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Forbes – The spread between Malaysia’s 5-yr IRS and 5-yr government bond yields hit a negative 9.5 bps on Thursday, as hedge funds and other speculators aggressively received 5-year swaps.
The spread was a positive 9.5 bps on Aug 5. The five-year ringgit swaps is quoted at 3.67 percent. Onshore and offshore players have generated huge demand for 5-yr swaps and bonds to avoid shorter-dated debt on a view that the central bank rate would remain on hold for the rest of the year. They are also looking to avoid 10-yr debt on concerns of more supply due to an expected bigger fiscal deficit.
Bloomberg – Three traders from Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP and RBS Greenwich Capital Markets started a government-bond hedge fund named for one of their favorite songs by the Who.
5:15 Capital Management LLC, named for the track “5:15” on the British rockers’ 1973 album “Quadrophenia,” will begin trading today with about $60 million, according to Morris Sachs, one of the founders, who said the fund will grow to $100 million. Joining him at the Greenwich, Connecticut-based fund are E.G. Fisher, 40, and Rob Wahl, 42.
“We’re all Who fans and love that tune,” Sachs, the fund’s chief risk officer, said in a telephone interview. “What are we going to do, try to find another name for the Greek god of money?”
Guardian Unlimited – Japanese government bond futures fell on Monday, edging back towards six-month lows hit earlier this month, with traders citing selling by hedge funds on the back of concerns about rising debt issuance.
The Ministry of Finance said it would issue an additional 16.9 trillion yen ($175 billion) in JGBs in the fiscal year that ends next March to pay for an economic stimulus package.
The extra supply, which will start coming to the market in July, will increase calendar base JGB issuance in fiscal 2009/10 by roughly 15 percent to a total of 130.2 trillion yen.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Morningstar reported a summary of hedge fund performance for January 2009 as well as asset flows for 2008. As stocks and government bonds got clobbered in January, hedge funds held up relatively well, the report said.
The Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index declined only 1.2% and the currency-hedged Morningstar with MSCI Hedge Fund Composite Asset-Weighted Index rose 1.2%, against the MSCI World Index’s 8.9% drop and the BarCap Global Aggregate Index’s 3.3% decline.
"Some liquidity returned to the credit markets in January, helping certain hedge fund strategies, but even hedge funds trading equities persevered through January’s tough markets," said Morningstar Hedge Fund Analyst Nadia Papagiannis. "Overall, hedge funds held their own in January."
The rise in the U.S. dollar created profits for some price-trend-following and global-macro non-trend funds in January, but volatility across equity, government bond, and commodity markets throughout the month led to trading losses. The Morningstar Global Non-Trend Hedge Fund Index rose 0.1% while the Morningstar Global Trend Hedge Fund Index declined 1.6%.
Investors continued to pull out of hedge funds, withdrawing $26 billion in December and $70 billion for the year. Europe- and U.S.-equity hedge funds saw the largest redemptions, losing $14.8 and $18.3 billion respectively in 2008.
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Wall Street & Technology – Global investors boosted their equity holdings for the second month running in December and cut bonds, thanks to signs of stabilising stock markets and tumbling government bond yields, Reuters polls showed on Monday.
Surveys of 44 leading investment houses in the United States, Japan, continental Europe and Britain showed an average mixed-asset portfolio holding 56.0 percent in stocks, up from 54.8 percent in November. However, it still remained below the long-term average holding of almost 60 percent.
Bond holdings fell to 33.0 percent in December from 34.3 percent the previous month, above the long-term average of around 32 percent.
Cash rose to 5.4 percent from 5.3 percent.
A rise in the respondents’ equity holdings comes as world stocks, measured by MSCI, rose nearly 20 percent after hitting a 5-1/2 year low on November 21.
A round of central bank interest rate cuts worldwide and the introduction of fiscal stimulus packages in major developed and emerging economies have helped convince many investors that stock markets might bottom before long.
