Lone Pine Misses The Big Short

On January 16, as Dave Craver, Mala Gaonkar, Kelly Granat and Steve Mandel sending out the Lone Pine Capital letter to investors, the observed that the Long / Short hedge fund was “modestly less short” for several reasons. After a “poor fourth quarter,” where both long and shorts were hit, the Lone Pine investment team was looking for better days. What followed shortly after they sent the letter was a volatility-driven stock market price readjustment that would have benefited from that short exposure.

Lone Pine’s investment products outperformed their respective market benchmarks in the fourth quarter. Lone Cypress was down 5.5% net on the quarter, but up 10.8% on the year; Lone Kauri was down 5.4% and up 10.5%...