Each business day HedgeCo.Net keeps you informed with the top hedge fund industry news, opinion and insight from around the globe. From the latest hedge fund launches, to the impact of regulation, competition, and investor activism - we track the topics and people that make a difference to you.
Forbes – Earlier in the decade, the mutual fund world was rocked by a market-timing scandal. Mutual fund companies allowed certain deep-pocketed hedge funds to trade in and out of their portfolios to take advantage of pricing imbalances caused by markets opening and closing in different time zones, as well as redemptions, fund share sales and other things. The market timing was halted and investigated, with some of the worst actors prosecuted, as it was done at the expense of retail investors.
Now we have “high-frequency trading,” a catch-all term for firms that use computers and algorithms to execute trades in a millionth of a second, seeking gains in fractions of pennies or, at the very least getting the best execution before slower market movers can get an order filled.
UPDATE: HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – Najy N. Nasser, Chief Investment Officer of the Bahamas/UK based hedge funds, Headstart Advisers Limited (HAL) and Headstart Fund, has agreed with the SEC to pay $17.8 million in a settlement regarding a 2003 alleged late trading scheme.
Without admitting or denying the allegations, the civil settlement includes payments of $17 million by the defunct Headstart Fund Ltd (domiciled in the Bahamas), $200,000 by Headstart Advisers Ltd and $600,000 by Mr Najy Nasser, the Chief Investment Officer. This settlement will conclude the case brought by the SEC against Headstart Fund Ltd, Headstart Advisers Ltd and Mr Najy Nasser arising from Headstart’s historic market-timing strategy.
The Commission’s Complaint alleged that the Bahamas hedge fund, Headstart, acting through its United Kingdom investment adviser, HAL, engaged in fraudulent late trading and deceptive market timing of U.S. mutual funds through accounts at U.S. broker-dealers. Headstart has since September 2003 focused its business on other successful strategies.
Nasser said in response to the settlement, “Headstart is very pleased to have reached a settlement. We responded to US concerns about market timing and immediately ceased this element of Headstart’s business in September 2003. We have since worked hard to build up Headstart’s funds using different strategies. As we equalled or bettered our overall returns against our benchmark, we are especially pleased with what we have achieved.
"We have superb long-term performance against both the market and our peer group and have some interesting plans to grow Headstart’s investment business,” he concluded.
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Houston Chronicle – A London-based hedge fund manager and its chief investment officer have agreed to a nearly $18 million settlement resolving U.S. regulators’ allegations that one of its funds defrauded U.S. mutual funds and investors through trading practices such as market-timing.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and Headstart Advisers Ltd. on Monday separately announced a settlement in which the firm neither admitted nor denied allegations covering the period September 1998 through September 2003.
Headstart Fund Ltd., a hedge fund that had been incorporated in the Bahamas and is now defunct, will pay a $17 million penalty to resolve a complaint the SEC brought in April 2008. London-based Headstart Advisers will pay an additional $200,000, and Chief Investment Officer Najy N. Nasser will pay $600,000. The firm and Nasser are also barred from future violations of antifraud provisions of U.S. securities laws.
MSN UK News – Business leaders around the world back greater regulation in response to the global financial crisis, a survey showed on Wednesday, with support strongest for curbs on credit rating firms, hedge funds and structured finance.
Responses from more than 700 chief executives, chairmen, partners and directors across Asia, Europe and the United States were received between November 4th and 6th.
The survey, conducted by international law firm Allen & Overy, was timed ahead of this weekend’s Washington DC summit on the deepening crisis between the leaders of the Group of 20 leading world economies.
More than three-quarters of those polled agreed that more regulation of credit rating agencies was necessary, while two thirds supported greater regulation of hedge funds.
Times Online – A new front is opening up in the battle between London and New York to be the world’s dominant financial centre.
Hedge funds, and the thorny question of where they decide to do business over the coming months, could mark a turning point in the delicate balance of power between the two market capitals.
Despite widespread fears that hundreds of funds are poised to collapse, any shake-out in the industry will still leave hundreds of healthy firms with billions to invest.
Experts say that some of the industry’s biggest funds are considering whether to move billions of dollars worth of assets across the Atlantic to the United States in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street investment bank.
Reuters – John Paulson, a U.S. hedge fund manager who gained a superstar reputation with a big bet against the U.S. housing market, was shown holding a 1 billion pound ($1.9 billion) bet against UK banks as short sellers were forced to disclose their positions.
Paulson & Co., run by John Paulson and based in New York, said it had a 1.2 percent short position in Barclays, worth over 350 million pounds, a 1.8 percent short position in Lloyds TSB, and short positions of just under 1 percent in Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS.
The stakes were unveiled on Wednesday after Britain’s regulator imposed a ban on short-selling financial stocks last Friday, which was followed by similar moves in the United States and elsewhere.
Business24-7 – With the UAE stock markets in turmoil it is vital investors re-examine their portfolios.
This week the Abu Dhabi and Dubai stock exchanges suffered their worst trading sessions for almost seven months while Dh65 billion has been wiped off their value in August alone.
Now a number of financial advisors are urging investors to diversify their portfolios more than ever in a bid to ride out these dips rather than face massive losses.
Those in the United States, for instance, who invested all their money in property are now reeling as a result of the credit crunch.
Even hedge funds, which are specifically designed to minimise investor risk, have attracted criticism and piled up some big losses.
Reuters- Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management is starting a new fund to invest in assets it thinks have been driven down too low by the credit crisis, Chairman John Snow told Reuters on Thursday.
The decision by Cerberus to wade more heavily into the market for distressed assets follows similar moves by a growing number of its rivals, including Apollo and Blackstone.
The Cerberus fund will focus on international assets, with only a small percentage likely to be devoted to the United States, Snow said. The former U.S. Treasury Secretary declined to give a target size for the fund.
