Among hedge-fund managers’ best ideas for 2014: government-controlled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Tribune Co, which emerged from bankruptcy last month, General Motors and lending in Europe.

Speaking early this month at the annual meeting of EnTrust Capital, a New York firm that invests billions of client money in hedge funds, the managers pitched their best ideas while also gesturing toward worries about Europe and emerging markets, according to people who attended the meeting. It was closed to the press.