General News

	2008 Was Lean for New Hedge Funds	Feb 06/09
	Raising money to start any new venture was tough last year, but especially so if you were a hedge fund. Assets for new hedge funds declined 35 percent in 2008 compared to the previous year, as hedge fund investors — typically in...Read more
	Large hedge fund launches "declined 26 per cent in 2008"	Feb 06/09
	Assets for large new hedge fund launches declined significantly in the US in 2008 as hedge funds suffered their worst-ever year for performance, a survey has found. The survey, conducted by Absolute Return magazine, found that ...Read more
	Ponzi North	Feb 06/09
	When people around Phillip Robinson saw how lucrative his investments were, they wanted in. Now, the Canadian link to Bernard Madoff is becoming clear, and it isn't pretty. Phillip Robinson has survived the Second World War, th...Read more
	Canadian Short Ban Raised Mkt Volatility	Feb 06/09
	The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) has released two studies examining recent trends in trading activity of listed securities on Canadian equity marketplaces and the impact of the prohibition on th...Read more
	Insight: Hedge fund haters have a point	Feb 06/09
	Walk around London’s Mayfair or New York’s Midtown at the moment and – if you can avoid tripping over unemployed bankers – you can listen in on plenty of conversations about kicking hedge funds while they’re down.This is not a...Read more
	Hedge Funds Can’t Fix Connecticut’s Fallen Revenue	Feb 05/09
	Philip Duff, Morgan Stanley’s former chief financial officer, last month fired 80 of the 100 people at his 11-month-old hedge fund, and now he’s looking to sublet excess office space in Greenwich, Connecticut. Record los...Read more
	Madoff’s Brother Said to Audit Firm’s Investments, Tipster Says	Feb 05/09
	Bernard Madoff rejected an investment fund demand for an outside audit of his performance, saying only his brother Peter was allowed to do that “for reasons of secrecy,” a certified fraud examiner testified to Congress. ...Read more
	Soros Imitators Reap Riches in Financial Crisis on Macro Funds	Feb 05/09
	Hedge fund managers on average lost 18.7 percent of their clients’ money in 2008, for the worst performance since at least 1990, according to Hedge Fund Research Inc. Combine the losses with investor redemptions, and total hed...Read more
	Harry Markopolos' 2005 Memo to the SEC	Feb 05/09
	Here is the link to Harry Markopolos' 2005 memo to the Securities and Exchange Commission about the fraud he believed he had uncovered at Bernard Madoff's hedge fund.Please copy and paste in your browser.http://www.hedgeworld.co...Read more
	Madoff clients' list made public	Feb 05/09
	A list of clients who invested money with accused swindler Bernard Madoff was made public on Wednesday. The 162-page document filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan named Columbia University, legendary baseball playe...Read more
	Goldman Sachs postpones hedge-fund conference	Feb 05/09
	Goldman Sachs Group Inc. postponed a conference it holds annually for investors and hedge fund clients. The conference location will also be moved to New York. The conference was scheduled for early March in Miami, but ins...Read more
	A Hedge Fund Gambles on Death	Feb 05/09
	The market for exotic securities hasn’t entirely gone away. It’s just gone underground—-six feet under, to be precise. Hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management is plunging into life settlements—a market in which speculat...Read more
	Tax haven hedge funds threatened	Feb 05/09
	Thousands of hedge funds in offshore tax havens are expected to fold in 2009, warn Zolfo Cooper.The head of restructuring giant Zolfo Cooper expects thousands of hedge funds to fold in 2009.Simon Freakley told Accountancy Age t...Read more
	AIMA calls for global response to issues touching hedge funds	Feb 05/09
	A global response is needed to the concerns from regulators and politicians concerning hedge funds said the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA). In its response to the European Commission's consultation paper o...Read more
	Hedge Fund Launches Decline 26% to $23 Billion in 2008	Feb 05/09
	The Absolute Return New Funds Survey for 2008, published in the February issue of Absolute Return magazine, shows that assets for new hedge fund launches declined significantly in the U.S. as hedge funds came off the worst...Read more
	Hedge funds managers try, try again	Feb 04/09
	Plenty of hedge fund managers lost their shirts to 2008's bear market, but that doesn't appear to be keeping some of them from trying again with a new fund. The latest manager to go that route is Michael Zimmerman, whose Prenti...Read more
	Hedge funds wither under $152B in withdrawals	Feb 04/09
