Most of the major Tiger-related hedge funds in August continued to tack on another point or two to their long-short performance.
That’s not bad considering the major market averages lost money last month.
Of course, the funds’ investors remain well below their high water marks.
In fact, several of the best performers this year are also the funds that suffered the biggest losses over the past couple of years.
Take Light Street Capital Management.
Its main long-short fund gained about 80 basis points in August and is now up 28.7 percent for the year. The firm headed by Glen Kacher apparently benefited in part from short positions.
The firm’s long-only fund dropped 2.1 percent for the month, although it is still up 43.8 percent for the year — more than twice as good as the overall market.
Even so, Light Street has a lot of ground to make up. Its long-short fund was down roughly 54 percent in 2022 and 26 percent in 2021.
In the second quarter the firm fully exited three top-nine positions — Singapore-based internet company Sea, Ltd., Twilio, which makes communication tools, and Argentina-based e-commerce company Mercado Libre.
Lee Ainslie III’s Maverick Capital posted a nearly 2 percent increase in its main long-short fund, Maverick Fund, boosting its gain for the year to 27.21 percent.
Maverick’s two long-only funds lost money last month but remain up sharply for the year — Maverick Long is up 37.22 percent while Long Enhanced is up 45.05 percent.
Maverick Fund lost more than 29 percent last year but posted double-digit gains in each of the three previous years.
Maverick has heavily benefited from three of its four largest longs — chip giant Nvidia, e-commerce pioneer Amazon, and Facebook parent Meta Platforms.
Tiger Global, meanwhile, in August gained another 1.7 percent in its long-short fund, and is now up 20 percent for the year. Its long-only fund is up 18 percent despite dropping 2 percent in August.
Last year its long-short fund lost 56 percent and its long-only fund dropped 67 percent.
In the second quarter Tiger Global, headed by Chase Coleman and Scott Shleifer, reduced its stake in Amazon by 61 percent and reduced its position in Alphabet by 54 percent.
It also increased its stake in alternative investment firm Apollo Global Management by about 370 percent, making it the firm’s third largest long. In addition, in the first half of the year Tiger Global increased its position in Take-Two Interactive Software by nearly seven times. It is now the firm’s fifth largest U.S. long.
Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management posted a roughly 1.4 percent gain in its long-short fund in August, boosting its return for the year to about 16 percent.
At the end of the second quarter, Nvidia was its largest U.S. listed long, accounting for nearly 10 percent of U.S. listed assets.
In the second quarter Coatue also increased its stake in Microsoft, its number two U.S. long, by 67 percent and boosted its position in number four U.S. long Amazon by 125 percent.
Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners still continues to heavily lag the market.
Its share class that devotes 35 percent of capital to private investments is up just 3.9 percent for the year after gaining roughly 30 basis points in August. Last year it was down about 32 percent.
D1’s share class that only invests in public securities is up 14 percent for the year after rising 1.1 percent last month.
The firm, which emphasizes consumer stocks among others, counts bed maker Tempur Sealy International as its largest U.S. listed long, accounting for more than 7 percent of assets.
In the second quarter, the hedge fund firm established a new largest position in Hilton Hotels, now its fifth largest U.S. listed long. It also increased by more than six-fold its stake in Camden Property Trust, a real estate investment trust (REIT) that invests in apartments and now D1’s fourth largest U.S. long position.
Valiant Capital Partners Onshore gained 2.66 percent for the month and was up 8.19 percent for the year.
Viking Global Investors’ hedge fund was up 10.8 percent for the year after gaining 1.8 percent in August.
Viking, however, is distinguished from the rest of the group for one major factor — it is the only Tiger-related fund that is back above its high water mark.
That’s because its long-short fund, Viking Global Equities, was down just 4.5 percent in 2021 and down 2.4 percent in 2022.
