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NineMSN – Ospraie Management is launching two funds focusing on commodities and other liquid securities just eight months after it was forced to close its flagship fund amid huge losses on commodities trades.
The US hedge fund’s move, announced in a letter to investors, is a sign of growing confidence within the hedge fund industry.
"After much reflection and with a number of lessons learned, we see a set of opportunities today that we believe could create significant value for investors in coming years," Dwight Anderson, Ospraie’s founder, wrote in a letter last week obtained by the Financial Times.
Bloomberg – Hedge funds posted their first back- to-back gain in eight months in January, rebounding from record losses in 2008 as North American managers benefited from betting stocks would fall, an industry report showed.
The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index, which tracks more than 2,000 funds worldwide, gained 0.5 percent last month, extending the 0.8 percent advance in December, according to preliminary data compiled by Eurekahedge Pte. Last time the index rose for two months in a row was in April and May 2008. The January advance contrasts with the 8.9 percent slide by the MSCI World Index of stocks in developed markets.
Bloomberg – Balyasny Asset Management LP recruited more than 30 money managers and analysts from competing hedge funds in the first eight months of the year, exceeding its total for all of 2007.
“We have been aggressively looking for talent, and in a year like this, there are a lot more candidates out there,” said Barry Colvin, vice chairman of the Chicago-based firm, which oversees $2.5 billion. Hires came from New York-based Satellite Asset Management LP and Magnetar Capital LLC in Chicago, which have both lost money this year.
While more than 200 hedge funds shut down this year, Balyasny, SAC Capital Advisors LLC and Citadel Investment Group LLC are taking advantage of the industry’s worst performance in a decade to go on a hiring spree. Hedge funds, diminished by a scarcity of credit and enfeebled stock markets, fell by an average 4.7 percent as of Aug. 28, according to data compiled by Hedge Fund Research Inc. in Chicago.
