Managed futures and hedge funds are often lumped together, and may share a few similarities, but there have been a few hedge funds in the news lately over things that you just won’t see CTAs doing. Exhibit A: David Einhorn’s crusade to “unlock shareholder value” from Apple. Via the Wall St. Journal:

The lawsuit comes as Mr. Einhorn has publicly called on Apple to return to shareholders more of the $137 billion in cash the company is holding. In an unusual conference call with Apple investors on Thursday, Mr. Einhorn called on the tech company to issue the preferred stock as a way of returning cash to yield-hungry investors. On the call, Mr. Einhorn also criticized the broader practice of tech companies building large cash reserves to protect themselves against unexpected downturns, or to fund possible acquisitions.

We’re not interested in wading into the issue of whether Einhorn is right, or whether this will work in his favor… but let’s just say we’re glad that there are no CTAs we know of whose returns depend on the success of their legal actions against the investments they’ve made. You can’t sue “crude oil” for failing to go your way, after all. We’ll just leave you with this thought from Martin Lipton via Dealbook (and by way of Barry Ritholtz over at The Big Picture):

The activist-hedge-fund attack on Apple — in which one of the most successful, long-term-visionary companies of all time is being told by a money manager that Apple is doing things all wrong and should focus on short-term return of cash — is a clarion call for effective action to deal with the misuse of shareholder power.

And Exhibit B: the ongoing spat between Elliott Associates and the government of Argentina. We first wrote about this back in October when they managed to have one of the country’s naval vessels impounded in their quest to force Argentina to pay up on some bonds in default. Well, they lost out on the boat battle, but the legal fight continues. FinAlternatives reports:

Lawyers will offer their arguments for why—or why not—Argentina’s stay of a lower-court order that would have forced it to pay Elliott affiliate NML Capital and other holdouts from its 2001 default before it pays the more than 90% of bondholders who accepted its debt exchanges in 2005 and 2010. Lawyers for the exchange bondholders and for the Bank of New York Mellon Corp., the trustee for the exchange bondholders, will also get a chance to make their case before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

In our world, making a bad trade should mean cutting your losses and doing better next time. But then, we’re wired a bit differently than the hedge fund guys.