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Dailyrecord.com – A judge presiding over civil claims filed against disgraced financier Bernard Madoff says he may be willing to consider extending relief from an investors’ fund to those who invested in Madoff’s business through third parties.
OAS_AD(‘ArticleFlex_1′);U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton told Daniel R. Goldenson and his wife in a letter dated Dec. 24 and made public Monday that their request to be eligible for relief from the Securities Investor Protection Corporation comes "early in the large and complex procedures which are underway with respect to Madoff’s affairs."
He said that before considering the issues involved in changing the terms of SIPC’s coverage, he would need a formal application and briefing from SIPC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, a trustee for Madoff’s business and representatives of investors.
The SIPC, which was created by Congress and funded by the securities industry, can give customers up to $500,000 each if it is determined their money was stolen. A telephone message seeking comment from the SIPC was not immediately returned Monday.
CNBC – Ongoing hedge fund losses and liquidations spooked markets Wednesday, and some of the biggest names in the mix now are Citadel Investments and Highland.
Hedge funds had their worst month ever in September, with average losses of 6.2 percent, according to an estimate by TrimTabs Investment Research.
All major categories of funds chalked up losses over the month, but emerging markets, long equity funds and distressed strategies had the worst results. The declines came as investors withdrew $43 billion from hedge funds—almost seven times the previous monthly record for redemptions, TrimTabs said.
Citadel confirmed to CNBC that its flagship Kensington and Wellington funds, which hold around $15 billion in assets, are down between 26 percent and 30 percent so far this year.
New York Post – Despite headlines about hedge funds that got decimated after making complicated bets on mortgages or energy, the most basic investment strategy of picking which stocks will rise and which will fall – known as long-short equity strategy – is turning out to be one that’s giving hedge-fund managers fits.
Indeed, hedge funds are finding that today’s choppy markets are proving to be tougher to navigate than the terrible years following the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. And it helps to explain why so many hedge funds have called it quits and instead are moving into cash.
The hedge-fund industry is seeing its worst results in recent memory, down an average of 4.09 percent year-to-date, according to the Hennessee Hedge Fund Index. Long-short equity funds, rarely expected to be losers, are nevertheless down 3.2 percent for the year.
New York, July 8, 2008 — The Absolute Return New Funds Survey, published in the July/August issue of Absolute Return magazine, shows that new hedge fund launches this year in the Americas totaled $19.5 billion, with the top five funds amassing $13.7 billion, for more than 70% of the total. The number of fund launches is down 50% from last year, highlighting the growing barriers to entry for start-up managers and indicating that large capital flows are continuing to go to established, brand-name firms.
According to Absolute Return, 35 new funds began trading with a total of $19.5 billion between January 1 and June 30, 2008. That’s significantly more capital than in the same period in 2007, when 72 new funds launched with $14 billion. This year, five funds were formed with more than $1 billion each, in contrast to three funds that managed to surpass the billion-dollar mark in last year’s first half. Long/short equity funds dominated, followed by funds that invest in mortgaged-backed securities and those pursuing distressed strategies.
The survey also reported that Goldman Sachs Asset Management amassed $8.1 billion of the $19.5 billion total with $7 billion in its Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, an equity long/short fund, and $1.1 billion in Goldman Mortgage Credit Opportunities. The second-largest launch was Conatus Capital Management’s Conatus Capital Partners fund, which had $2.3 billion. Other sizeable launches included Lone Pine Capital’s $1.8 billion emerging markets fund, Lone Dragon Pine Fund, and Highliner Investment Group’s Alyeska Fund, a market-neutral fund that ended the first half with $1.5 billion.
Total assets under management in the hedge fund industry are $2.65 trillion, according to HedgeFund Intelligence.
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