	Hedge funds have seen the best of times and the worst of times in the fourth quarter. In the last quarter of 2007, the industry attracted a record $194 billion from investors. But it's been all downhill from there as the financ...Read more
	Luxembourg to shut down Madoff-linked hedge fund	Feb 04/09
	BRUSSELS: Luxembourg financial supervisors said Tuesday they would shut down the Luxalpha hedge fund that invested heavily in a massive pyramid scheme allegedly operated by U.S. financier Bernard Madoff. Luxalpha was promo...Read more
	John Meriwether, the Wile E. Coyote of Hedge Funds	Feb 04/09
	Some people really do live a cartoon life. They blow themselves up, and for a second, there they are, all charred and burned. But then in the next frame, they've got a fresh stick of dynamite in their hands and they're good as ...Read more
	Private equity dives into alternatives, LBOs dead	Feb 04/09
	Private equity firms are being forced to dive into alternative investments or sit it out on the sidelines, as the credit crisis kills their ability to strike large leveraged buyouts. The mood was gloomy at the industry's main...Read more
	Massachusetts Pension Fires Austin, Ivy Hedge Funds	Feb 04/09
	The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, which oversees $38 billion, voted to fire hedge-fund firm Austin Capital Management after losing $12 million with alleged Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff. ...Read more
	Sprott Says U.S. Depression Will Boost Gold Price	Feb 04/09
	Eric Sprott, the Canadian money manager who last year predicted banking stocks would collapse, said the U.S. is at the beginning of an economic depression that will help gold prices more than double. Bullion may t...Read more
	10 Questions to Ask Your Fund-of-Funds Manager	Feb 04/09
	If you were a client of Access International Advisors, which lost a lot of money with Bernie Madoff, then you would have been told that they "conducted thorough due diligence when selecting outsider fund managers". Whi...Read more
	Tancredo hit by hedge fund fallout	Feb 04/09
	Tom Tancredo is reeling in the debris of America's exploding hedge funds. "It all went south," the former candidate for U.S. president told me Monday. "It was a pretty devastating thing." The conservative R...Read more
	Judge extends freeze on Nadel's assets	Feb 04/09
	A federal judge extended a freeze on the assets of Sarasota's Arthur G. Nadel on Tuesday, but failed to include other partners -- a measure some investors with the accused hedge fund swindler have been pushing for aggressively ...Read more
	Silvercreek latest hedge fund to feel sting of market downturn	Feb 04/09
	The market meltdown has claimed another hedge fund, with Silvercreek Management into workout mode on a convertible bond fund that featured a who's who of Canadian finance backers.Silvercreek oversees an estimated $300-million, an...Read more
	Markopolos Says Madoff Losses Probably $15 Billion-$25 Billion	Feb 04/09
	Harry Markopolos said losses linked to Bernard Madoff’s alleged fraud are probably $15 billion to $25 billion, rather than the estimated $50 billion. Markopolos, testifying to a House Financial Services Committee p...Read more
	Compliance to Take Center Stage if SEC Registration is Required of Hedge Funds	Feb 03/09
	With Congress and the new Obama Administration calling for tighter regulation of hedge funds, compliance is going to be a hot topic in alternative investment circles. Last Thursday, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa,...Read more
	Despite Bad Mistakes, 75/50 Strategies Bouncing Back	Feb 03/09
	In this column, we'll review the performance of a portfolio model designed to use both short- and long-allocation strategies for managing private wealth. We'll call this our AI 75-50 Portfolio. (Excuse me, this isn't overt...Read more
	More Than Half US-Based Hedge Funds SEC-Registered	Feb 03/09
	A little more than half of U.S.-based hedge funds are already registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a new study that comes amid efforts by lawmakers to require virtually all of them to do so. ...Read more
	Morningstar sued for 'screen-scraping'	Feb 03/09
	NewRiver Inc., a software provider, filed a lawsuit today in Massachusetts state court alleging that Morningstar Inc. illegally accessed its proprietary software — access it says that the research firm used to engage in unfair ...Read more
	IAM Launches $100 Million CTA Portfolio	Feb 03/09
	Fund of hedge funds shop International Asset Management has launched the IAM Trading Fund with more than US$100 million in assets. The fund will invest in diversified portfolio of commodity trading advisers, initially allocati...Read more
	Hedge Funds Frustrated By Investors, Not Markets, In 2008	Feb 03/09
	While the bulk of the hedge fund industry suffered from drawdowns and redemptions last year, a handful of non-household funds actually generated the absolute returns that they are, by definition, after. But these under-the-rada...Read more
