Oil Trader Andrew Hall’s Astenbeck Hedge Fund Lost 4.6% in March
Monthly loss was firm’s largest since last October
Oil trader Andrew Hall’s $3.1 billion hedge fund firm Astenbeck Capital Management lost 4.6% in March, with the closely followed trader acknowledging in a letter to investors that the firm was “too quick to add to bullish bets in oil,” according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
A representative of Astenbeck didn’t immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
The monthly loss was the firm’s largest since last October and, combined with losses in February, turned total firm performance negative for the year, the documents show.
Mr. Hall, an alumnus of trading house Phibro Trading LLC and Citigroup Inc., is one of the leading traders in the oil market, and many market participants track his firm for insights into the direction of the market as well as clues about its positioning that can sometimes have ripple effects on prices. Mr. Hall is known for a long-term bullish view on oil, putting large bets on rising prices for contracts dated far in the future.
Astenbeck backed away from bullish wagers on crude last August, as the market collapse gained traction. Crude prices ultimately fell more than 50% from their peak earlier in the year. Astenbeck re-entered the market with bullish bets on oil earlier this year. Despite the losses, Mr. Hall said he believes prices will head higher in the future.
“Longer-term trends point to a significantly stronger market down the road,” Mr. Hall said in the letter, dated April 1. “Low prices are already stimulating demand and will in time curtail supply.”
Write to Christian Berthelsen at christian.berthelsen@wsj.com
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