General News

	Goldman's Flagship Hedge Fund Fell 5.7% in February (Update3)	Apr 04/07
	April 3 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s flagship hedge fund, managed by Mark Carhart and Raymond Iwanowski, lost 5.7 percent in February, hurt by wrong-way bets on stocks, global bonds and currencies including t...Read more
	EU Mutual Funds Push for Access to Hedge-Fund Indexes (Update2)	Apr 03/07
	April 2 (Bloomberg) -- European mutual funds may be able to give ordinary investors a taste of hedge-fund returns, if their managers convince regulators to let them buy derivatives of hedge-fund indexes. ...Read more
	Hedge funds face growing start-up costs	Apr 02/07
	Budding hedge fund managers could be forced to shelve plans to launch into the business because the minimum amount needed to launch has trebled to $200m (€150m) in three years. <!-- HIDE FROM OL...Read more
	Man Group, the Large British Hedge Fund, Plans to Spin Off Its Brokerage Unit	Apr 02/07
	LONDON, March 30 — The Man Group, the world’s largest publicly traded hedge fund operator, said Friday that it would spin off its brokerage division to focus on its asset management unit. The step has been in the works for...Read more
	Canada Throws Cold Water On German Plans	Apr 02/07
	Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said today he sees no need for any international hedge fund regulation, an issue likely to be on the table when the G-7 meets later this month and the G-8 convenes in June. German Chancel...Read more
	Is there a capacity constraint facing 130/30 strategies?	Mar 30/07
	A few years ago, the hedge fund industry was all abuzz about the “capacity constraint” facing many hedge fund strategies. However, while certain strategies (e.g. merger arbitrage) exploited a limited set of opportunities, mo...Read more
	Many wealthy not attracted to hedge funds	Mar 29/07
	Only 1 in 5 affluent U.S. investors understands hedge funds, suggesting the industry needs better marketing. NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Only one in five affluent U.S. investors understands hedge funds and other kinds of "alt...Read more
	N.Y. Remains Center Of $2 Trillion Hedge Fund Industry	Mar 29/07
	Hedge funds topped the $2 trillion mark by the end of last year—at least according to one estimate. The first global survey from Hedge Fund Intelligence estimates that assets in hedge funds rose 30% last year, in spite of the...Read more
	Germany's Merkel pushes for G8 hedge fund talks	Mar 28/07
	German chancellor Angela Merkel has embarked on a push for closer ties between the biggest economies in the world, represented by the Group of Eight, and the hedge fund industry in an effort to lower the risks of an economic cri...Read more
	FSA all-clear for retail investors to put money into hedge funds	Mar 28/07
	The Financial Services Authority opened the door yesterday for private individuals to invest in hedge funds, scrapping rules which prevent regulated UK investment funds from investing more than 20 per cen...Read more
	ING opens up alternatives	Mar 28/07
	ING’s has launched a new capital protected fund through its OneAnswer platform that gives investors access to alternative investments with the comfort of built-in safeguards. Developed exclusively for ING by Société Générale As...Read more
	Replicating hedge fund indices may weaken hedge fund justification	Mar 27/07
	The recent practice of replicating hedge fund indices may dispel arguments for having a portfolio allocation to hedge funds, according to a leading executive with Russell Investment Group’s US operations. “One of the ration...Read more
	Amaranth investors offer forgiveness for redemptions	Mar 27/07
	Investors in the hedge fund run by Amaranth Advisors, which collapsed last year amid a $6.5bn (€4.9bn) loss, have proposed dropping all potential litigation claims to speed up the payment of remaining capital. ...Read more
	Porsche Raises Volkswagen Stake, to Make Takeover Bid (Update5)	Mar 26/07
	March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Porsche AG boosted its stake in Volkswagen AG to 30.9 percent and said it plans to defend Europe's largest carmaker against possible influence from hedge funds and buyout firms. ...Read more
	Hedge funds go public	Mar 26/07
	The City watchdog is opening up this high-risk form of investment to a wider market. Report by David Budworth Investors are being encouraged to follow the lead of the American investor George Soros, who made over $1 bi...Read more
	Full house at the hedge fund hotel	Mar 26/07
	The days when hedge funds were launched and run from the spare bedroom are, by widespread agreement, over. The initial costs of obtaining regulatory approval and employing lawyers and accountants are burdensome enough. But the ...Read more
	Janus: The Roman god of alpha/beta separation?	Mar 26/07
	Janus, the company whose logo looks like an early version of that face transplant performed in France last year, has come out with an intriguing offering that aims to separate alpha and beta investment decisions. It’s called “...Read more
