Tontine: Trouble Shooter

Jeffrey Gendell has a message for anyone who lost money in his hedge fund: Good news! I'm letting you double down your bets.

Despite a 65 percent year-to-date loss, Gendell's $10 billion Tontine Associates hedge fund sent a letter to investors that showed little contrition. Tontine "cannot make that money back overnight," Gendell wrote. But he's permitting "investors to add to their funds and keep their remaining lock-up periods."

Rumors of Tontine's demise are greatly exaggerated, executives inside the secretive Greenwich, Conn., fund tell The Post.

"There is a lot of misinformation floating out there," one executive of the fund told The Post last week in a telephone interview. "We are meeting our margin calls, paying the investors that can redeem and not unwinding our funds."

The insider, disgusted with industry rumors concerning Tontine's ultimate downfall, said people should "be wary of the fund-of-funds guys. That is fast money and they are panicky. Besides, they are in contracts."

Those contractual obligations - locking up investors for three or four years - are part of Gendell's strategy, and have served him and his investors well over the past 11 years.

Gendell, a former AP sports reporter, runs his hedge funds like they are the hottest nightclub in town, admitting just the type of investor he wants - super-wealthy individuals comfortable with the ups and downs of investing and not prone to panicking when the first turbulence hits. He keeps away the rest.