Hedge fund Coltrane Asset Management is up 223% this year, up to the end of June, on the back of a large contrarian bet against tech stocks, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Hedge fund Coltrane Asset Management is up 223% this year, up to the end of June, on the back of a large contrarian bet against tech stocks, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

When the effects of the global pandemic hit hard, the firm's founder, Mandeep Manku, changed Coltrane's portfolio strategy from acquiring cheap European stocks to betting against the fast-growing US tech stock sector. And as growth-focused hedge fund have chalked up big losses in recent months, Coltrane has recorded a huge gain of several hundred million dollars from declines in the prices of companies including Meta, Peloton, and Netflix.

The WSJ report also says that Coltrane earned 9 per cent of its overall gains from a bet against used-car website Carvana Co which has seen its stock price drop by over 90% this year.