Hedge Fund News: Troy Dixon, Brevan Howard, Jonathan Goldberg

Exclusive: Ex-Goldman trader Goldberg’s Fund BBL Gains 51 Percent in 2014 (Reuters)
Ex-Goldman Sachs oil trader Jonathan Goldberg has emerged as one of the biggest winners in the volatile energy markets of the past year, profiting first from a winter rally and later shorting prompt oil just before the market collapsed. Goldberg’s New York-based BBL Commodities Value Fund, a barely year-old fund that now manages nearly $540 million, returned a net 51 percent to investors in 2014, an investor letter obtained by Reuters showed.

The Best Hedge Funds For 2015 Are… (CNBC)
Critics love to hate hedge funds’ relatively high fees, low performance and secrecy. But the industry is managing more money than ever—and is poised to grow even more in 2015. “Barring a large and unexpected global or financial event, hedge funds are positioned for another year of solid growth,” industry data tracker eVestment wrote in a new report.

Judge Rules in Favor of Hedge Fund ‘Appraisal Arbitrage’ Strategy (The Wall Street Journal)
Hedge funds looking for higher payouts in corporate buyouts scored a win this week. In a case stemming from the 2012 buyout of Ancestry.com Inc., a judge on Monday ruled shareholder Merion Capital LP didn’t have to prove it voted its shares against the family-tree website’s buyout to challenge the deal’s $1.6 billion price tag in court.

Guggenheim Hedge Fund Stumbles (CNBC)
Guggenheim Partners has slashed personnel at an internal hedge fund that hasn’t lived up to big expectations. The $220 billion asset management and investment banking firm cut at least eight senior employees in December at Guggenheim Global Trading, a roughly $600 million hedge fund unit based in the New York suburb of Purchase.