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.
Bloomberg – Frederic Eechaute, a former senior analyst at DKR Oasis Management Co. LP, will start a Japan- focused equity hedge fund that trades stocks using its own analyst database.
Eechaute, who will split his time between Tokyo and Sydney, along with Stephen Good, who formerly worked in the Japanese equity sales department at Mizuho Securities Co., set up Instinct Capital in June to run the new fund that may open as early as September. The fund will employ a so-called long-short strategy, betting on rising and falling stocks, and have a maximum capacity of 30 billion yen ($319 million).
The Age – Gold prices climbed on Tuesday, as the yellow metal continued to attract investors hunting a safe haven against the biting economic stormwinds, following a rise of more than 3% last week.
Spot gold was trading at $946.70 per ounce in Asian trade, up from European levels of $US942.70 yesterday. US markets were closed on Monday for the Presidents’ Day holiday.
"With the US on holiday, investors are mostly sidelined,” said Koji Suzuki, a senior analyst at SBI Futures.
Traders have pointed to the record high holdings of the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, as evidence of strong investor interest in the precious metal.
Bloomberg – It has been a year of record misery: the largest bankruptcy, bank failure and Ponzi scheme in U.S. history; $720 billion in writedowns and losses by financial institutions; $30.1 trillion in market valuation wiped out.
The biggest loss and the hardest thing to recover, though, may be something that can’t be precisely measured — confidence in the markets and the firms that rely on them.
“The wholesale funding model lost its credibility,” said David Hendler, senior analyst at New York-based CreditSights Inc. “That started the semi-nationalization of funding in the financial markets. It’s a real chink in the armor of capitalism as supposedly the best process for allocating capital. The government is now deciding who gets access to capital.”
