General News

	Hedgies Pick Distressed, Global Macro for '09: Poll	Jan 30/09
	Hedge fund managers think strategies such as distressed securities and global macro will do best in 2009, and believe the industry's once-high fees are set to fall, a poll by research firm Lipper reveals. The poll results, pu...Read more
	Fortress Blocks Redemptions as Shareholders Lose 96% Since IPO	Jan 30/09
	One of the things Wesley Edens did soon after his company bought Canadian ski-resort conglomerate Intrawest Corp. in October 2006 was to finance construction of a $43 million gondola at Whistler, British Columbia. The ...Read more
	Hedge Funds: The next generation	Jan 30/09
	Despite headline blowups and depressed returns, not all is bad in the hedge fund world. There's still growth to be found in the future — by planting a seed. Now is an opportune time to snag prospective managers at preferred ...Read more
	Hedge funds use human rights laws to make money	Jan 29/09
	Hedge funds are taking advantage of human rights legislation in a bid to claim money back from the Government. Two funds are part of an action claiming the nationalisation of Northern Rock breached their rights because they a...Read more
	JPMorgan Exited Madoff-Linked Funds Last Fall	Jan 29/09
	JPMorgan Chase says that its potential losses related to Bernard L. Madoff, the man accused of engineering an immense global Ponzi scheme, are “pretty close to zero.” But what some angry European investors want to know...Read more
	British Court Freezes Hedge Fund Manager’s Assets At SEC’s Request	Jan 29/09
	A British court has upheld an unusual Securities and Exchange Commission request to freeze the assets of a British citizen accused of defrauding investors in his U.S.-based hedge fund. Sir Charles Gray, a judge at the High Co...Read more
	Hedge funds offer to price in gold	Jan 29/09
	A hedge fund has begun offering investors the chance to have their investment denominated in gold, as worries grow over governments debasing their currencies by printing money.Osmium Capital Management, a $178m hedge f...Read more
	Senate Bill Would Subject Hedge Funds to Oversight	Jan 29/09
	A bill introduced by two senators today would subject hedge funds to regulation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, a requirement they said is necessary to protect investors and the U.S. financial system. The Hedge Fu...Read more
	Madoff’s "Dull" Returns, Investigation Didn’t Alarm Notz Stucki	Jan 29/09
	Notz, Stucki & Cie., a Swiss money manager, probed and later dismissed concerns about Bernard Madoff investments, which offered “dull but steady” returns. “Certainly some people raised concerns,” the Geneva-based firm w...Read more
	Madoff "Red Flags" Could Have Been Raised by Software	Jan 29/09
	Banco Santander SA’s hedge fund unit used risk software that according to its developer may have “waved red flags” about Bernard Madoff investments. “You definitely would have seen it,” Riskdata SA Chief Executive Offic...Read more
	Madoff’s Tactics Date to 1960s When Father-in-Law Was Recruiter	Jan 29/09
	Bernard Madoff’s practice of promising investors double-digit returns dates to the founding of his firm in 1960 when his father-in-law steered clients to him, according to court records and customers. Madoff, accused by ...Read more
	SEC Officials Say the Agency Lacks Cash for Full Oversight	Jan 28/09
	Top Securities and Exchange Commission officials, under fire for failing to detect a $50 billion fraud allegedly orchestrated by Bernard L. Madoff, told Congress yesterday that they are taking new steps to identify abuses in th...Read more
	OPEC Calls for Curbing Oil Speculation, Blames Funds	Jan 28/09
	OPEC wants U.S. regulators to curtail oil trading by hedge funds and speculators who helped make last year the most volatile in crude oil markets. Abdalla el-Badri, secretary-general of the Organization of Petrole...Read more
	US SEC member presses for hedge fund supervision	Jan 28/09
	The U.S. Congress should give the Securities and Exchange Commission authority to regulate hedge fund advisors and derivatives, SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar said in a speech made available on Tuesday. Aguilar, one of the fiv...Read more
	Hedge Fund Start-Ups Forced to Adapt	Jan 28/09
	Hedge fund seeding is back in the news this week. But unlike a year ago, the news is not all that good. Small funds, which were once coddled by their prime brokers, then were recipients of meaty seed investments from “incubator...Read more
	Madoff victims sue Santander	Jan 28/09
	Victims of the alleged $50bn fraud by US broker Bernard Madoff have filed the first lawsuit against Santander of Spain, the eurozone’s biggest bank, claiming damages and accusing the bank and other defendants of gross negligenc...Read more
	Canada Plans Record Issuance of Bonds to Fund Deficit	Jan 28/09
	Canada plans to sell a record amount of debt this year and restart sales of 3-year bonds to finance the country’s first budget deficit in more than a decade. Canada today forecast combined deficits of C$84.9 billio...Read more
