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There’s more trouble ahead for a macro hedge fund run by Fortress Investment Group hotshot Michael Novogratz, who has become one of the biggest losers in this year’s market turmoil.
His Fortress Macro is down 15 percent this year through Sept. 4 after Novogratz’s wrong calls on everything from the Chinese stock market to last week’s Fed decision on interest rates.
Now top investors in Fortress Macro are planning jump ship for a better-performing Asia fund run by Adam Levinson, one of Novogratz’s former partners, sources familiar with the situation told The Post.
Fortress Macro, previously known as Fortress Drawbridge Macro, has fallen to $1.6 billion in assets under management from about $7 billion in 2008, when it lost more than 20 percent, according to HSBC, an investor in the fund.
Until this year, Levinson co-managed the fund and also ran Fortress Asia Macro fund, which was launched in 2011. But that fund, with $3.9 billion, was spun out of Fortress this year and renamed Graticule Asia Macro. Fortress maintains a minority stake in the fund.
Graticule is up 2.26 percent through Sept. 4, according to an investor. It and its predecessor have gained about 9 percent annually, compared with a 3.89 percent annualized gain for Fortress Macro.
Novogratz’s numbers are among the worst posted by macro funds tracked by HSBC.
Since Levinson and Novogratz parted ways, Fortress Macro has been in turmoil. Several top executives have left this year, most notably co-Chief Investment Officer Jeff Feig, who only joined last September.
Novogratz, now running the fund alone, has made some bad calls. A month before the Chinese stock market began to crack, he predicted China was entering one of its greatest bull markets. Then this summer, he told investors the Fed would raise interest rates in September.
Fortress did not return a call for comment. Graticule could not be reached.
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