DAVID EINHORN: This quarter has been unlike any other where we've made a big loss

Thomson Reuters

David Einhorn speaks at the Sohn Investment Conference in New York

• "This period has not been like" any other quarters where Greenlight has faced greater than 5% loss, David Einhorn told clients in a letter seen by Business Insider.
• Greenlight is down 14% in the first quarter of 2018.

David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital is having a rough 2018 so far, and started out the latest client letter with an explanation.

"In our history, we've had five other quarters with a greater than 5% loss," Greenlight told clients in an April letter seen by Business Insider. "In four of those, there were clear world or market events that provided a simple explanation, and in one, a few positions in our portfolio went wrong at the same time. This period has not been like any of these."

Greenlight's flagship fund lost -13.6% in the first quarter of 2018, compared to the the S&P 500 index returning -0.8%.

The letter added:

• "No events or individual positions stand out. Our losses were broad throughout the portfolio, but generally shallow. We had nine positions (six longs and three shorts) that each cost more than 0.5% and only one (Micron Technology) that generated a gain of over 0.5%, despite our portfolio having a decent earnings season."

• "All told, of our 20 largest longs, we judged 13 to have beaten expectations, 4 to have met expectations and 3 to have disappointed. Of our 20 largest shorts, 9 beat expectations, 1 met and 10 missed expectations."
  

A spokemsan for Greenlight declined to comment.

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