	Merrill Lynch tries to replicate forex hedge fund strategies	Mar 23/07
	NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Hedge funds have something that Merrill Lynch & Co. wants. The New York firm said Thursday that it's in the process of developing a tool designed specifically to replicate the foreign exch...Read more
	Former Morgan Stanley CIO launches hedge fund	Mar 23/07
	Morgan Stanley’s former chief investment officer started a hedge fund with his former colleagues just as pension plans' allocations to the asset class rises to new highs. Joseph McAlinden, formerly chief investment officer of Mor...Read more
	A Closer Look at State Street’s New Hedge Fund Survey	Mar 23/07
	On Wednesday, State Street released the findings from its survey of institutional investors at October’s Global Absolute Return Congress (”Global ARC”) in Boston. The firm surveyed pensions & endowments that they say were c...Read more
	IndexIQ To Release 'Hedge Fund Replicator' ETFs At Fraction of Cost	Mar 23/07
	Matt Hougan (IndexUniverse) submits: The latest rage in the financial services industry is to create “hedge fund replicators”: computer-driven tools that combine assets in a way that mimics hedge fund returns at a fraction of t...Read more
	KPMG Forms Alternative Investment Group	Mar 23/07
	KPMG has consolidated its hedge fund, real estate and infrastructure businesses into one unit dubbed the alternative investment group, including staff from KPMG's corporate finance, tax, transaction services, audit and advisory...Read more
	Institutions More Comfortable With Hedge Funds	Mar 22/07
	Institutional investors are increasingly at ease with hedge funds. According to a new survey from State Street Corp., more than half of respondents say their boards are more comfortable with hedge funds today than they were a y...Read more
	Hedge fund bets bigger on Nortel	Mar 22/07
	Nortel Networks' biggest single shareholder, Brandes Investment Partners, a hedge fund based in San Diego, California, increased its ownership to 46.8 million shares last year — or 10.8 per cent of all stock.Brandes has been th...Read more
	Pinnacle Unveils Investor Database Aimed At Emerging Managers	Mar 22/07
	One of the biggest challenges for new hedge fund managers and commodity trading advisors is finding investors. Sensing this need for a cap intro product, consulting firm Pinnacle Alternative Investments has put together an inve...Read more
	Hedge fund directors on guard	Mar 21/07
	Offshore directors of hedge funds are becoming more active defenders of investors' rights as regulators pay more attention to the burgeoning sector, according to the authors of a new set of industry guidelines.Olwyn Alexander,...Read more
	US funds propose transparency solutions	Mar 21/07
	The perception of hedge funds as high-risk investments continues to play on the minds of US politicians, who discussed pension investments in the asset class during US congressional hearings last week. ...Read more
	Further Transparency for Hedge Funds	Mar 21/07
	London 20th March 2007. The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the leading global hedge fund and alternative investment industry association has issued a new Guide to Sound Practices for Hedge Fund Valuation. T...Read more
	Calpers eyes raising investment to hedge funds-CIO	Mar 20/07
	WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - The California Public Employees Retirement System, already a large investor in hedge funds, will likely raise its allocation to these loosely regulated portfolios in the next three years, a top...Read more
	Yen exchange rate and hedge funds	Mar 20/07
	The yen and hedge funds are at centre stage, but what will happen if China diversifies into holding the yen. In an earlier article, I had referred to the large bets of hedge funds in the “carry trade”, estimated at around...Read more
	Improve your understanding of hedge funds	Mar 20/07
	Q: I'd like to learn more about hedge funds - how are they structured? A The notoriety of the hedge fund has increased markedly during the past five years. Once the reserved domain of extremely wealthy individuals and financial...Read more
	Investing: Hedge funds: market angels or demons?	Mar 20/07
	LOS ANGELES: Are hedge funds really the disruptive, destabilizing force their critics make them out to be? Or do these free-wheeling partnerships of wealthy and institutional investors actually reduce volatility and help make t...Read more
	The “Gatekeeper” Approach to Hedge Fund Oversight	Mar 20/07
	The “Gatekeeper” Approach to Hedge Fund Oversight Monitoring “Gatekeepers” Can Enhance Investor Protection and Reduce Systemic Risk March 19, 2007 – New York, NY – Hennessee Group LLC, an adviser to hedge f...Read more
	Hedge Fund Assets Swelled 24% in 2006	Mar 20/07
	Hedge fund assets rose 24% to $1.89 trillion in 2006, driven by new allocations and performance gains, a report showed on Monday. Hedge funds promise to deliver positive returns in all markets for a higher fee compared with mu...Read more
