Stock Hedge Funds Erase Billions With Another Year of Losses

12.29.22 - Stock Hedge Funds Erase Billions

Gold last traded at $1,814 an ounce. Silver at $23.89 an ounce.

- Yahoo!Finance

(Bloomberg) -- In 2020, tech-heavy hedge fund Light Street Capital Management posted a banner year on bets including Amazon.com Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

That was the last of the good times. The firm, along with other once-high-flying stock hedge funds, is coming off a second year of losses that erased billions of dollars in clients' wealth.

Light Street, Whale Rock Capital Management, Tiger Global Management and Perceptive Advisors each posted declines of more than 40% during the last two years, according to people familiar with the returns. Those losses could prove problematic for smaller firms, given that investors pay lower or no fees on gains until they're made whole.

The back-to-back downswings at some stock funds created huge dollar losses for clients because many tech- or health care-focused funds minted money when companies like Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., Tesla Inc. and Amicus Therapeutics Inc. were booming.

Yet as inflation picked up late last year, these same shares nosedived - and few funds increased their short bets to take advantage of the fall.