Tudor Raptor Fell 9% in July; Caxton's Global Lost 3% (Update3)
By Katherine Burton and Jenny Strasburg
Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Tudor Investment Corp.'s Raptor Fund lost 9 percent in July as stock prices fell worldwide, investors said. Caxton Associates LLC's flagship hedge fund dropped about 3 percent.
The loss by Raptor, managed by James Pallotta in Boston, left the $8.9 billion stock pool down about 2.9 percent for the year through July 27. Bruce Kovner's Caxton Global Investments, an $11 billion fund, held on to a 3.5 percent gain for the year through July.
The $1.7 trillion hedge-fund industry has been roiled as losses in subprime-mortgage bonds spread to broader credit and equities markets. Boston-based Sowood Management LP said July 30 that it lost $1.5 billion, or more than 50 percent, on corporate debt trades. Bear Stearns Cos. yesterday blocked investors from pulling money out of an asset-backed securities fund after two pools run by the New York-based firm went bankrupt in mid-July.
``This is a market event much like we had back in 1998,'' Virginia Parker, who helps oversee about $1.8 billion at Parker Global Strategies LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, said in an interview. ``We've had an extraordinary withdrawal of liquidity from the credit markets that's affected every type of paper. The nervousness from the credit markets is spilling over into the equity markets.''
In August 1998, Russia devalued the ruble and defaulted on debts, sending global markets tumbling. The biggest victim was John Meriwether's Long-Term Capital Management LP, which lost $4 billion, or more than 90 percent of assets.
Long-Term Returns
Pallotta, 49, has posted an annual return of 19.2 percent since Raptor opened in October 1993, almost double the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, a benchmark for U.S. stocks.
Tudor was founded by billionaire trader Paul Tudor Jones, 52, and manages $20 billion. Its flagship Tudor BVI fund, which wagers on interest rates, currencies, commodities and equities, fell 3.1 percent in July and is up 4.6 percent for the year. The $10.3 billion pool has returned 24.2 percent a year since November 1986.
Caxton, which manages $16 billion, has gained more than 29 percent a year since 1991. Kovner, 62, trades many types of securities, a strategy known as macro investing. Most of the Global fund's decline came on stocks, investors said.
`Renewed Opportunities'
``We believe that this market change will continue to provide renewed opportunities in the macro trading environment,'' Caxton President Peter D'Angelo said today in a letter to clients. The losses ``are not unusual for us during periods of major market shifts,'' he said.
Executives at Greenwich, Connecticut-based Tudor and New York-based Caxton declined to comment.
The S&P 500 fell 3.1 percent in July, while Europe's Dow Jones STOXX 50 Index dropped 3.8 percent. In the final days of the month, the extra yield investors demand to own the riskiest corporate bonds had its biggest weekly rise in more than five years, and the dollar fell to a record low against the euro.
The average hedge fund returned 7.6 percent this year through June, according to data compiled by Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. That beat the 6.9 percent advance, including dividends, of the S&P 500.
Funds including Harbinger Capital Partners and Citadel Investment Group LLC have benefited from the market turmoil.
``Hedge-fund returns recently have been relatively anemic, but now that you've added volatility back to the mix, managers who are very good at trading will do very well,'' said Geoffrey Bobroff, an independent investment consultant in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.
Harbinger, Citadel Returns
New York-based Harbinger, run by Philip Falcone, returned 17 percent in July in its flagship fund that invests in distressed debt and shares of companies going through events such as mergers and bankruptcies, according to investors. Harbinger, which oversees $12 billion, has increased more than 40 percent this year, helped by bets that securities of subprime lenders would decline.
Chicago-based Citadel, founded by Kenneth Griffin, was unchanged for the month through July 26. The fund was up about 17 percent for the year, investors said. Earlier this week, Citadel bought most of the assets of Sowood Capital Management.
Harbinger and Citadel executives declined to comment.
Hedge funds are largely unregistered pools of capital that cater to wealthy individuals and institutions and allow managers to participate substantially in profits from investments. Their assets have more than doubled in the past five years.