Oscar Schafer’s OSS Capital Management has had a rough 2010. Its flagship long/short OSS II fund, which manages $500 million, is down 5.1% this year through July, with most losses having occurred in the second quarter. “This was another quarter where ‘macro’ concerns dominated the markets,” Oscar Schafer wrote in an investor letter dated August 5.
Schafer, who served as an analyst and portfolio manager for Michael Steinhardt in the 1970s and early 1980s, blamed a weak recovery in the U.S., the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, tighter policies in China, the oil spill in the Gulf, and debate over the financial regulatory reform as reasons for poor performance. Since its 2001 inception, fund’s annualized returns are 8.8%. Through June, the fund was down 7.7%, but the fund recouped some of its losses by posting returns of 2.82% in...