Pershing, Passport, Chenavari Among Best Performers In 2014

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Activist hedge fund Pershing Square is the top 20 hedge fund listed based on performance along with Paulson’s Recovery Fund along with two commodity traders at the top of the list, while the bottom 20 includes quantitative managers such as Campbell, Cantab and Graham.

Pershing’s’ hedge fund: Innovative activist investor up 10.43% year to date

Pershing Square is up 10.43% year to date, as William Ackman’s risk free adventures in acquiring Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN) by partnering with Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) (TSE:VRX) raised more than a few eyebrows.  But no deal has insiders talking like Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), a brilliant regulatory play where Ackman seems to have encouraged and coordinated an attack by regulators on a US corporation.

Recognizable fund names in the HSBC Hedge Weekly publication include: Brevan Howard’s Credit Value fund, up 2.10% on the month; Pimco Multi-Asset Volatility Fund, up 1.21%; Pimco Credit Opportunity fund, 0.29%; Paulson Credit Opportunities, down -2.41%; Paulson Advantage Plus, down -7.20%; Odey European fund, down -7.25%; Greenlight Capital Offshore, up 0.10%; Senvest Partners, up 4.50%; Moore Macro Managers, down -0.43%; Fortress Macro Fund, down -0.56%.

Commodity trading firms top list

Top hedge fund

The top year to date performance comes from commodity trading firm Cumulus Energy Fund Class A USD. The commodity fund, with $494 million under management, is up 21.76% year to date after delivering 13.96% in 2013 and 24.55% in 2012.  Cumulus Energy Fund was purchased last year by City Financial Investment Co., a London-based fund manager that also owns Cumulus Fahrenheit Fund, a weather derivatives fund.  Both funds are heavy traders on the CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME).

Second on the hedge fund performance list was another commodity trading firm, The Merchant Commodity Fund (Composite).  The Fund managed by Michael Coleman and Doug King is up 15.24% year to date after delivering 15.77% in 2013 and -7.6% in 2012.  The fund generated the best monthly performance in the Commodity / Global category while Brevan Howard’s Commodities Strategies Fund was down the most on the month, -2.01%.

In systematic global strategies the top monthly performance was delivered by the Tulip Trend Fund, up 2.32%, while the Aspect Diversified Fund, whose algorithm is managed by Anthony Todd, was up 1.23% on the month.

Other notables in the Systematic / Global category were Winton’s Evolution and Futures Fund, both down less than 1% on the month and on the year. Winton’s fund manager, Sir David Harding, made public statements saying systematic funds who blamed the US Federal Reserve for manipulating market trends were making up excuses. Winton’s fund, known to be primarily a trend follower with nearly 100 algorithmic strategies, was said to have adjusted the formula to include arbitrage and carry strategies and performed mostly positively during the stimulus-driven market environment.

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