Hedge Fund News – Segantii Returned 29% YTD, Hintze Donates to Cameron

Hedge Fund Manager Barton Biggs Boosts Investment on Improving US Data (Businessweek)

Barton Biggs, the hedge fund manager who bought stocks when the market bottomed in March 2009, boosted bullish bets on equities in his Traxis Global Equity Macro Fund on improving U.S. economic data. The fund’s net long position rose to 65 percent from 40 percent about a month ago, according to Biggs, the founder of Traxis Partners LP, in an interview with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop” program. Biggs said on Sept. 22 that bullish bets at all Traxis funds had fallen to 20 percent.

Bill Ackman

Value Investing Congress Boasts Strong Attendance (Reuters)

Poor performance does not seem to be much of a hindrance when it comes to investors shelling out thousands of dollars to hear famous hedge fund managers share some of their wisdom about picking stocks. Beginning on Monday, some 600 people who have written big checks will attend the 7th annual Value Investing Congress in New York. The two-day event is a chance for investors, lesser-known money managers and financial advisers to rub shoulders with William AckmanDavid Einhorn , Jim Chanos, Leon Cooperman and other titans in the $2 trillion hedge fund industry.

HK Hedge Fund Segantii Returned 29% YTD (Bloomberg)

The Segantii Asia-Pacific Equity Multi-strategy Fund returned 29 percent this year through September, heading for its best year even as peers are bracing for another annual loss. The $292 million fund run by Hong Kong-based Segantii Capital Management Ltd. gained 7.6 percent in July and 5.3 percent in September, rounding up its best ever quarter, according to a newsletter sent to investors. Kurt Ersoy, Segantii’s chief executive officer, declined to comment, citing the private nature of the fund.

Mail Calls Fund Manager Michael Hintze “Sugar Daddy to Cameron and Co” (MailOnline)

A millionaire hedge fund baron who bankrolled former Defence Secretary Liam Fox made a series of personal donations and gifts to a string of senior Cabinet Ministers, including the Prime Minister and Chancellor, it emerged last night. Soldier turned banker Michael Hintze has given at least £1.2million to the Conservative Party and provided a further £2.5million in loans since 2005.

Ray Dalio’s Paper Finds Hedge Funds’ Returns Continue to be Dominated by Beta (Bridgewater)

In the third quarter, hedge funds lost 5.5% and nearly every style index lost money1. On the one hand, you might look at this and think, of course hedge funds lost money; markets were down. On the other hand, if hedge funds were primarily alpha generators you would not expect to see this result. If hedge funds were primarily generating alpha you would expect something closer to a random outcome: an equal chance of a gain or loss in any given quarter, regardless of market direction. When you see significant losses in a down market it tells you that there is probably still a lot of beta in hedge fund returns.

Einhorn Comments Send $GMCR Down Monday (FINAlternatives)

David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital sent shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ tumbling on Monday when he criticized it for a lack of transparency and for capital spending that has outpaced the growth of its business. Speaking during the Value Investing Congress in New York, Einhorn said the company has a “looming patent issue” on its single-serve K cups, a “litany of accounting questions,” and recent earnings that are “perhaps too good to be true,” reports Bloomberg.