The Day of the Hunter

In trading, there are many second acts, but few are as dramatic as that of Brian Hunter, the natural-gas trader whose more than $6 billion in losses caused hedge fund Amaranth Advisors to implode two summers ago.

The 34-year-old trader, whose effort to start his own hedge fund has been stalled by a legal fight with federal regulators, has been advising Peak Ridge Commodity Volatility Fund in Boston. In July, Peak had a return of about 24 percent, leaving it up 230 percent on the year, report Saijel Kishan and Stewart Bailey of Bloomberg News.

Commodities, of course, have had an extraordinary run-up until July, when prices began to fall, and are now in a bear market.

July caught other commodities-focused funds wrong-footed, so Pike's timing on its trades and its huge return are nothing short of spectacular.

For Hunter, it is quite a vindication.

"To have lost that amount of money and get back into the market with a similar-type trade takes a lot of confidence, if not arrogance," Kent Bayazitoglu, an analyst with energy-consulting firm Gelber & Associates, told Bloomberg earlier this year.

In his only interview since the collapse of Amaranth, Hunter told Bethany McLean of Fortune, that he was content with advising Peak.

"I never enjoyed the trading. I liked the design," he said. "This allows me to do what I like to do. I don't have to deal with investors -- or risk management."

Indeed.

All, however, is not roses for Hunter.

Last week, a federal court said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could go forward in its effort to bring an enforcement action against Hunter. F.E.R.C. has accused Hunter and Amaranth of manipulating natural-gas futures contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange in 2006. Hunter's lawyers are petitioning the Court of Appeals.