November Hedge Fund Performance Numbers

We're back with our monthly aggregation of performance numbers from some noteworthy hedge funds. If you missed it, you can check out our October update as well. Enjoy.

1. Overall, hedge funds were -1.1% last month and are now -17.7% for the year.
   
2. Paul Tudor Jones' Tudor Investment Corp had been one of the few funds faring decently well in this carnage. His flagship Global BVI Fund, however, has recently frozen withdrawals as they try to separate illiquid assets. That fund is -5% year to date. Their equities fund, Raptor, is -16.5% for the year. The manager of the Raptor fund, James Palotta, will be leaving Tudor to start his own fund.
3. David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital had a solid November, where they were up 3.9% for the month. This now leaves them -19.8% for the year. You can view Greenlight's recent portfolio update here. Also, Einhorn has a book out detailing his battle with Allied Capital, a company he shorted. In the book, you learn about Greenlight's theses formation and investment process: Fooling Some of the People All of the Time.
   
4. Ken Griffin's Citadel was -13% in November and is now -47% for the year. Their flagship $10 billion combined Kensington and Wellington funds have been the hardest hit, due to losses from convertible bonds, and bank loans, among others. These funds have seen $1 billion in withdrawal requests for the end of the year. Citadel's pain continues, after having a rough October. Citadel's other funds, however, are faring nicely. Those funds (around $3 billion or so) are up around 40% this year. Citadel has only posted one losing year since being founded in 1990. Recently, Ken Griffin sat down to testify before Congress with numerous other prominent hedge fund managers.
5. Paulson & Co ran by John Paulson was up 3.2% last month in his Advantage Plus Fund. The fund now sits up 33.5% on the year. We've recently covered Paulson & Co's updated portfolio portfolio here.
   
6. Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital was -5.4% for November and is now -8.1% for the year. You can view their most recent portfolio here. Even the global macro guys are finding it tough out there. Just a few months back, global macro funds like Clarium and Tudor were weathering the storm relatively well. However, they have begun to slip with the rest of the crowd, as Thiel's crew find themselves close to down double digits. The pain continues after Clarium had a rough October, in part due to their shift into equities at an unfortunate time. It's all relative, as they say. Clarium is still up 322% since inception. Assets under management are currently a little over $3 billion and Thiel has not frozen redemptions (well, at least not yet). You can read more about Thiel/Clarium here.
7. Jim Simon's Renaissance Technologies has had a pretty good year, all things considered. His flagship $8 billion Medallion fund is up 58% on the year, which makes its 5% management and 44% performance fees tolerable. Too bad that this fund is pretty much limited to only former and current Renaissance employees. Simons other funds, which are open to other investors, the Institutional Futures and Institutional Equities funds are -15.6% and -14.8% year-to-date respectively. Mr. Simons recently testified before Congress with numerous other hedge fund managers. Renaissance is ranked #4 in the hedge fund rankings.
8. David Shaw's D.E. Shaw & Co sees their Oculus fund up around 10% for the year, as they have profited from their global macro strategy. Their Composite fund, on the other hand, is -4% year to date, having pursued multiple strategies. The firm manages around $36 billion and you can view a video about the firm's work culture here. In Alpha's latest hedge fund rankings, D.E. Shaw is ranked 6th in the world.
9. Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital was 0% for November and is -27% for the year. We recently covered their portfolio holdings here.
10. Fortress Investment Group's Drawbridge Global Macro fund was -2.3% for the month and find themselves -23% on the year. Fortress is among many prominent hedge funds whom recently have suspended withdrawals from their funds.
    
11. Thomas Steyer's Farallon Capital Management is suspending redemptions until January. Farallon's past portfolio performance is available here and you can read their latest letter here.
12. Dan Loeb's Third Point LLC was -2.9% last month and is now -31.1% for the year. We recently updated Third Point's portfolio holdings here.
    
13. Glenview Capital Partners find themselves -8.9% for November and -47.8% for the year. Glenview Capital Partners LP was -9.9% for November and is now -50.4% for the year. Lastly, their Institutional Partners LP was -9.4% in November and -40.1% year-to-date.
14. London Diversified Management LLP was -5.45% last month and is now -27.8% for the year in their main fund.
15. Highbridge Capital has had it rough with numerous funds. Their Capital fund was -2.98% for November and is now -28% on the year, while their Convertible Arbitrage fund was -9.4% for the month and finds itself -43.7% on the year
    

Its worth noting that two prominent funds liquidated funds last month. Parkcentral Capital, which controls the investments of Ross Perot, closed one of its funds. Also, Jeffrey Gendell liquidated funds of his Tontine Associates, whom we covered last quarter here. Additionally, numerous prominent funds have recently suspended withdrawals, which we noted yesterday here. We're in the midst of our hedge fund portfolio tracking series where we're covering the 3rd quarter 2008 13F filings of various prominent hedge funds (including many listed above) in order to breakdown the changes they've made to their portfolios. You can view the portfolios of the funds we've analyzed thus far here.