New York (HedgeCo.net) – While most of the recent news about hedge funds and their performance has been about negative returns, even if they weren’t as bad as the world indices. The press has had a field day pointing out high profile managers that lost money in August-September and there have been a number of articles about hedge funds as whole not doing what they were supposed to do.

One fund manager that enjoyed the past quarter was well-known short-seller Jim Chanos. Chanos and his company Kynikos Associates run the Ursus and Kriticos funds and both are short-only funds. The Ursus fund was up 6.2% while the Kriticos fund was up 8.2%. The company’s Opportunity fund, which can make bets on stocks moving in either direction, was up 4% and is up 10% on a year to date basis.

This performance and the increase in volatility has to be welcomed by Chanos after watching the market move higher for the last three years. According to reports, Chanos lost money in each of the last three years. Chanos has been bearish toward China’s market for the last three years and that stance is finally paying off with the Chinese market falling sharply over the last three months.

Rick Pendergraft
Research Analyst
HedgeCoVest