Prominent Money Managers Pallotta, Noble to Close Shop

Two prominent Boston hedge fund managers, James Pallotta, who runs the $800 million Raptor fund, and George Noble, a former mutual-fund manager who controls some $550 million across two funds named Gyrfalcon, have decided to close shop, according to the WSJ .

Their simultaneous exits show how veteran investors still regard these markets with caution, despite stocks’ recent ascent. The decisions could portend similar moves by other fund managers who, burned by losses and facing pressure from clients, opt to shutter, even as the hedge fund industry’s returns have improved.

Mr. Pallotta less than a year ago split off from hedge-fund pioneer Paul Tudor Jones, his investment partner for 15 years. Mr. Pallotta [who worked under investing legend Peter Lynch] ran Tudor Investment Corp.’s Raptor fund, a stock-picking vehicle that at its peak had $9 billion in assets and some of the best returns in the industry but that hit a money-losing skid starting in mid-2007. [WSJ]

emphasis added

George Noble describes his 2009 performance in a letter to investors Tuesday as “the most professionally disappointing and personally frustrating of my entire career…Whatever the reasons for our poor performance, the numbers speak for themselves and are simply unacceptable,” wrote Mr. Noble. “This clearly has not been our finest hour.”

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