BOSTON - Hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones turned away potential investors this year, deciding to limit the size of his BVI Global Fund Ltd to better invest the money he already has.

In a letter to investors at the end of the third quarter, Jones said, The fund remains at capacity at this time.

A copy of the letter was provided to Reuters by people familiar with the fund

Industry research shows that smaller funds often perform better than larger ones, in part because they can be more nimble in deploying cash.

Tudor Investment Corp, which manages $11.6 billion, has roughly $9.3 billion in the BVI Global Fund.

Jones, who founded his firm in 1986, has long been popular with investors for his steady string of strong performances.

A year ago, Jones told investors the opposite -- that they could not get their money out just yet.

In December 2008, he announced plans to split BVI Global into two separate funds and told investors their money would be returned, if they wished, only after the restructuring was completed. Jones said he was taking that step against a backdrop of the fund's 22-year history of unbroken profitable years.

BVI Global is known for taking big bets on currencies, interest rates and commodities.

In the first nine months of 2009, the fund gained about 15 percent, Jones wrote in the letter. The average hedge fund gain in that period was 17 percent, industry data show.

In the first nine months of the year, mid-sized hedge funds that manage between $5 billion and $10 billion pulled in more investment money than bigger or smaller funds.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; editing by John Wallace)

Investment