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Globe and Mail - GMP Securities enjoyed a solid debut with its new and much-scrutinized hedge fund.

GMP Diversified Alpha Fund, a multi-strategy fund launched last year by the investment dealer, published its first set of performance numbers Thursday as part of the parent income trust’s financial results.

The fund, which is run in part by GMP’s star stock trader and vice chairman Michael Wekerle, posted a 6.2 per cent return over its first three months of operation, a quarterthat ended June 30. The fund has $196-million of assets.

Over the same period, the benchmark Scotia Capital Canadian hedge fund index returned 5.93 per cent over the same period on an equal weighted basis, and 9.93 per cent on an asset weighted basis that puts more emphasis on performance at the larger domestic hedge funds.

GMP’s venture into the hedge fund world has drawn attention on the Street because of Mr. Wekerle’s dual role as both a part of the hedge fund team and head of the dealer’s equity desk.

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Tags: citigroup-inc, cosmo, inception, latin-america, leap, losses, new-position, party-vendors, rjr-nabisco, six-years, tremont-hedge-fund-index

Daily Herald- The computer screen on Scott Topping’s desk at Southwest Airlines flickered with row after row of dates and numbers, but they had nothing to do with arrivals and departures. They tracked the price of oil futures for the next several months, and they told a grim tale: No letup in sight from record prices for jet fuel.

"We’re on a one-way street right now," Topping said as he hunched over the screen, shaking his head. It’s Topping’s job to oversee Southwest’s battle to control surging fuel costs. It is the most successful program of its kind in the airline industry.

In the first quarter of this year, Southwest paid $1.98 per gallon for fuel. American Airlines paid $2.73, and United paid $2.83 per gallon in the same period.

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Tags: industrial-and-commercial-bank, marcel, scapegoat, screws, seattle-times, six-years, york-london

FINalternatives- Another pair of Citigroup fixed-income executives is to set up its own hedge fund shop.

Jeff Jacob and John Humphrey, who run the global special situations group they established at Citi four years ago, will leave the firm in about two months. Citi is splitting up their proprietary-trading desk, which focuses on distressed corporate bonds and loans, and restructuring the group to focus on customer trading. The move is just one of a variety of risk-cutting moves by Citi, which has taken some $43 billion in writedowns and losses resulting from the credit crisis.

Jacob and Humphrey, who came to Citi in 2004 from Merrill Lynch, will launch their distressed-debt hedge fund early next year. The fund will be seeded by Citi, although the terms of that investment are still being negotiated, though all of its current assets will remain with Citi.

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Tags: beta, curbs, distressed-debt, eberts, eton-park, financial-distress, hedge-fund-research, nara, pergam-finance, quality-tax, six-years, subsidiaries, trillion