No, these managers use diversified techniques not only TA stuff. Trout style is 50% systematic - according to "Street Stories" website. Kovner uses TA but also relies on political and economic analysis. I don't know whether all these information are true.
Yes, it is a great business... I have a friend who used to work for him. Just left the company...I think he was the 4th or 5th analyst to leave in the last few months. I guess the portfolio managers are very high stress....
I don't think PTJ has ever had a down year, unless he's dropped the ball recently. In his last public interview (Jan of 2000), he was sporting a perfect 17 year track record. Worst year 1993, +1.6%. Went from $300,000 to $6,000,000,000. Don't know how he's done in the 00's.
Where do you find this stuff? Here's my motivation: I'm tired of getting "beat up in the breakroom". How can I find the track records of some of these guys just like you did? When I got to the hedge sites I know I can only find the last year's performance. Where is the "morningstar" ratings of hedge funds for all to see? All I want to do is say, "Okay, Peter Lynch made money during a bull market. Now shut your pie hole cuzz looke here are PTJ's returns for the last XX years!"
I recall that he persuaded Soros to let him bet big on tech stocks after sitting out the party for several years. His timing? The end of the year 1999! Which explains his and Soros mutual separation. My 2 cents on the common themes causing the great ones to fall are 1) hubris and 2) ever changing cycles (a Neiferhoffer expression) i.e. what seems to work consistently suddenly stops working - something in the market changes. many of the arb opportunities they used are just gone now - the Financial Times ran an article recently explaining how the merger arb hedge funds now have expected returns around 6 or 7%!!! Talk about poor risk-adjusted returns... Anyone heard about D.E. Shaw lately? He (they) sounded like the real deal.
no special sources, that info came straight from the interview which has been made available on this board mutiple times...
Give this link a try. The drop down menus give a pretty good selection. Good Luck! http://www.iasg.com/mainframe.asp? Also, here is another site I like. http://www.cogenthedge.com/