Paul Tudor Jones II, one of the most successful traders ever, will often spend an entire day watching a projection of his hedge fund’s positions blinking as they change. But these days the billionaire philanthropist probably doesn’t like what he is seeing.
Jones’ Tudor Investment Corporation, the $13 billion hedge fund firm he founded in 1980, is off to a rough start in 2014. His big Tudor BVI Global Fund is down a little more than 3% this year through February. His firm’s smaller Tudor Discretionary Macro Fund, which is a multi-portfolio manager platform, is down 5.76%. Another much smaller fund that is not managed by Jones, Tudor Tensor, has also lost money so far this year—as it has for the last three years.
Jones, a macro hedge fund manager, is not the only macro hedge fund titan who has recently been having a bit of a tough time. Alan Howard, who runs Brevan Howard, one of the biggest hedge funds in the world, apologized to his investors last year after his main fund returned 2.68% net amid a raging bull stock market. So far this year, Howard’s main hedge fund is down 2.55%.
But Jones’ weak start to 2014 comes amid talk that his trading results have “dimmed.” That’s the term the New York Times used this week to describe Jones’ more lackluster trading results in recent years. The Times’ theory: Jones has become more conservative at the age of 59, no longer making big and bold bets, like his successful short trade as U.S. stocks crashed in 1987.
To be fair, it’s still very early in the year. And while Jones’ main fund did not beat the U.S. market last year, he held his own when measured against other hedge fund managers—returning about 14% in 2013.
