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While the Securities and Exchange Commission looks into unusually high “put” activity at Bear Stearns beginning on March 7, a handful of hedge fund managers used their magical touch as far back as the summer to foresee what was going down with regards to the subprime exposure at the investment firm.
 
Greenlight Capital , Harbinger Capital Partners , Paulson Investment Co . and Tremblant Capital Group are among the larger hedge funds to place short positions on the stock, undoubtedly inspired by the subprime troubles in its hedge funds, The Wall Street Journal reports.
 
Thus, the hedge fund managers handily earned themselves millions. As The Journal puts it, the asset managers are undoubtedly “trying to contain their joy among all the gloom on Wall Street.”
 
Also this morning, the Associated Press cites a regulatory filing indicating that U.K. billionaire Joseph Lewis is valiently attempting to hold onto his 8.4% stake in Bear Stearns.
 
And further across the pond, the Russian police have raided the Moskow offices of energy joint venture TNK-BP. So while the market gyrates with bad news from Bear Stearns, there is, of course, always the counterplay—as evidenced by JPMorgan Chase, Mr. Lewis, Greenlight Capital and other savvy hedge fund managers.
 
The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

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