	Hedge fund returns look unimpressive in new study	Mar 20/07
	University of Texas finance professor John Griffin and Jin Xu (who works at Roger Ibbotson's Zebra Capital Management) have some bad news for proponents of hedge funds in their new paper How Smart Are the Smart Guys? (tip o' the...Read more
	Hedge fund law eyed in New York state	Mar 20/07
	Public pension plans in New York state would be allowed to invest in hedge funds and hedge funds of funds under the terms of a bill introduced in the state Assembly. The bill would require some level of transparency from any he...Read more
	Market Fall Makes Fund of Hedge Fund Managers More Optimistic	Mar 20/07
	The return of market volatility has made fund of hedge fund managers more optimistic about producing better-than-average returns over the next two quarters, according to Reuters. In its quarterly survey of the group, which repre...Read more
	Hedge funds with $35 bln shut down in 2006	Mar 20/07
	Amaranth, Archeus, Sagamore funds were biggest, survey finds SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- U.S. hedge funds that once managed $35 billion shut down last year as more big firms ran into trouble, according to a survey released ...Read more
	Hedge-fund envy	Mar 19/07
	Mutual funds borrow a few ideas from hedge funds MUTUAL funds are the familiar, unexciting face of stockmarket capitalism, the financial product of choice for millions of investors. But a growing number of mutual-fund managers,...Read more
	Credit Turbulence Puts Hedge Funds on the Spot	Mar 17/07
	March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Are hedge funds really the disruptive, destabilizing force their critics make them out to be? Or do these free-wheeling partnerships of wealthy and institutional investors actu...Read more
	Subprime Defaults to Soar, Hurt Lenders, Funds Say (Update1)	Mar 16/07
	March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Harbinger Capital Partners and Paulson & Co., hedge-fund managers who profited when subprime- mortgage defaults surged, told investors that delinquent loans will soar and more lenders will disa...Read more
	Hedge Funds, the Usual Suspects, Blamed for Volatility in Asia	Mar 16/07
	The recent volatility and pullback in Asian markets have prompted some investors to sound a familiar refrain: It’s all the fault of the hedge funds. In the last two years, dozens of these funds have set up shop in Asia ho...Read more
	Wall St Trade Groups See Big Harm From Hedge-Fund Disclosure	Mar 16/07
	Two trade associations that count among its members Wall Street's biggest financial-services firms asked a judge Thursday to reconsider an order forcing hedge funds to disclose trading activity, saying it would do "serious...Read more
	IOSCO Offers 9 Principles For Hedge Fund Valuation	Mar 16/07
	The International Organization of Securities Commission has issued for a comment a report that offers nine principles for proper valuation of hedge funds – only days before the Alternative Investment Management Association is set...Read more
	For Now Hedge Funds Not Deemed Homeland Security Issue	Mar 15/07
	WASHINGTON (HedgeWorld.com)—The Senate declined to take up Sen. Charles Grassley's effort to attach a mandate for the registration of hedge funds to a homeland security bill last week, but his office said he'll continue his eff...Read more
	Schneeweis: Monthly hedge fund data might be leading us astray	Mar 15/07
	Thomas Schneeweis is an academic. So he views the primary benefits of managed accounts not as operational, but as analytical. He argues that daily and weekly return data (usually only available via a managed account) is superior...Read more
	AIMA to Respond to IOSCO Consultation Report	Mar 15/07
	London 14th March 2007. The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the leading global hedge fund and alternative investment industry association today announced that it will respond to new IOSCO valuation proposa...Read more
	Funds of funds hold their own	Mar 14/07
	Managers’ returns compare favourably with those of their directly invested rivals Private equity funds of funds can deliver comparable returns to buyout or venture funds. A report by Private Equity Intelligence suggests top-qua...Read more
	IOSCO releases principles for the valuation of hedge fund portfolios	Mar 14/07
	Regulators seek comment The International Organization of Securities Commissions has released for comment a paper that proposes principles for the valuation of hedge fund portfolios. The principles describe techniques which a...Read more
	February 2007 Performance Review of Dow Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks	Mar 13/07
	Five of the six hedge fund strategies covered by Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes posted net-of-fees gains in February 2007.With net-of-fees returns of 3.71%, merger arbitrage was once again the best performing strategy in February ...Read more