At 9:45 p.m. on April 20, 2010, an explosion rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico. The next morning, Tim Flannery and his crew of energy experts at Copia Capital in Chicago were scrambling to assess the impact on the rig’s operator, global energy company BP.
The Deepwater Horizon accident may have been a disaster for the Gulf Coast and for BP, but it presented an investment opportunity for Copia, a $528 million long/short market-neutral fund recently spun out of FrontPoint Partners that bills itself as a specialist in energy-related investments. Copia had no position in BP on the day of the accident, but during the next few weeks, it would make some canny predictions that would be used to place about 60 trades in BP stock and in related companies, resulting in solid profits.
Relying on...