Hedge Fund Manager Closing His $3.5 Billion Fund

Neil Barsky, a former journalist turned hedge-fund manager, has decided to close down Alson Capital Partners LLC after losses and redemptions hurt the $3.5 billion fund, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Alson Capital's Alson fund lost more than 20% of its value in 2008, and redemptions have reduced the fund to its current size of $800 million. In Barsky's letter to investors, Barsky said he expected new redemptions, and didn't want to "sell stocks under potentially worse market conditions" in the future.

Barsky's fund posted annual returns after fees of 12.1% between August 1998 and March 2009, beating the stock market's negative 3.3% return in the same period.

In the letter, Neil Barsky said that "the investment environment is increasingly troublesome to me. Our expertise has always been in bottom-up stock picking, and there is no way to sugarcoat the reality that this strategy has not been profitable of late and there are few signs on the horizon that such skills will be rewarded soon."

Barsky's Alson fund became famous after he made some successful bets Sears Holdings (Nasdaq: SHLD), and short positions on newspaper and furniture companies. He exited the housing sector successfully in early 2006.

But, last year was not a good one for Barsky's funds as his three biggest holdings were in energy and utility stocks Allegheny Energy (NYSE: AYE), Cummins (NYSE: CMI), and Williams Cos. (NYSE: WMB) -- all of which fell more than 50% last year.

Mr. Barsky covered real estate for the Journal before becoming a top-rated lodging and gaming analyst at Morgan Stanley

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