	Hedge funds say keen to comply as lawmakers probe	Jan 28/09
	Top hedge fund executives laid out plans to shed more light on their secretive industry as they face a barrage of criticism from lawmakers over the slow take-up of voluntary governance standards. Executives in two high-profile...Read more
	Tremont Group suspends Rye Investment operations	Jan 27/09
	A New York-based investment management company has shut down a hedge fund division which lost $3.1 billion in the Bernard Madoff scandal. Tremont Group Holdings Inc. said Monday it suspended operations of its Rye Investment Ma...Read more
	Royal Bank of Canada Sued Over Failed Hedge Funds	Jan 27/09
	Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s biggest bank by assets, was sued by investors in Olympus United Funds who claim they lost more than $90 million in the funds’ collapse. Royal Bank, based in Toronto, “secretly ma...Read more
	As hedge funds flop, replication funds get chance	Jan 27/09
	While the credit crisis has been tough for hedge funds, it has been a shot in the arm for index-based investments that promise to mimic the returns of actively managed funds. Pension funds and other institutional inve...Read more
	How Iceland went from worlds biggest hedge fund to pariah in global markets	Jan 27/09
	At the start of this decade Iceland would have made an unlikely candidate for the first sovereign-state domino to fall in the financial meltdown. A country with a population the size of Coventry, it was famous for fish, thermal...Read more
	Has the moment for greater UK hedge fund regulation passed?	Jan 27/09
	Tuesday’s grilling of UK hedge fund executives is likely to create plenty of noise but produce little in the way of new rules. While media-shy TCI founder Chris Hohn and others will face tough questions from the Treasury Select ...Read more
	Creststreet caps alternative energy fund	Jan 27/09
	Creststreet Mutual Funds has announced the closing of the Creststreet Alternative Energy Fund to new investors, capping the fund at $75 million in assets. The fund currently manages only $24 million in assets. At the same ti...Read more
	Northern Rivers Innovation Fund suspends redemptions	Jan 27/09
	Investors hoping to access their capital in the Northern Rivers Innovation Fund LP are bound to be disappointed. Northern Rivers Capital Management has announced the temporary suspension of redemptions from the fund. The sus...Read more
	New Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index research paper reviews hedge fund performance in 2008	Jan 27/09
	Credit Suisse Tremont Index LLC today released a new research piece, One for the History Books: Hedge Fund Performance in 2008, a review of the factors which contributed to hedge funds’ dismal -19% return i...Read more
	NY financier arrested in purported $400 million scam	Jan 27/09
	Authorities on Monday arrested the chief executive of a private New York financing firm on suspicion of running a purported Ponzi scheme that attracted $400 million in investments, U.S. law enforcement officials said. ...Read more
	Mercer Adds Alts Managers	Jan 27/09
	Mercer Investment Management, the multi-manager business of investment consultant Mercer, has picked three new alternative asset managers and one property manager. The alternative managers hired are Global Commodities, H3 Gl...Read more
	Hedgies hold MPs to draw in committee hearing	Jan 27/09
	If treasury select committees had pundits, then chances are today’s performance of MPs Vs hedge fund managers would have been judged a draw, with the MPs ahead on points. Winning and losing was not supposed to be the poin...Read more
	Nadel Arrested In Florida- Criminal Charges Pending	Jan 27/09
	Arthur Nadel is missing no more. The Florida hedge fund manager accused of defrauding investors in a $350 million Ponzi scheme was arrested this morning. Nadel turned himself in to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Tampa...Read more
	Madoff Enablers Winked at Suspected Front-Running	Jan 27/09
	For Swiss banker Werner Wolfer, the memory of his first encounter with one of Bernard Madoff’s emissaries nine years ago is as clear as the waters of Lake Geneva. To hear Patrick Littaye talk, the Wall Street money ma...Read more
	Man announces launch of managed futures product	Jan 27/09
	Man has launched a product which it says offers investors the opportunity to profit from managed futures - a strategy that has historically provided strong returns, valuable diversification benefits and good downside protection...Read more
	Managed Funds Association supports legislation on financial fraud	Jan 27/09
	US-based hedge fund industry body the Managed Funds Association has expressed its support for the announcement of new legislation by Senators Charles E. Schumer and Richard Shelby, constructed to uncover and clean up financial ...Read more
	Education endowments put more with hedge funds	Jan 27/09
