Hardly A Cause For A Sell-abration

Date: Thursday, December 14, 2006
Author: Dailyii.com

News that Citadel Investment Group was going to pay $75,000 to gain access to hedge fund information through a PlusFunds Group database has drawn the ire and raised the blood pressure of many a hedgie whose trading histories looked as if they were about to become an open book. Relax, guys and gals. The Wall Street Journal reports that a court hearing set for Friday on whether PlusFunds could even sell the information – consisting of trading histories of 40 hedge funds -- has been postponed indefinitely, and word is that Citadel may have changed its mind, though the Chicago-based hedge fund would not comment. At issue were the records PlusFunds, a client of Refco, collected to be used for a Standard & Poor’s hedge fund index. When Refco collapsed, so did PlusFunds and the index. Citadel reportedly is the only firm that offered to pay for it, but if indeed it has backed away from the deal, there is always the possibility that another firm will express interest, even if the information is "nonexclusive," as PlusFunds claims. David Harding of Winton Capital, one of the firms whose records are in the PlusFunds database, says a "loophole" in its contract with the Refco unit caused the problem. "It’s clever actually," Harding said in a WSJ interview. "But it is not something that we would do if we were on the other side. It’s dodgy...We’re extremely nervous about how our proprietary information will be used."