	Lawrence fund manager given second chance	Feb 03/09
	Shareholders of Lawrence Partners Fund yesterday voted to let its manager, Ravi Sood, have another crack at reinvesting some of the struggling hedge fund's assets.Toronto-based Lawrence Asset Management Inc. had been proposing ...Read more
	Hedge fund due diligence offered online	Feb 03/09
	Consultant and hedge fund data provider BarclayHedge has formed a partnership to distribute the due diligence SwissAnalytics product online through its website. The SwissAnalytics alternative investment analysis platform...Read more
	Public companies keen to invest in hedge funds says survey	Feb 02/09
	The overwhelming majority of public companies are keen to engage with hedge fund investors, with 89% proactively meeting with hedge funds as part of their investor relations programmes, according to a survey conducted by Bank o...Read more
	Australian Hedge Funds Hammered In 2008	Feb 02/09
	Hedge Funds from Australia have seen a record decline or loss of 18 per cent in 2008, as the credit crisis intensified into a full blown panic last year, which resulted in equity markets globally selling off by as much as 50 pe...Read more
	Bonds Slump in January, Hedge Funds Buy Gold	Feb 02/09
	This January was one of the worst on record for financial markets. US Treasuries crashed after enjoying a recession-beating run in 2008. Gold and silver were the only major asset class to end the month higher.Hedge funds that p...Read more
	Arbitrage Lures Gabelli After 920 Hedge Funds Fail	Feb 02/09
	Mario Gabelli is buying Wyeth to book a 13 percent profit from its takeover by Pfizer Inc. Managers at Cohen & Steers Inc. are scooping up closed-end funds trading at a 16 percent discount to the value of their holdings. H...Read more
	Diversification doesn't always insulate investors, and details matter	Feb 02/09
	There is a sense of betrayal among investors who have been conscientious.And when they talk about it, they sound like individuals who find themselves with a fatal disease after a lifetime of healthy living—eating a well-balance...Read more
	Hedge Fund Manager Defended by Madoff’s Lawyer Gets 40 Months	Feb 02/09
	A hedge fund manager who used the same defense lawyer as Bernard Madoff received a sentence that was a third of the maximum possible after he was convicted of defrauding investors out of $10 million. Vincent Montag...Read more
	Space tourist takes punt on hedge fund	Feb 02/09
	Mark Shuttleworth, the man dubbed the “first African in space” after paying $20m (£13.7m) to become the cosmos’s second space tourist, has put $10m into a hedge fund backed by Michael Spencer, the billionaire founder of Icap, t...Read more
	Hedge that made the grade	Jan 30/09
	Morgan Stanley, BlackRock Investment Management, Select Asset Management, Winton Capital and Man Investments are the only alternatives fund managers from a pool of 19 to receive a 'recommended' or 'highly recommended rating' fr...Read more
	Hedge fund deal's unique feature?	Jan 30/09
	The deals for hedge funds these days aren't nearly as gripping as they were a year or so ago, when people were speculating which funds would go public. The deals these days tend to be of the bailout--take my assets, please!--va...Read more
	Inflation worry sparks new strategies, share classes	Jan 30/09
	Some hedge fund managers and investors are so concerned about a possible devaluation of major Western currencies and the threat of inflation that they're taking some unusual steps to hedge those risks. ...Read more
	Senators Bid to Regulate Hedge Funds	Jan 30/09
	Two senior senators introduced legislation on Thursday to impose government oversight of hedge funds. The legislation by Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, and Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, was filed as...Read more
	Hedge Fund to Measure Returns in Gold Rather than Currency	Jan 30/09
	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 fund manag...Read more
	Moody`s report: Market turmoil places operational stress on hedge funds	Jan 30/09
	Market-related pressures due to the ongoing credit squeeze and the loss of investor confidence also place operational stresses on the hedge fund industry, rather than just financial stresses, says Moody's Investors Service i...Read more
	Hedge funds likely stung by banks rally	Jan 30/09
	Hedge funds appear to have been badly stung by this week's rally in bank stocks after the size of short positions across the sector jumped sharply in the middle of last week, industry data showed. However, the short pos...Read more
	Horseman Hedge Fund Says Emerging Market Stocks, Bonds to Fall	Jan 30/09
	Russell Clark, the portfolio manager at Horseman Capital Management LP whose emerging markets fund returned 14.6 percent last year, told clients that emerging- market stocks and bonds are likely to fall in 2009. L...Read more