RSS feedHedge funds
A small, last minute cash call…
Three Alphavillans are running around Canary Wharf in East London this evening in support of the British Heart Foundation.
Left to right: Lisa Pollack, David Keohane and Masa Serdarevic
Click here to make it worth their while.
Hedge funds are flying high
Five months in and it’s been a pretty good year for hedge funds with the HFRI fund weighted composite index up 4.4 per cent year to date, following its strongest first quarter performance since 2006. The index fell 5.25 per cent last year.
Those Cam dine with me donors
There are a few familiar City faces in the list of Conservative party donors who have “privately” dined with the Prime Minister at No 10…
(H/T the New Statesman)
14 July 2010 – No 10
Attendees:
Greece optimistic about moving closer to swap
Greece has moved a step closer to completing its debt restructuring after a raft of bondholders agreed to participate in its upcoming debt restructuring swap, likely enabling the troubled nation to force the deal through,
US bourses to fine HFT data-cloggers
Two of the biggest US stock exchanges are set to impose penalties on high-frequency traders who clog the markets’ data pipes with unnecessary messages that do not result in trades, the FT reports. This move comes as Mary Schapiro,
Dalio takes hedge crown from Soros
Ray Dalio has overtaken George Soros as the world’s most successful hedge fund manager after his Bridgewater Pure Alpha fund made $13.8bn for investors last year, says the FT. The profits made by the Connecticut-based Pure Alpha – already the world’s biggest hedge fund,
Gordon Gekko tells Wall St greed is not good
Michael Douglas is playing a new and unlikely role as spokesman for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in its war against corruption on Wall Street, the FT reports. The Hollywood actor – famous for his line “greed is good” in the 1987 film Wall Street – is sending a new message in a public service announcement,
Obama and Romney unveil rival tax plans
President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, his most likely Republican rival in this year’s election, battled for the mantle of tax reformer as they released competing visions for comprehensive reform, the FT reports.
Hedge funds exit stage left, pursued by bearishness
LONDON—World-renowned news and opinion magazine The Economist announced plans to suspend any new online and print content for the next month in an effort to finally allow subscribers a chance to catch up.
The hedgies’ tool of choice
The letter.
From an old New Yorker story on Daniel Loeb:
Loeb’s favored device is the scolding letter, formally addressed, publicly released, and ruthlessly frank in its assessments of managerial competence.
Paulson calls for Hartford split
John Paulson, the billionaire investor, has taken public his efforts to get The Hartford Financial Services Group to split into two companies, says the FT. The Hartford, like other insurers, has been under pressure in its life insurance business as interest rates hover near zero, making it difficult to generate the income to cover pay-outs on products like annuities.
John Paulson vs Hartford Financial
You’ll have to imagine how it sounded.
But here’s an interesting demonstration of John Paulson at work… stepping onto Hartford Financial’s earnings conference call to lambast the insurer’s performance.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- No, banks shouldn’t be in the tail risk-selling business.
- Hempton on Diamond Foods: “There is seldom only one cockroach…”
- Economic recovery complacency?
- Oil &
Bruising year for commodities hedge funds
The commodities hedge fund industry has suffered its worst year in more than a decade as the sector’s top managers recorded heavy losses amid volatile markets, the FT reports. The average commodity hedge fund fell 1.7 per cent in 2011,
Deutsche Bank targets hedge funds’ problem assets
Deutsche Bank is preparing to launch a fund to snap up investors’ illiquid or damaged holdings in hedge funds that have failed to recover since the financial crisis, the FT reports, citing people familiar with the launch. The fund,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Friday,
- The high yield ETF is really, really popular.
- The bubble in central banking.
- Why people become investment bankers.
- Is the natural gas rebound sustainable?
- Now this is a jolly.
Einhorn, UK FSA’s high-profile target
David Einhorn’s personal £3.6m ($5.6m) fine from the UK’s FSA for market abuse amounts to the second largest individual penalty for in the regulator’s history, and finally gives it a high-profile scalp,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- The internet Web: French.
- Fed take, I: ’Ever heard of the phrase “data overload?”’
- Fed take, II: was Ben showing his frustration?
- …And why the Fed did not pledge to keep rates low.
Einhorn and Greenlight fined £7.2m
David Einhorn, one of the world’s highest profile hedge fund managers, and his firm, Greenlight Capital, have been fined £7.2m by UK regulators for trading ahead of a 2009 equity fundraising by Punch Taverns,
Hedge bashers
This document had previously passed this correspondent by: DP12/1 - Implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive. H/T Sarah Butcher.
Open that, hit control F and type “remuneration.”
Hedgies in flux
The latest annual SEI/Greenwich Associates survey of investors’ perceptions of hedge funds is out.
You find full details in the usual place, but here are the bullet points from the exec summary:
– Institutional allocations are continuing to rise,
Hedge funds fall short of incentive fee level
More than two-thirds of hedge funds are below their high-water marks, the point at which they are able to charge investors performance fees, according to Credit Suisse. The FT says the main source of income for hedge fund managers is their share of investment profits,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- Einhorn vs the eurozone foghorns.
- Try as he might, Felix Salmon will never be Davos Deville. OK?
- Horrible pawnbroking story du jour.
- Why the Asian growth miracle might go way way back.
Seven charged over $62m insider trading
Seven hedge fund portfolio managers and analysts have been charged in a $61.8m insider trading scheme as US authorities escalate their crackdown on Wall Street corruption, writes the FT. Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested three hedge fund managers in New York,
More clients leave Man Group
Man Group, the world’s biggest publicly-listed hedge fund, continued to lose clients during the last months of 2011, Reuters reports. Investors pulled $2.5bn out of the group in the fourth quarter, following on from a rapid rate of outflows in the three months to September.
Hedgies’ next target: rule 502(c), Regulation D
Hedge fund lobbyists are pushing the SEC to repeal the Depression-era regulation which officially prohibits funds from all general advertising and solicitation, the FT reports. Funds have long complained that rule 502(c) of Regulation D makes it too difficult to find out whether managers are providing enough information for their clients,
Hedge funds lobby against SEC secrecy rule
The FT says fund lobbyists have petitioned the US Securities and Exchange Commission to repeal the rule that lies behind one of the industry’s most notorious traits: its secrecy. The Managed Funds Association,
Swiss bank offers eurozone shorting products
Credit Suisse is offering its hedge fund clients off-the-shelf products that allow traders to replicate hypothetical gains made by betting against European stock indices that include equities covered by eurozone short selling bans,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Monday,
- Epistemology and bank bonuses (or was it principals?).
- How many US jobs are “structurally impaired”?
- Why we’ll never grow out of safe haven assets.
- You’ve gotta watch out for FATCA…