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 […]

Globe and Mail - The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, hammered by losses on international holdings, has been forced in recent weeks to sell billions of dollars of stocks into a falling market.
A fund that began the year with $155.4-billion of assets has sold $10-billion of stocks in the past two months, sources […]

USA Today - Technically, a bear market is when stocks fall 20% or more from their highs. But there’s a saying that a bear’s true signature is making a fool out of everyone. Based on that, we’re all laughingstocks, because there has been virtually no way to avoid this bear market’s claws.
Following a 445-point slide […]

USA Today - It is last call for investors to ask for their money back from poorly performing hedge funds. Whether that is a bullish or bearish sign for battered stocks is anyone’s guess.
Wall Street hopes the passing of the Nov. 15 deadline — the last day for many investors to make a request to […]

Seeking Alpha - A report making the rounds today detailed managers’ Form 13-F filings. This report shows what managers own. Their holdings of U.S. stocks by and large plummeted. The decline in the size of the positions could be from market share losses or the sale of a position, or most likely, both.
Atticus Capital reduced […]

Forbes - Hedge funds are to the modern stock market as sun spots were to electronics in the 1960s: a convenient scapegoat when things go wrong without an evident cause. But they probably aren’t to blame for last week’s poor showing on Wall Street, and rumors of the industry’s demise are likely premature.
There has been […]

Reuters - Quadrangle Equity Investors, a hedge fund that concentrates on media and communications stocks, will wind down its business after losses and investor redemptions, according to people familiar with the situation.
The relatively small fund employs fewer than a half dozen people, but it is part of Steve Rattner’s prominent Quadrangle Group LLC and […]

Seeking Alpha - I’m lucky to count among my friends Charlie Michaels, owner of hedge fund company Sierra Global and portfolio manager of the Sierra Europe Fund. Charlie is among the few hedge fund managers sitting on a gain so far this year.
According to the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index managed by Hedge Fund […]

WBT - U.S. stocks appeared headed for a rebound Tuesday as investors awaited the start of a two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve that is widely expected to bring another reduction in interest rates.
The sharp rise in stock market futures contracts Tuesday was to be expected given the extreme volatility that has been the hallmark […]

Arlington Heights Daily Herald - In a typical recession, stocks start recovering about six months before the economy does. The crisis the United States is in right now, however, is anything but typical: Lending is frozen, hedge-fund selling is happening on a massive scale, and economic troubles have spread all over the globe.
As a result, […]

Los Angeles Times - In a typical recession, stocks start recovering about six months before the economy does. The crisis we’re in right now, however, is anything but typical: Lending is frozen, hedge-fund selling is happening on a massive scale, and economic troubles have spread all over the globe.
As a result, it’s possible the economy […]

Time - Benjamin Graham was well prepared for the Crash of 1929. The now legendary investor had hedged his bets: he would buy preferred stock in a company and sell short common stock in the same company. When stocks crashed in October 1929, common shares fell much faster than preferreds, and Graham made a lot […]