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Some of the hedge funds hardest hit by the populist short press in January have already begun to recover from the pain retailers inflicted on Wall Street, The Post has learned.
| Ticker | Safety | Last | Alter | Alter% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GME | GAMESTOP | 194.50 | +56.76 | + 41.21% |
| AMC | AMC ENTERTAINMENT HOLDINGS INC | 9.29 | +1.24 | + 15.40% |
At least three funds injured at the start of the year by manic movements in stocks such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment jumped back somewhat in February, including the so-called “Reddit rally” movement, Melvin Capital.
Gabe Plotkin manager Melvin, who suffered a bad rap for a $ 2.75 billion bailout he received amid the short-term pressure, rose 22 percent last month, as reported earlier by Bloomberg News.
REDDIT RATING IPO, RENT CFO
Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global Investors and Daniel Sundheim D1 Capital Partners have also begun the recovery process, sources said. Viking grew 5 percent last month while D1 rose 15 percent, sources said.
However, the funds are still lower for the year, after huge losses due to the unprecedented move in January by retailers using Reddit boards and no free trading programs to target short-selling hedge funds by buying up ‘meme shares’.
Steve Huffman, CEO and co-founder of Reddit Inc., speaks at the Sooner Than You Think conference in Brooklyn, NY. Photographer: Alex Flynn / Bloomberg via Getty Images
As Bloomberg reported, Melvin still needs to make a 75 percent profit to jump straight after a notable 53 percent loss in January.
But Viking and D1 are closer to getting back on the green with Viking ending the month of February, by just 2.3 per cent, after a 7 per cent drop in January, sources said.
D1, meanwhile, finished last month with about 5 percent after losing 20 percent in the grueling short press, according to a source with knowledge of the returns.
The reason for the rebound is unclear, except that the pressure on meme stocks in January was so sudden and so great that it overshadowed funds in short positions like a tsunami and otherwise drowned healthy portfolios. By covering their shorts because Robinhood restricts trading on GameStop and other stock stocks, funds were able to drive back quickly in a month when the S&P 500 rose more than 4 percent.
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“It has increased rapidly,” said one macro-hedge fund manager. “January scared the b *** of these guys, but it looks like they should all be flat or taller in April.”
“They came for ‘the suit’ and they got a little beaten, ‘the merchant thought. “But I do not see many bruises.”
Mets owner Steve Cohen, however, saw his Point72 fund return a slimmer 1 percent in February after falling 9 percent in January. The short pressure of January may also have caused an old feud between Viking and D1, which arose in 2017 when Sundheim left his position as chief investment officer of Viking. The exit forced the Greenwich-based mega-fund to return $ 8 billion to shareholders, just months before its former star trader D1 launched as one of the largest launch funds ever.
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“There was definitely a smile in Greenwich to see that Sundheim is more down,” said another hedge fund manager. “Sundheim always takes bigger swings than Halvorsen, it’s no secret.”