BILL ACKMAN: Stocks are pretty cheap right now
He added that he's a little more bullish on the markets that David Tepper.
On Thursday, Tepper, the founder of $20 billion distressed-debt fund Appaloosa Management, said he's "not as bullish" as he could be.
Pershing Square Holdings, the publicly traded vehicle led by Ackman, faltered in August because of "significant volatility in the investment markets....largely driven by the decline of the Chinese stock markets, and the fear that slowing growth in China will have repercussions for businesses around the world," he wrote in an investor update.
The fund had been up more than 10.1% through the end of July. When the market tanked, his fund wend down with it, dropping 13.1% from August 1 to 25. That put the fund in the red for the year, down 4.3% for the year. Toward the end of the month, the fund pared back some of those losses and finished the month down 9.2%, leaving the fund down 0.1% for the year.
In September, the fund has seen gains of 0.4%, leaving the fund up 0.3% for the year.
Ackman holds large positions in a handful of publicly traded companies such as Canadian Pacific Railway, Mondelez, and Valeant. He's also famously short Herbalife, a multi-level marketing company he believes is a "pyramid scheme."
August was a challenging month for many investors, especially the activist funds. The average hedge fund was down 2.2%, according to data from Hedge Fund Research. During that time, the S&P 500 fell 6.2%.