The Modesto Bee – The tantalizing climb in the stock market has made hedge fund and mutual fund managers increasingly courageous, but millions of investors with 401(k) accounts remain reluctant to trust what burned them.

That could hurt them, and the market as a whole.

Some individual investors clutched the money they had left after the market plunged more than 50 percent from October 2007 until March and stopped adding to stock funds. A recent study found about 6 percent stopped contributing to 401(k) plans altogether as they blamed workplace retirement savings plans, rather than the investments within the 401(k) plans, for losses.

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Tags: hedge fund, individual investors, investments, retirement savings, stock funds, stock market

Chicago Tribune – Strong returns are a mixed blessing this year for investment funds that specialize in trading futures contracts.

While the stock market plunged about 35 percent, managed futures funds posted annual returns of about 16 percent, according to the Credit Suisse Tremont Hedge Fund Index.

That makes them one of the few havens for investors at a time when pensions, retirement savings and even prominent local hedge funds such as Citadel Investment Group and Magnetar Capital LLC have recorded big losses.

But the success of managed futures has also left them vulnerable to client withdrawals. Because market turmoil froze the assets in many portfolios, some institutional and individual investors are pulling money from managed futures.

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Tags: chicago tribune, citadel-investment-group, credit-suisse, futures contracts, futures funds, havens, hedge-fund-index, individual investors, investment-funds, magnetar-capital-llc, managed futures, market turmoil, mixed blessing, pensions, retirement savings, stock market, trading-futures, tremont-hedge-fund-index, withdrawals