Note to Bloomberg: Consistently Losing Money is not a strong track record

In the story " Margolies to Shut Saranac Funds After Withdrawals" (http://snipurl.com/qoru) reporter Katherine Burton writes:

Saranac's closing shows that even fund managers with solid track records and access to billions in capital are under pressure to deliver profits. At the first sign of losses, some investors leave.

She later describes Saranac's performance as follows:

Saranac's four arbitrage funds fell an average of 8 percent in the first seven months of 2005 and ended the year down 5.5 percent. Margolies's five equity funds fell 11.5 percent on average in the first four months of the year. By Dec. 31, they were down 1 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index returned 4.9 percent in 2005.

Saranac's performance lagged behind its peers. Convertible- arbitrage funds dropped an average of 2 percent in 2005 and stock funds climbed 10.6 percent, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc.

How exactly is that a solid track record if you consider that the firm only started in 2004?