Earlier this year, there was plenty of reason to think hedge fund honcho John Paulson's funds would take a beating for all of 2010. Most of his funds were lagging, with the exception of his gold fund. But now comes word from the New York Times that Paulson has staged a remarkable end-of-year rally that has lifted the performance of his flagship fund, the Paulson Advantage Fund, and turned "a double-digit loss into a double-digit gain.

At mid-December, the fund, which was worth $9 billion at the start of the year was up about 14 percent," which is likely a before-fees figure. Still, the turnaround is newsworthy.

The Times notes that "several of Mr. Paulson's largest stakes--in Hartford Financial Services, MGM Resorts and Boston Scientific--went on a tear in the final quarter of the year, with gains of 16 percent, 30 percent and 26 percent, respectively." It's unclear what powered this later rally.

We've noted that it's hard to maintain outsized gains year after year. Very few achieve that. It will be interesting to see how Paulson's other funds fared for the year.

For more:
- here's the article

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