Each business day HedgeCo.Net keeps you informed with the top hedge fund industry news, opinion and insight from around the globe. From the latest hedge fund launches, to the impact of regulation, competition, and investor activism - we track the topics and people that make a difference to you.
Investment Week – Castlestone Management is set to launch a hybrid fund investing in both equities and hedge funds.
The group claims managed futures have maintained decent returns throughout the market turmoil and predict the asset class will work well in tandem with equities, which have yet to see a turnaround.
Managed futures use trading processes to access the global futures markets.
Castlestone is currently testing the market appetite for the Defensive Equity fund, with a view to launching the vehicle at the end of January.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - In the monthly report from Dow Jones Indexes on the performance of Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks, only one of four strategies, merger arbitrage, posted net-of-fee gains in November.
After hedge funds experienced two of the most volatile months in market history, merger arbitrage emerged with a small positive net-of-fee gain in November, returning 0.15%. The small gain held YTD performance for merger arbitrage at approximately the same level as last month, down about -9%.
Convertible arbitrage was hit the hardest with a loss of -4.80%, followed by event driven and distressed securities, which were down -6.35% and -7.47%, respectively, for November.
The equity market neutral and equity long/short benchmarks were suspended at the start of the month as a result of the temporary risk mitigation measures taken by the investment manager of the managed account platform that supports the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks. It has not been determined when calculation of these benchmarks will resume.
On a float-adjusted basis, the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000, the only broad measure of the domestic equity market, lost -8% (-8.15% on a full-cap basis) in November decreasing its YTD return to -38.30% (-38.37% on a full-cap basis).
The fixed income asset class, as measured by the Dow Jones Corporate Bond Index was up 4.88% this month and its cumulative return is down -5.99% for the year. Finally, the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Index, the broadest measure of global equity market, lost -6.73% for the month decreasing its YTD return to -44.68% for 2008.
November 2008 figures for the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks are based on daily estimates net of fees.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
StreetInsider.com – Connecticut State Treasurer Denise Nappier is moving forward with a plan to invest in hedge funds after losing $5 billion of pension assets this year.
Nappier will begin allocating up to 8% of the $20 billion she oversees for public sector employees and teachers into hedge funds after the state’s investment advisory council approved the plan later today.
Ironically, Connecticut, which has many of the world’s largest hedge funds, is one of the few states that doesn’t invest its public pension in the asset class.
The three retirement funds Nappier controls are heading for the worst annual performance since at least 1991, according to treasurer’s office data. Bloomberg reported asset values fell 19.5% to $20.7 billion from $25.9 billion between July 1 and the end of October.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - In an interview with Geneva based Forex trader and currency specialist Robert Paulson, he said; "Trading the Forex market is for serious investors seeking alternative investment opportunities."
Clients pulling out of hedge funds due to the current state of affairs has raised questions about short term options and the possibility that investors may find a managed account more suitable.
"Understanding the dynamics of diversification and proper asset allocation is an easy formula to understand. To some investors currency trading is considered a “must” and a “cannot do with out” investment class. In Forex there are no “bull markets” or “bear markets”, having the mobility to trade virtually anywhere in the world is essential when it comes to proper investing.”
Currently operating a managed account program in Geneva, Paulson said he is looking to Dubai and the UAE for the next wave of investors, "The dynamics of the current investment environment offers opportunity for those with a realistic appetite for risk. The Foreign Exchange (Forex) markets have been an asset class most enjoyed by the informed. With over a trillion dollars being traded each day opportunity is mentioned often. In the current financial environment we hear about stock markets falling, commodities selling off and real estate prices dropping. What we don’t hear much about is where serious money is being made."
Making money has never been easy and respectable returns are often taken for granted. To achieve consistency one must thoroughly analyze, track, and monitor economic conditions around the globe.
Paulson also warned, "There is an enormous amount of time needed to ensure intelligent representation in a fast moving environment. One should understand that where there is a loss there is also a profit, zero-sum is not a game but a way of life. It is also a breeding ground for those who understand."
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
Bloomberg – There’s not a lot of light in Paulson & Co.’s 28th-floor headquarters on a drizzly November afternoon. The Alexander Calder sculpture and multicolored prints have been shipped to the firm’s new offices six blocks south. Darkness envelops the New York skyline.
The Dow Industrials have lost a total of 929 points over two days, and the jobless rate is poised to hit 6.5 percent. And John Paulson, who oversees $36 billion in hedge fund assets, isn’t exactly Mr. Sunshine either.
“You have deterioration in almost every asset class,” Paulson says. “You’re looking at declines in housing prices, the health of manufacturers and the earnings of various companies. There are rising delinquencies in auto loans and commercial real estate.”
Using commodities to hedge potential losses in stock markets has not worked lately, and the tighter link among assets these days means diversification benefits may not be as great as before.
Hedge funds, pension funds, mutual funds and wealthy individuals who invested in commodities on the theory that they move independently of other asset classes watched helplessly as the global economic nosedive turned commodities, once the top asset class, into the year’s worst performer after equities.
Those who have studied commodities and longtime investors in energy, metals and grains say that in ordinary times, these markets make good alternatives to stocks.
Reuters – The days of hedge funds as a red-hot asset class may be cooling, according to a new survey released by fund research firm Morningstar on Monday.
