Atticus Capital, which has been denying rumors about its solvency, recently announced that it would suspend issuing mid-month reports because investors had been "leaking" them to the press. The fund will continue to issue end-of-month reports.
The decision comes at a time when hedge funds are closing, even big ones like Ospraie and speculation about future closings are generating the wrong kinds of headlines for the industry.
It raises interesting questions about how to report and communicate with investors and what can reasonably be expected to kept private in an increasingly transparent world.
Hedge funds should assume that whatever they publish could make its way into the public domain. But if a fund is down 25%, like Atticus is, the least of its problems is what may or may not appear in The Wall Street Journal.
