market folly

We've recently seen some performance numbers from some of the top dogs in the global macro hedge fund game. And, it's not what you'd expect. After all, these funds typically have free reign and can trade in interest rates, currencies, futures and sovereign debt... areas ripe with opportunity given the ever-changing dynamic of global economies. Yet, some of the world's largest hedge funds seem to be struggling.

As the FT notes, Paul Tudor Jones' flagship hedge fund Global BVI at Tudor Investment Corp was down 0.55% for 2010 as of the middle of March. Also, fellow global macro titan Louis Bacon seems to be seeing mixed results. His Moore Capital Management flagship fund is up 1.58% for the year. You'll remember that Moore Capital was recently raided by the FSA for alleged insider trading by one of their traders for his personal account (not for trades made on behalf of the fund). However, Moore's emerging markets fund was down 5.88% as of the middle of March. This fund is run by famed trader Greg Coffey (formerly of GLG). For more on Bacon's hedge fund, we've posted up some recent portfolio activity out of Moore, as well as some of their UK positions.

Even more shocking perhaps is that the downward spiral at Peter Thiel's hedge fund Clarium Capital has continued. ZeroHedge noted that Clarium lost 6.1% in the first three weeks of March and was now down 5.4% for the year. This all comes as US equity markets are up over 6.4% for 2010. We're not quite sure what's going on over there but after a fantastic start to the fund, the last few years have been quite rough on them, to put it politely. They were down 25% in 2009 according to our hedge fund performance numbers post. However, as of the recent performance data, they were still up 210% since inception.

In the past, we've posted up some of Clarium's research and have been impressed with the ideas and viewpoints expressed. However, it seems that they have had issues with market timing and converting those ideas into tradeable strategies. For more on this hedge fund, you can check out our Clarium coverage.

Additionally, we learn that Brevan Howard's flagship fund is down 0.53% year-to-date. As far as we're aware, it is Europe's largest fund at £13.3 billion. Keep in mind that many of these gentlemen of course graced the recently updated Forbes' billionaire list so they've certainly made plenty of money in the past. That said, their recent performance is not necessarily what you'd expect in an environment many have deemed as ripe with global macro opportunity.