	Universities and schools put more money into alternative investments like hedge funds in fiscal 2008, researchers reported on Tuesday. The Commonfund Institute, a group that polled 628 educational endowments on their ...Read more
	Hedge fund assets likely to lose up to $450bn	Jan 26/09
	Hedge funds lost more money last year than any year on record. It may get worse this year, forcing fund managers to overhaul investment strategies, reduce fees and make it easier for clients to withdraw cash. The $1.2 trillio...Read more
	Suddenly, Hollywood Seems a Conservative Investment	Jan 26/09
	WHEN it comes to Hollywood financing, the sky doesn’t fall so much as it just changes color. When the movie factory needed cash in the 1980s, it tapped individual investors through brokerage firms. That strategy ran its course, ...Read more
	Hedge fund chiefs face grilling on role in crisis	Jan 26/09
	Secretive hedge fund barons, blamed by many for undermining Britain's financial stability, will be unmasked on Tuesday when they are forced into the public spotlight by the powerful Treasury select committee.As sugges...Read more
	Hedgehogs Ravaged by Bears	Jan 26/09
	The equity markets of the world have many afflictions, but one of the most debilitating is the plague being experienced by the hedgehogs (a.k.a. hedge funds). Bright, young, bushy-tailed hedgehogs are dying right and left, and ...Read more
	Hedge funds face the heat	Jan 26/09
	Every morning, there is at least one hedge fund shutting down in Asia,” says Daniel McCormack, equity strategist at Australian financial house Macquarie Capital Securities Ltd.After a year of dismal returns that has seen the in...Read more
	FINRA makes sub rosa inquiries on hedge funds, investment advisors	Jan 26/09
	FINRA, the regulator that makes sure brokers and brokerages are obeying the law, has been quietly canvassing brokerages for information relating to affiliate hedge funds or investment advisory practices. FINRA does not regulat...Read more
	Global pensions lose $5 trln in 2008 - study	Jan 26/09
	Watson Wyatt says pension assets fell to $20 trillion from $25 trillion; below 2005 levels. LONDON, Jan 26 (Thomson IM) - Global pension fund assets in the 11 major pension markets fell by $5 trillion in 2008 hit by volatile...Read more
	Hedge Fund Registration Likely Under Obama	Jan 26/09
	Less than a week into his administration, the outlines of President Barack Obama’s plan to overhaul America’s financial regulatory systems are coming into focus. And it is becoming increasingly clear that the plan will involve ...Read more
	Caledonian Global Fund Services Achieves SAS 70 Certification	Jan 26/09
	Caledonian Global Fund Services, a provider of specialized administration services to the alternative investment industry, today announces the completion of its SAS 70 Type I certification. SAS 70, or Statement on Auditing S...Read more
	Credit Suisse banks on alternatives	Jan 26/09
	Teams of specialists will assist 'stumped' institutional investors.Credit Suisse Asset Management LLC is pinning the future of its asset management business on alternative investments. While the Zurich-based Swiss bank is selling...Read more
	U.K., Canada fare best in nightmare year	Jan 26/09
	In a year when equity markets plunged worldwide, producing double-digit average investment losses across the six largest pension markets, pension funds in the U.K. and Canada outperformed their peers in 2008 —largely because of...Read more
	Changes seen as a constant for 2009	Jan 26/09
	Survey shows much rebalancing, strategic adjustments expected in the coming year.Credit strategies are in; hedge funds and 130/30 are out. A new survey by money manager consultant Eager, Davis & Holmes LLC, shows investment ...Read more
	U.K. Hedge Fund Industry Employ 40,000	Jan 26/09
	Despite the downturn, hedge funds are still a major force in the U.K. economy. The British hedge fund industry currently employs an estimated 40,000 people, according to the Alternative Investment Management Association. AIMA...Read more
	Barclay CTA Index gained 13.9 per cent in 2008	Jan 23/09
	Managed futures gained 13.90 per cent in 2008, the best annual performance for CTAs since their 21.02 per cent return in 1990, according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge. 'A gain of nearly 14 per cent clearly s...Read more
	Emerging market equities suffered most in 2008, says Morningstar	Jan 23/09
	The Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index lost 10.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 22.2 per cent for the year, wiping out the last two years of gains. The index bounced back slightly after extreme market illiquidity and...Read more
	Hedge Fund Assets May Fall $450 Billion After Worst Performance	Jan 23/09
	Hedge funds lost more money in 2008 than any year on record. It may get worse in 2009, forcing fund managers to overhaul investment strategies, reduce fees and make it easier for clients to withdraw cash. The $1.2 ...Read more