Steelhead Partners, a Seattle-based contrarian value-focused hedge fund, ended up on the radar of quite a few investors over the last year as its strategy led it to make big bets on coal stocks, which turned out to be one of the market's hottest sectors during the first part of 2008. As the coal bull run waned, however, investors were wondering if Steelhead planned to stick with its coal bias.

At the end of Q3, looking at Steelhead's top, U.S.-listed, equity holdings, the coal focus remained intact, with a new stake in Massey Energy (NYSE: MEE - News) and increased stakes in Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE: ANR - News), International Coal (NYSE: ICO - News), and National Coal (Nasdaq: NCOC - News). The firm held steady with its stake in James River Coal (Nasdaq: JRCC - News).

During Q3, Steelhead was also increasing its top holding, telecommunications services provider Level 3 Communications (Nasdaq: LVLT - News).

Elsewhere during Q3, Steelhead was adding to positions in gold miner Crystallex International (AMEX: KRY - News), oil and natural gas exploration and production company Canadian Superior Energy (AMEX: SNG - News), and electric utilities firm Calpine (NYSE: CPN - News).

Looking at tickerspy.com's graph charting the performance of Steelhead's holdings, one can see that the continued commodity focus has hurt the combined holdings. If you want to see how your performance stacks up to Steelhead's, visit tickerspy.com to see its top holdings and a chart of their combined performance.

Pro portfolio performance is based on institutions' top-15 holdings as disclosed in quarter-end filings with the SEC. Pro performance does not take into account additional holdings beyond the top 15 nor does it include positions that are not required to be disclosed by the SEC. As such, Pro portfolio performance should be considered an approximation and not a precise record of how an institution has performed over time.