Bill Harnisch, a New York-based hedge fund manager, achieved remarkable success in 2025 despite his scepticism about the broader stock market rally. While many peers diversified into Big Tech and macro trades, Harnisch concentrated over 90 per cent of his fund’s long positions in just three infrastructure companies. These companies are involved in building power lines and fibre networks, crucial for supporting the growth of artificial intelligence, high-speed internet, and clean energy. Peconic Partners, established in 2004, seeks to invest in companies that will grow faster than the economy in the long run. At the same time, short positions in the fund are built either as a hedge to offset the risk from its core holdings or as a way to exploit over-priced shares.
This strategy led to a 79 per cent return for his $US3.1 billion Peconic Partners fund, significantly outperforming the S&P 500 for the fifth time in six years. Harnisch emphasised his low conviction on macro trends, maintaining low net leverage while delivering one of the year’s top hedge fund performances. He candidly admitted uncertainty about the economy’s future, yet his focused stock picking proved highly effective.
The fund’s primary holdings included Quanta, Dycom, and MasTec. These companies, while not involved in chip or software production, benefited from the surging demand for electricity and bandwidth, becoming highly profitable infrastructure investments. In November alone, Peconic gained 20 per cent, while the overall market remained flat. Quanta, a power-line builder and the fund’s largest holding, increased by more than 3 per cent, while Dycom, a service provider for phone and cable companies, surged 26 per cent, and construction firm MasTec rose almost 5 per cent.
Looking ahead to 2026, Harnisch maintains a cautious outlook, anticipating a ‘flat to down’ performance for the S&P 500. This contrasts with the expectations of many Wall Street strategists, who foresee continued equity growth. Currently, the fund is shorting retailers and industrial stocks, including GE Vernova, Eaton and Comfort Systems, expecting that their shares may decline more than its core holdings in the same sector, providing the fund with some protection.
