• Robert Bishop manages the Impala Master Fund, which finished ninth.
Bishop, whose fund surged off of commodities-related equities bets last year, remains confident the sector will continue to benefit as China ramps up overseas investments. It aims to revive trade across Central Asia and into Europe via a network of railways, ports and highways. The sector is also set to benefit from fiscal stimulus across Western economies, particularly the U.S., he said in a Jan. 31 investor letter.
“These factors should lead to a better environment for commodity prices and their related equities. Equipment and parts suppliers for these industries should also benefit,” wrote Bishop.
• Richard Maraviglia and Matt Barkoff co-manage Carlson Capital’s Black Diamond Thematic Fund, which gained 19 percent, ranking 21st.
The managers are taking an opposing view to Bishop, as they see “a variety of factors that could cause macro deceleration just at the moment when investors have been dragged kicking and screaming into cyclical positioning,” they said in a fourth-quarter letter. A border adjustment tax would “cause a global depression and a major equity market decline,” they wrote.
“When this becomes apparent commodities will correct meaningfully and we will reinvest in inflation beneficiaries,” they said. “Until then we are short cyclicality with what we assess to be tremendous risk-reward optionality through semiconductors, industrials and miners.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.