Apple Inc. (AAPL), China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (CHL): Billionaire David Einhorn Had A Good August. How?

Einhorn and his team had also been long gold, which has been a money losing asset so far this year but rose 5% in August. Many investors have been bullish on gold on the theory that the Federal Reserve’s activities would lead to higher inflation. Gold prices had fallen recently, however, and likely rose last month on concern over military involvement in Syria.

A third winner for Greenlight was Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NYSE:VOD); Einhorn had called for the company to sell its minority stake in Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) earlier this year, believing that the market was undervaluing this asset. Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NYSE:VOD) rose 8% for the month as the two companies looked set to actually close the deal, and has risen further in September. We’d also note that one of Einhorn’s losers from last month- Oil States International, Inc. (NYSE:OIS), which was down 8%- has rebounded somewhat this month after the company agreed to sell its tubular products business.

Note that these big wins were more “special situations” plays than stocks which were tied to the overall market. Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NYSE:VOD) was actually a situation where Einhorn himself identified the potential for value creation, and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock price has also risen on factors which require more fundamental research as opposed to simply riding market conditions. While Einhorn still lags the market slightly even after a good August, this demonstrates that there’s good reason to believe that his results will continue to show a low correlation with the market. As a result, as long as Greenlight- or any other hedge fund which is similarly independent of the indices- continues to deliver decent returns it can easily prove an attractive investment for many wealth managers.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.