is/was a serious position for them and Galleon's performance numbers so far this year have been quite solid. It will be very interesting to see what they've done with such a large position come the next batch of 13F filings. Like almost all of the other hedge funds we've covered from Q4 '08, we see that Galleon group was decreasing equity exposure as well. Their assets from the collective long US equity, options, and note holdings were $3.7 billion last quarter and were $1.1 billion this quarter, which is quite a significant drop off. It will be interesting to see if they have re-entered the equity markets in size over the 1st quarter of '09 considering the rally we've seen thus far in the markets. While they do have a large percentage of their portfolio in SPY, they had a relatively low portion of their assets under management exposed to equity markets as of this filing. As always, this will all be revealed in the next round of 13F filings coming due soon. 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, Touradji Capital Management (Paul Touradji), 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, John Burbank's Passport Capital, Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners, 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, Stanley Shopkorn's Hilltop Park Fund (no 13F yet) & David Stemerman's Conatus Capital
• Troubled funds: Jeffrey Gendell's Tontine Associates
• Quant & high frequency trading funds (purely for fun/entertainment): Jim Simons' Renaissance Technologies (Rentec), Steven Cohen's SAC Capital
  

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