One year ago
»» Copia Capital, the long/short market-neutral fund spun out of FrontPoint Partners, was profiting from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, having shorted BP after the calamity and then reversed its position near the oil giant’s bottom.
“We tend to do well in disasters, unfortunately,” portfolio manager Tim Flannery told AR as Copia reported a 4.67% return for the year through Oct. 2010. Flannery promised the firm had a cautious, low-leverage strategy, having learned its lesson after a grisly 2008.
Slow and steady seems to be winning the race this year. Though Copia ended 2010 up 4.14% for the year, compared with 7.68% for the AR Global Equity Index, In 2011, it is up 5.02% through the end of November, far exceeding a 3.52% loss for the benchmark. Copia declined to comment.
Five years ago
»» Loomis Sayles prepared to launch a leveraged version of its equities-focused long/short energy hedge fund, with 1.75x leverage compared to the original.
The Boston firm found some success before the market crisis, with the Loomis Sayles Energy Hedge Fund – Enhanced Share Class gaining 21.20% in 2006 and 29.27% in 2007, well above the gains of the AR Equity Index, which rose 12.66% and 11.29% in those years. But the market crisis of 2008 hit the fund hard, and it fell was down 21.29% through the end of November. The funds stopped reporting to the AR database in November 2008 and were liquidated in December 2009.
Loomis Sayles did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
