Behind every billionaire there is a story!

Star hedge fund crashes to earth

September was the worst month on record for hedge fund performance, but for one legendary player what’s going on in the markets now must seem like its coming straight from the gates of hell.Tontine Associates, a $10 billion Greenwich, Conn.-based fund, told investors on Friday that it expected to show a 2008 loss through Sept. 30 of 65%, according to two people familiar with the fund’s performance.

Tontine builds large, concentrated positions in companies central to the big-picture investment thesis of the fund’s general partner, former Smith Barney analyst Jeffrey Gendell. That kind of focused strategy can pay off big when a manager’s vision is spot on.

Earlier this decade, Gendell bet correctly on the explosion in home-building, driving the fund to 100% returns in 2003 and 2005.

read the rest published by Fortune here:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/06/news/companies/boyd_tontine.fortune/index.htm