Jawara krisis finansial 2008 yang ketika itu hanyalah hedge fund manager kecil yang nyaris tidak dikenal, John Paulson yang mampu meraup $15 miliar atau setara Rp150 triliun lebih saat itu, kini juga tidak lepas dari jeratan kerugian masif atas nilai aset hedge fund di bawah kelolaannya. Advantage Fund dengan AUM $17 miliar sudah menderita kerugian antara 10-11% sejak awal Agustus. Sementara Advantage Plus Fund sudah merosot 31% sejak awal tahun dan menderita kerugian sama besarnya pada bulan Agustus saja sebagaimana Advantage Fund.
Barton Biggs, who last week called U.S. equities a “strong buy,” said he cut risk in his Traxis Partners LP hedge fund. “I’ve taken some risk off, and I hate to do it, I think it’s probably the wrong thing to be doing,” Biggs, who helps manage $1.4 billion as managing partner and co-founder of Traxis, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “But I’m a fiduciary to a certain extent, and I’ve got to protect my capital.” Even Cohen, one of the industry's titans, hasn't escaped the global sell-off — his $14 billion SAC Capital is down 4 percent this month. Still after SAC's poor start to the year, the fund is still in the black with a roughly 6 percent gain this year. Just the same, few big fund managers are rejoicing. Indeed, Bill Ackman and David Einhorn, already nursing losses in their funds through July, likely got hit hard when financial stocks and nearly everything else tumbled, people familiar with the numbers said. For instance, Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, which was down 4.2 percent at the end of July, likely is feeling more pain because some of the activist investor's biggest holdings have been getting crushed in August. But it's not just poor performance that worries investors. Another concern is redemptions and whether managers will be forced to sell shares to raise cash to pay fleeing investors. With the deadline for submitting end-of-third-quarter redemptions fast approaching, some investors say they are readying a run toward the exits. Brad Balter, managing partner of Balter Capital Management, says some investors are putting in redemption notices to protect themselves in case the numbers get worse. '+'
