Even the hottest investors go on cold streaks. After underperforming the market in the first half of 2015, the second half of the year for David Einhorn, the legendary hedge fund manager whose stock picks move markets, is shaping up to be even worse than it appears. Einhorn's Greenlight Capital was down 6.1 percent in July bringing its returns for the year through the month to a negative 9 percent, CNBC reported earlier this month. In an investor letter sent to clients on July 13, he addressed the two biggest companies behind these losses— Micron and Consol Energy . "Micron Technology ... was our biggest loser. It's a cyclical business and, regrettably, we missed the turn of the cycle," said the note. "Our other significant loser in the quarter was Consol Energy." Einhorn went on to give passionate defenses for both stocks in the letter. Unfortunately for the well-regarded portfolio manager, the losses did not end there. Micron was off 2 percent in July and is down 12 percent so far in August. Consol Energy got hit by 24 percent in July and is down another 22 percent this month. In that July letter, Einhorn also defended his other largest disclosed positions: Apple , General Motors , gold and SunEdison . Read More Dan Loeb's simple strategy destroys the market Apple is down 7 percent since then and GM is off 5 percent. The strong dollar has shellacked gold, which has fallen 5 percent since the end of June. Einhorn's worst call, however, has been SunEdison, a solar energy play that the manager said this about in the quarterly letter: "SUNE recently filed for TerraForm Global (GLBL) to go public. GLBL is a renewable energy yieldco located in emerging markets including Brazil, China, India and South Africa ... earlier this year SUNE acquired First Wind, the largest wind power development company in the United States. GLBL and First Wind add $10-$11 to our sum of the parts valuation." SunEdison plummeted after reporting second-quarter earnings in early August on worries it has too big a debt load in the face of rapidly declining energy prices. The stock is off 52 percent in the second half of the year. For Micron, poor PC end-market sales are to blame for the stock's weakness. Worldwide PC shipments were down 11.8 percent year over year in the second quarter according to IDC. With such big secular headwinds against them, many investors have trouble seeing SunEdison and Micron reversing declines anytime soon. On the other hand, some traders are finding some value in Consol Energy, the coal and natural gas company that's lost more than half its value this year. CNBC "Halftime Report" trader, Joe Terranova, bought shares in Consol Energy on Tuesday. Read More 'Halftime Report' trader buys beaten down coal stock And Einhorn got a very notable backer of his gold call in Stanley Druckenmiller, who made the precious metal the largest position for his family office, according to a June 13F SEC filing. "From time to time even truly great investors can slump. It's never fun, it's never easy and it happens. The key is sticking to what you do and weathering it through," said Marc Cohodes, a former portfolio manager at Rocker Partners. "The two guys who I would never bet against are Einhorn and Ubben. Those guys are pros and are both buys on any dip." (Jeffrey Ubben is the founder of hedge fund ValueAct.) It won't be known whether Einhorn dumped any of these positions until his next filing with the SEC, but if his long-term evaluations of each of these names in his letter are any indication, he's sticking it out. A spokesperson for Greenlight Capital declined to comment on whether the hedge fund sold any of these positions since the July filings. The firm also would not comment on the fund's performance. — With reporting by CNBC's Kate Kelly .
