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Press Release – Cogent Consulting LLC today announced a free version of its HedgeTrak web-based broker review and evaluation service for hedge funds. HedgeTrak Lite enables hedge funds to properly value trading and research services provided by their brokerage firms, in anticipation of upcoming registration requirements, and to meet the competitive requirements demanded by clients.
HedgeTrak Lite is being released in the wake of a new generation of hedge funds being launched, demands for increased transparency around the use of research and the commission sharing arrangements used to pay for them, and the SEC’s proposed registration requirements for hedge funds. HedgeTrak Lite is based on the full version of Cogent’s industry leading solutions HedgeTrak and ResearchTrak which are used by money managers to evaluate services provided by more than 600 brokers and third party research providers worldwide. Cogent currently supports more than 100 client sites for firms managing in excess of $10 trillion.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Financial technology vendor youDevise Limited congratulated its client Northern Trust upon being awarded the Fund of Hedge Funds Administrator of the Year award at the inaugural HFMWeek Service Provider Awards, held recently in London.
Northern Trust is a leading, global administrator of FoHFs with approximately US$50 billion of hedge funds under administration at March 31, 2009. Northern Trust employs youDevise’s Hedge Fund Information Provider (HIP) online portfolio management system, which enables Northern Trust’s fund of hedge funds (FoHF) clients to track daily position information and other vital data.
“The award recognised Northern Trust for outperforming its peers during 2008-2009 and demonstrating financial progress, growth and genuine innovation,” said Richard Koppel, Managing Director of youDevise and an expert in FoHF technology who co-developed the HIP. “We are proud to see our client recognized for this achievement. Northern Trust was the first fund of hedge funds administrator to integrate our technology into its platform, and, in so doing, significantly advance its clients’ ability to access more timely and accurate management information, while, at the same time, eliminating the need for error prone spreadsheets to track positions.”
Mr. Koppel noted this is the second time over the last few years that clients have won major industry recognition due, in large part, to their deployment of youDevise technology. In 2006, Trade Ideas Limited (TIL) was named overall winner of the Innovation of the Year category in The Banker magazine’s Technology Awards for TIL’s trade idea platform, employing youDevise’s Trade Idea Monitor (the TIM). Trade Ideas Limited is an industry consortium owned by Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Dresdner Kleinwort, and Merrill Lynch.
The TIM enables more than 300 institutional brokerage firms around the world to send long/short equity trading ideas to more than 100 hedge funds and traditional asset managers, which in turn use the TIM to determine payments for the top-performing ideas they receive. The TIM’s “ideabase” is the foundation of TIM Insight, a more useful short-to-mid term indicator of market direction than traditional consensus earnings estimates.
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Stock transfer agency, StarInvest Group, Inc (STIV) has completed the acquisition of a privately held hedge fund provider EXX.COM.
“This acquisition will unleash the value of STIV management, and relationships in our effort to grow revenues and increase the value of our company for its shareholders. In line with our recent acquisition of My Transfer Agent, LLC (‘MTA’), EXX will offer a recurring revenue model by servicing brokerage firms, hedge funds, trading firms, or individuals on a single platform that interlinks all current trading systems and clearing houses thus yeilding the best execution services for all of its clients.”
EXX is a specialized in providing connectivity and software solutions to small and medium sized stock brokerage, arbitrage, investment banking firms, and hedge funds in major American markets. StarInvest’s main business is customizing proprietary platforms so from one program STP is enabled across all the financial networks.
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MSN Money UK – Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC was examined at least eight times in 16 years by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators, who often came armed with suspicions, the Wall Street Journal said.
SEC officials followed up on emails from a New York hedge fund that described Bernard Madoff’s business practices as "highly unusual," the paper said.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the industry-run watchdog for brokerage firms, reported in 2007 that parts of the firm appeared to have no customers, according to the paper.
Madoff was interviewed at least twice by the SEC, the paper said, adding that regulators never came close to uncovering the alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme that investigators now believe began in the 1970s.
Grand Forks Herald – From worrying about banks and a financial meltdown, investors are now wondering if they can trust the person investing their money.
In this year of shocks, investors were dealt another a little over a week ago. Someone considered one of the nation’s elite money managers, Bernard Madoff, reportedly confessed that he misled investors for years about the money they were making.
The $50 billion firm collapsed, allegedly wiping out funds of supposedly savvy investors – multimillionaires, colleges, foundations, brokerage firms and hedge funds. The clients, many of whom had done social gymnastics to get into his fund, may have nothing.
The situation serves as a reminder that investors need: Don’t take on a broker, adviser, money manager or hedge fund without thorough checking.