Greenlight Capital is closing its hedge fund to new investments as of July 1, according to its fourth quarter letter dated January 20 and obtained by Institutional Investor.
Interested investors must inform their intentions by May 1, according to the hedge fund firm headed by David Einhorn.
“We are again at a size that supports the business,’ Greenlight noted in the letter, adding the closure could be “indefinitely.”
Greenlight previously had reopened the fund to investors in May 2020.
The firm, which has been bearish on the stock market for several years also re-emphasized its negative view on stocks, asserting, “We believe that the U.S. equity market is the most expensive we’ve seen since we began managing money and arguably in the history of the United States.”
At year-end Greenlight had a gross exposure of 139 percent and a net long exposure of 39 percent.
Last year the fund was up 9 percent, roughly half the 17.9 percent return of the S&P 500. In fact, in 2025 Greenlight more resembled a macro fund than a long-short fund. In the letter, Greenlight said its macro book accounted for virtually all of its 9 percent net return and alpha in 2025.
“Macro investing continued to shine, even as the long-short portfolio lagged,” the letter states.
More specifically, Greenlight’s macro book contributed 12.8 percent to the net return. Longs kicked in just 2.4 percent while shorts detracted by 6.3 percent.
Greenlight said nearly all of its macro investments made money last year, led by gold, which appreciated by 64 percent. “While our core thesis on gold is that imprudent fiscal and monetary policies in the world’s largest countries will eventually cause a significant problem, at which point it will make sense to hold a lot of gold, we do not believe that was the primary driver this year,” it explains.
Rather, Greenlight explains that as it loses its “hegemonic leadership” other countries are seeking to reduce their exposure to dollars for reserves and for trade. The result is that many foreign central banks are increasing gold reserves and establishing it as an alternative to settling global trade in dollars.
Greenlight also said that its medium-size position in copper was a “notable winner.” It used options on copper futures to make the investment. It noted copper prices rose 40 percent, noting “the AI world needs more copper and supply remains limited.”
Greenlight also made money on interest rate futures, stressing it correctly predicted the Federal Reserve would cut rates when others didn’t expect it to.
The hedge fund had smaller macro gains in sovereign debt and foreign currency and a small loss in inflation swaps.
“When we have a macro insight, the goal is to express it as directly as possible, such that we are most likely to succeed or fail based on the insight itself,” states the letter, which is not officially signed by a specific individual but is believed to have been written by Einhorn. “For example, if we are bullish on gold, copper or interest rates, we should own gold, copper or interest rates. We judge our strategy is this regard to be effective. Others might express a similar view by being long equities or mining companies or interest-sensitive financial institutions. If we try to express our view on copper by owning equity in a copper mining company we are also exposed to what happens at the mines or hedging decisions made by the company.”
In fact, Greenlight points out, for example, that it owns shares of coal giant Core Natural Resources because coal stocks are “hated” and it sees a lot of value in the shares.