Nearly half of all financial advisers who help wealthy people invest their money said they expect hedge funds to become somewhat less or much less important in clients’ portfolios in the next five years. Among institutional clients like pension funds, 37 percent of those polled said they expect hedge funds to become somewhat less or much less important.
Wealthy investors and pension funds helped hedge fund industry assets double to $1.7 trillion in the last three years, but recently the loosely regulated portfolios have disappointed investors with their worst-ever returns.
guardian.co.uk – Bolder hedge funds are looking to snap up convertible bonds at bargain prices, returning to an asset class that became a no-go area for them only a short while ago.
The convertible bond market has tumbled 44.5 percent since September, as hedge funds facing a wave of client redemptions paid back bank debt. Many said convertible arbitrage strategies were a thing of the past.
But yields are now reaching all-time highs and are starting to attract the first daring hedge funds back to the investment arena they traditionally dominated.
"You can buy a convertible right now on a 25 percent discount to the same bond issued by the same company," Emmanuel Roman of GLG Partners, one of Europe’s biggest hedge funds, told a recent conference.
"You get a 25 percent discount plus a call option. That doesn’t make any sense," he said.
Reuters – Wealthy investors are cutting back exposure to hedge funds after disappointing returns but are not exiting the sector wholesale, and are likely to come back again once markets have calmed down.
High net worth individuals have been key drivers of the rapid growth of the $2.6 trillion industry. Many invested in free-wheeling portfolios well before institutions such as pension funds decided to go in.
But a dire year of performance is presenting hedge funds with their greatest-ever test — Hedge Fund Research’s HFRI index fell 4.68 percent in September, its second worst month ever, taking the year-to-date loss to 9.41 percent.
Still, given the battering equity markets have taken — the FTSE 100 .FTSE fell 24 percent in the nine months to end-September and has since fallen further — wealth managers say they are not deserting the asset class completely.
Bloomberg – Nippon Life Insurance Co., Japan’s biggest life insurer, said it will boost hedge fund investments and may target distressed assets to take advantage of volatility caused by the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market.
Nippon Life, with about 100 billion yen ($920 million) in hedge funds, increased its allocation to this asset class by about 30 billion yen during the past two years in a trend it intends to continue, Hideya Sadanaga, deputy general manager of the firm’s Credit & Alternative Investment Department, said in an interview in Tokyo.
The global credit crisis that’s caused more than $500 billion of losses and writedowns at financial firms has increased volatility in debt markets and led to a 20 percent decline in the value of the 1,737 companies on the MSCI World Index this year.
“There will be investment opportunities in the credit and distressed asset class eventually, given this market environment,” said Hiroshi Aikawa, head of alternative investment at office at Nippon Life’s Nissay Asset Management Corp., in the same interview on Sept. 5. “Investments that profit from trading volatility also look attractive.”
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – MSCI Barra and Morningstar have entered into an arrangement to calculate and distribute hedge fund indices jointly.
“We are delighted to be working with Morningstar, and believe that this exciting development will greatly benefit all users of our hedge fund indices. Going forward they will have access to enhanced hedge fund indices from Morningstar based upon MSCI Barra’s methodology applied to one of the largest hedge fund databases,” said David Brierwood, Chief Operating Officer, MSCI Barra.
“For more than 35 years, MSCI Barra has produced some of the most widely used and well-respected indices in the industry, and we’re pleased to apply the MSCI Hedge Fund Index Methodology to our extensive hedge fund database,” said Liz Kirscher, President of Data Services for Morningstar. “The combination of MSCI Barra’s methodology and Morningstar’s large hedge fund universe will allow us to offer a valuable set of robust benchmarks to both MSCI Barra clients and ours.”
These indices and the Morningstar database will replace the current MSCI Hedge Fund Indices and Database after a brief transition period. MSCI Barra will continue to calculate and distribute the MSCI Investable Hedge Fund Indices and the Barra Hedge Fund Risk Model. Morningstar will continue to calculate and distribute its existing Morningstar Hedge Fund Indices, including the Morningstar® 1000 Hedge Fund Index.
The MSCI Hedge Fund Index Methodology uses primary and secondary hedge fund characteristics to build the indices based on investment process, asset class, geography, and Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®) sectors. This granularity is unique among hedge fund indices and allows investors to benchmark precise investment opportunities. Morningstar collects 300 data points from 8,500 hedge funds and funds of hedge funds for its database including information about portfolio holdings, strategy allocation and hedging techniques.
MSCI Barra is headquartered in New York, with research and commercial offices around the world. Morgan Stanley, a global financial services firm, is the controlling shareholder of MSCI Barra.
Recently named Index Provider of the Year at the 2008 European Pensions Awards, MSCI Barra is a provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, including indices and portfolio risk and performance analytics.
Morningstar, Inc. is a provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
Bloomberg.com: Asia – Nippon Life Insurance Co., Japan’s biggest life insurer, said it will boost hedge fund investments and may target distressed assets to take advantage of volatility caused by the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market.
Nippon Life, with about 100 billion yen ($920 million) in hedge funds, increased its allocation to this asset class by about 30 billion yen during the past two years in a trend it intends to continue, Hideya Sadanaga, deputy general manager of the firm’s Credit & Alternative Investment Department, said in an interview in Tokyo.
The global credit crisis that’s caused more than $500 billion of losses and writedowns at financial firms has increased volatility in debt markets and led to a 20 percent decline in the value of the 1,737 companies on the MSCI World Index this year.
