Absolute Return's annual survey profiles tomorrow's likely winners
By Josh Friedlander
This year's crop of Funds to Watch have all proved the importance of skepticism - be it about the credit boom, the rising stock market or the U.S. dollar. More than a few of this year's picks netted gains in 2008 - a rare achievement - but for some those gains were not achieved without suffering. Both Anna Nikolayevsky of Axel Capital Management and Ray Bakhramov of Forum Asset Management underperformed relative to their peers in earlier periods because they were defensive going into the last gasp rally of 2006.
Some, including Oren Cohen and Douglas Lowey of Brownstone Asset Management and Jeff Cutter of Echo Bridge Capital Management, banged out consistent returns by trading their way through up and down markets, never yielding to the ultimately catastrophic temptations of leverage. Robert Treue of Barnegat Fund Management avoided larding up on...