After three years of losing money, Jim Chanos is back
The Wall Street Journal's Juliet Chung reports that his Opportunity fund, which bets on stocks, gained 4% in August and was up about 10% for the year through the beginning of September.
Kynikos' Ursus and Kriticos funds, which only short stocks, were up 6.2% and 8.2%, respectively, in August, the report said.
Chanos' negative bet on China played a role in those fund returns. The Opportunity and Kriticos funds have about 20% of their funds dedicated to short bets in China, the report said.
Chanos lost money in each of the last three years, according to the report.
From 2012 to 2014, short-biased hedge funds got crushed, falling more than 37%, as the market surged, with the S&P gaining more than 63% during that time period.
The average short-biased fund was up 4.36% in August, according to Hedge Fund Research. For the year, they're up about 2.5%.
Meanwhile, the average hedge fund fell 2.21% in August and is down about 1% for the year, compared with the S&P 500, which fell 6.2% in August. The S&P was down 7% for the first eight months of the year.