Commodities Hedge Funds Take a June Beating

Three of the world’s top commodities hedge funds suffered a second month of painful losses in June, falling victim to a series of sharp drops in oil prices, a hedge fund investor told Reuters on Thursday.

Clive Capital, BlueGold Capital Management, and Touradji Capital Management all experienced a second-straight brutal month in June. While for most of the funds June was not as catastrophic as May, last month’s beat-down has many of them in a deep hole.

Clive Capital, a London-based fund with more than $4 billion under management, took the biggest hit of the group, dropping close to 8 percent last month, bringing its total year-to-date drop to near 10 percent, the investor said, requesting anonymity. To put things into perspective, the Clive fund, led by star trader Chris Levett, gained around 20 percent last year.

BlueGold, another London-based fund but with a focus on energy and only $2 billion under management, suffered a 5 percent drop in June which brought its YTD loss to nearly 12 percent.

Rounding out the lot was Paul Touradji’s New York-based commodities-focused Touradji fund, which managed around $2.5 billion as of January and fell around 3 percent in June, bringing year-to-date losses to near 13 percent.

In the five months through May, the average energy-focused hedge fund was down 3.6 percent, according to the latest figures available from Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research.

via Reuters