Unstructured Finance

By Matthew Goldstein

The Wall Street Journal used to run a feature in which some of its staffers would periodically pick stocks by throwing darts against a target. The idea was to see how many times stock picking by pure chance could outperform the picks of a bunch of experts.

The WSJ ended the popular feature several years ago but maybe it’s time from someone to bring it back and this time use darts to try to outperform some of top hedge funds managers. That’s because with the average hedge fund up about 1.2% during the first-half of the year, it would seem an investor on his or her own could do just as well picking stocks blindfolded.

Indeed, with the S&P500 up about 8 percent for the first half, the 3.7% gain for David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital and the 3.9% gain for Dan Loeb’s Third Point don’t look so robust on second glance.

Sure, Einhorn and Loeb are beating a lot of their peers. And they are certainly doing better than John Paulson, who is well on his way to another losing year in his biggest fund. But for all the ink we in the media spill on hedge fund managers, you’d think more would be knocking it out of the park. (Sorry, David your 3rd place finish in the World Series of Poker was great but doesn’t count).

Now to be fair, hedge fund managers don’t just buy stocks like mutual funds. They also short them and buy plenty of other securities. In theory, hedge fund managers aren’t supposed to “kill it” with outsized performance in a given year, but “kill it” by making money for their investors in both good and bad market environments.

By Matthew Goldstein

The full year numbers aren’t in, but it appears Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital had a pretty good year–especially compared to most other long/short equity hedge funds which lost money. But how does this year’s 8% gain stack-up against other strong years posted by the Stamford, Conn. hedge fund?

As we reported previously on UF, a good chunk of SAC Capital’s trading prowess in 2011 is being credited by sources to a single team led by Gabe Plotkin. His $1.2 billion book is one of the largest at SAC Capital and has generated between $150 million and $200 million in profits.

Indeed, only Cohen’s own 2 billion book–called the “big book,” the “Cohen account,” or simply “COHE”–is believed to manage more money at the $14 billion fund.

By Matthew Goldstein

If numbers told the entire story, one might conclude that hedge fund manager David Einhorn took the month of May off.

That’s because Einhorn flagship fund at his Greenlight Capital registered a big nothing for the month. In other words, Greenlight’s flagship fund registered a zero percent gain/loss, according to my colleague Svea Herbst-Bayliss.

Of course, May was a very big busy month for Einhorn. At the annual Ira Sohn charitable event, Einhorn unleashed a blistering attack on Steve Ballmer, in which the 42-year-old hedgie called for the ouster of the Microsoft chief executive officer. Then, the very next day, Einhorn announced he had reached a deal with New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon to buy a minority stake in the Major League Baseball team for $200 million.