The funds will support Signature Center, a new home in the Times Square area, as well as fund the Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access, that ensures affordable and accessible tickets to all signature productions over the next two decades. The theatre company’s announcement stated that the center will now be called The Pershing Square Signature Center to acknowledge the donation.

“Their commitment to both the company and the Signature Ticket Initiative is inspiring and will provide unprecedented access to all of the exciting cultural activity that will take place in our new home,” said Founding Artistic Director James Houghton.

Ackman said: “We are especially pleased to support their groundbreaking program to provide access to great theatre, which we see as an investment in New York and the theatre community that will pay dividends for generations to come.”

In October, investors pulled $9 billion out of hedge funds, after withdrawing $2.6 billion in September. In November, hedge fund managers saw an increase of $3.6 billion in investments.

“After months of outflows across nearly every hedge fund category, November saw outflows in only two investment styles,” said Sol Waksman of BarclayHedge.

During the outflow months, investors pulled billions from emerging market funds, as well the popular strategy of equity long-short funds. In November, they returned to invest in multi-strategy funds and macro funds.

The industry has been boosted back to a value of $1.71 trillion, but has yet to return to its peak of $2 trillion reached earlier in 2011.

The Emerging Sovereign Group, a $1 billion hedge fund, recently told its clients: “We have a gathering sense that the next act of this rolling global crisis may well play out in the East.”

Proof of this is the constant falling of the Shanghai Composite, which has lost 27% of its value since April.

“Even though an aggressive stimulus program allowed China to sidestep a post-Lehman recession, rendering events there, for a time, secondary to developments in the US and Europe, the Chinese economy could soon take centre stage,” ESG said.

ESG is not the only firm with concerns.

Brevan Howard, the second largest macro hedge fund in the world, said: “In China, both the official and the HSBC PMI suffered significant losses in November. Worryingly, domestic demand was showing the bulk of the weakness according to both metrics.”

“Gold was a safe haven, a hedge and a speculative trade all at the same time,” said Rosecliff Capital CEO Michael Murphy. “Long gold has been a winning trade for years.”

“We expect the selloff in gold to gain momentum into 2012. Traders are finding better hedges, better havens, and better speculative commodity plays than long gold.”

Short Hills Capital’s Stephen Weiss agreed, adding that gold has a “bubble” potential.

“When an asset is thought to work in any market, that is the surest sign of a bubble,” Weiss said. “I believe we will hear about massive central bank selling to put currency in markets.”

Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, added: “These sharp drops shake out the speculators and keep other would-be buyers on the sidelines. Once the weak longs are cleared out, the trip to $2,000 and beyond will resume unencumbered by excess baggage.”

Reuters recently held a poll of hedge fund managers, economists and traders, which revealed that gold prices will likely slide under $1,500 per ounce within the next three months, and will continue at that level until at least September of 2012.

Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo and the University are scheduled to announce the gift at the school’s campus on Long Island. The donation is the largest in the history of the State University of New York. At the event, Cuomo will present a plan to increase student access, hire faculty and create partnerships with industry on Long Island, as well as put $35 million in capital funds towards constructing a medical and research center.

“The gift will have a profound and everlasting impact on the Long Island region and the state, particularly in terms of health care, economic development, and human and intellectual capital,” Cuomo said.

Simons, the founder of the hedge fund, is also president of Euclidean Capital, and a former chairman of Stony Brook’s mathematics department. His wife, Marilyn Simons, is an alumna of the University.

This past year has seen very rough waters, including the euro zone debt crisis and sweeping central bank action. Veteran hedge fund managers were mostly expected to record the highest profits in the industry, but many were left disappointed.

“For many macro guys, the retention of profits has been poor. It’s not a world in which macro funds have covered themselves in glory,” said Luke Ellis of Man Group. “Overall it’s been disappointing.”

Macro funds try to predict significant global news events, wagering money on bond, currency, commodity and equity assets in all markets which are liquid enough for such transactions.

Also struggling are emerging markets such as Moore Capital’s emerging markets macro fund. Moore, Caxton and Tudor have not commented.

“If you look over the long term at other episodes of deleveraging and other episodes where politics have influenced market pricing, macro managers have proved capable of generating profits for their clients,” said Sukie Darar, a research analyst at Stenham Asset Management. “But quite frankly, this year the macro managers haven’t always got it right.”

“We’d be missing a big opportunity to grow the fund in a tough fiscal climate if we only add emerging managers as an afterthought,” de Blasio wrote in a letter. “If we only stick with the manager traditionally in our Rolodex, small and newer managers who typically generate bigger returns will be left out.”

A spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said the pension system will probably make its first real investments in hedge fund by the beginning of next year.

“We are beginning to build a direct hedge fund portfolio, which will be approximately 4% to 5% of each participating NYC pension fund and should ultimately approach $4 billion,” the spokesperson said.

“The cost of complicated alternative strategies is the complexity they introduce into the portfolio management process. The benefit has been the ability to source returns from a broader spectrum of opportunities and ultimately to provide the prospect for higher risk-adjusted returns, the holy grail of investing,” Greenwich explained in ‘Best Practices in Alternative Investing: Managing Complexity.’

The paper went on the say that liquidity is easily influenced and changes as markets change. It added that investors, including endowment funds, pension funds, insurance companies and private family investors need to make sure to clarify how each manager deals with leverage, as well as determine the best amount and duration of leverage for individual situations.

The debt crisis in Europe and the worldwide economic issues have boosted volatility on equity markets to a two-year high, increasing hedge funds’ importance to investors. Smaller funds are held up by wealthy individuals and family offices, while pension funds and other large institutions focus on hedge funds who manage more than $100 million.

“It is always hard to raise money for new startup hedge funds, but it is generally easier from family offices and private wealth,” explained Zehn Liu of Guangzhou’s E Fund Management. “They are more performance driven and more willing to try out new and novel strategies and managers.”

The Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index returned 2.27% last month, while the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index increased 10.93%. The index has stayed down 3.2% this year.

Greenwich Alternative Investments tracked three hedge funds, two of which gained ground. Long/short equity funds increased 5.32% in October, with market-neutral funds rising 2% as well. Meanwhile, futures funds fell 2.55%, and macro funds 0.53%.

“Concerns over Europe began to lift in October and hedge funds were able to benefit from the rise in equity prices,” Clint Binkley of Greenwich said. “Long/short managers performed well given their cautious stance entering the month.”