WSJ reports that George Noble and former Tudor superstar Jim Palotta will close their hedge funds, return cash to investors. Will be interesting if the insane market closing action over the past two days is related to their unwinds.

James Pallotta, who runs the $800 million Raptor fund, has decided to return money to outside clients, people familiar with the matter said.George Noble, a former mutual-fund manager who controls some $550 million across two funds named Gyrfalcon, intends to refund clients this month. He describes his 2009 performance in a letter to investors Tuesday as “the most professionally disappointing and personally frustrating of my entire career.”

Their simultaneous exits show how veteran investors still regard these markets with caution, despite stocks’ recent ascent. The decisions could portend similar moves by other fund managers who, burned by losses and facing pressure from clients, opt to shutter, even as the hedge fund industry’s returns have improved.

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Originally published at Zero Hedge and reproduced here with the author’s permission.