market folly

This post marks the first of a series I 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. 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 (November 10th-20th 2008) show the funds' portfolio holdings as of September 30th 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, I 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 I've been following:

- Blue Ridge Capital (John Griffin)
- Lone Pine Capital (Stephen Mandel)
- Maverick Capital (Lee Ainslie)
- Viking Global (Andreas Halvorsen)
- 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)

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 (obviously)
- Carl Icahn (rabblerousing at its best)
- George Soros (Soros Fund Management LLC)

Next, there is an assortment of funds which employ various strategies 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)
- 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)
- Jana Partners (Barry Rosenstein)
- Eton Park Capital (Eric Mindich)
- SAC Capital (Stevie Cohen)
- D.E. Shaw (David Shaw)
- Farallon Capital Management (Thomas Steyer)
- Citadel (Ken Griffin)
- Renaissance Technologies (Jim Simons)
- Galleon Group (Raj Rajaratnam)

A few deep value & activist funds:

- Third Point (Daniel Loeb)
- Pershing Square (Bill Ackman)
- Greenlight Capital (David Einhorn)
- Baupost Group (Seth Klarman)
- T2 Partners (Whitney Tilson)
- Tontine Associates (Jeffrey Gendell)

And, a few newer funds on the scene:

- Conatus Capital (David Stemerman, ex-Lone Pine)
- 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 around 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 3rd quarter 2008 edition starts in the next few days, so spread the word.