Ospraie Management this morning announced that it was shutting down its commodity fund and liquidating after taking a beating in the energy and commodities markets the last couple of months. Their holding lost almost 27% in August and more than 38% since the first of the year. Right now, the fund plans on liquidating and distributing 40% of their assets by the end of the month and another 40% by the end of the year. That leaves about 20% of the investors’ value up in the air.

Don’t think this is going to be the end of dying funds…with the current tightness in the energy and commodities markets, events have a way of getting magnified. Reduced consumption forecasts have the commodities markets down hard in the last several weeks, but supply interruptions or revised forecasts can send it sharply the other way without much notice.

It is probably best to just sit on the sidelines and watch this game be played by others.