In volatile times like these, it is often best to see what the top hedge funds' latest moves are. Here are our picks for the the top three activist plays for this week:

Mega Quant hedge fund D.E. Shaw intends to deliver "a requisition" to Orient-Express Hotels (OEH) and is calling for a special meeting to let shareholders decide if the company's current governance structure needs to be revised.

D.E. Shaw is "unaware of any other company whose super-voting shares are held by the company itself and not by a third party with an economic interest in the issuer of such supervoting shares." The firm also said it has "never seen a more unresponsive corporate-governance structure" and that the board should welcome the opportunity to ascertain the views of shareholders on such a fundamental issue.

Orient-Express Hotels invests in individual deluxe hotels, restaurants, tourist trains and river cruise businesses. Orient trades with a forward P/E of 28.57 and EV/EBITDA of 17.074

Next on the list is Longs Drug Stores (LDG). Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management recently bought 3.13 million shares in Longs Drug Stores. The firm also bought "total return swaps" to bring its "economic" exposure to about 15.4% of the company.

Total return swaps is a contract in which one party receives interest payments on a reference asset plus any capital gains and losses over the payment period, while the other receives a specified fixed or floating cash flow unrelated to the credit worthiness of the reference asset, especially when the payments are based on the same notional amount.

Longs Drug Stores said on Thursday that its preliminary July same-store sales fell 3.5% as more generic drugs were introduced onto the market. Analysts expected a drop in same-store sales of 0.4%. Longs said sales were hurt by the introduction of generic medicines for brand-name ones, which sell at higher prices.

It said it also saw a reduction in cold, flu and allergy prescriptions because of the switch of allergy medicine Zyrtec from prescription to over-the-counter

Next on the list is National Coal (NCOC). Venture Capital firm Small Ventures plans to discuss the possibility of a buyout of National Coal (NCOC). Small Ventures said it believed that National Coal's stock was undervalued due to an increase in the market value of coal and related futures contracts. Small Ventures has not yet had substantive conversations regarding a buyout with the company, nor has it made substantial steps toward arranging such a buyout with other parties. Small Ventures currently holds 2,011,843 shares (6.2%).

For more activist ideas, including NRG Energy (NRG), Bank of America (BAC), CVS Caremark (CVS), Biogen Idec (BIIB), please check out the Latest Activist Situations portfolio, which we update regularly.

Also, here are the latest activist filings from Barron’s.

Posted on Aug. 18