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 – The spread between Malaysia’s 5-yr IRS and 5-yr government bond yields hit a negative 9.5 bps on Thursday, as hedge funds and other speculators aggressively received 5-year swaps.
The spread was a positive 9.5 bps on Aug 5. The five-year ringgit swaps is quoted at 3.67 percent. Onshore and offshore players have generated huge demand for 5-yr swaps and bonds to avoid shorter-dated debt on a view that the central bank rate would remain on hold for the rest of the year. They are also looking to avoid 10-yr debt on concerns of more supply due to an expected bigger fiscal deficit.
Bloomberg – Crude oil was little changed near $60 a barrel in New York amid concerns the global recovery has yet to take root, postponing a rebound in demand for fuel.
Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators reduced their net-long position in New York in the week ended July 7, according to the latest data from regulators. Stocks dropped from Dubai to Taipei and Treasuries rose on speculation that government rescue measures have not taken effect.
“Bearish sentiment in the market is persisting,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London. “It’s weak, so a move to $58.30 is possible, but we should consolidate around there.”
President Obama’s harsh attack on hedge funds he blamed for forcing Chrysler into bankruptcy yesterday sparked cries of protest from the secretive financial firms that hold about $1 billion of the automaker’s debt.
Hedge funds and investment managers were irate at Obama’s description of them as "speculators" who were "refusing to sacrifice like everyone else" and who wanted "to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout."
"Some of the characterizations that were used today to refer to us as speculators or to say we’re looking for a bailout is really unfair," said one executive who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. "What we’re looking for is a reasonable payout on the value of the debt . . . more in line with what unions and Fiat were getting."
Morningstar.ca – Hedge fund managers, once the swashbuckling frontiersmen of international finance and subject of fawning cocktail party banter, have quickly gone from hero to goat. As the global credit bubble burst with a vengeance in 2008, so too did the oft-touted myth that these alternative strategies could deliver positive results in any market.
But those claims painted the universe with too broad a brush. There has always been a difference between arbitrage funds that isolated structural inefficiencies, and speculators that either didn’t hedge or used the ability to short stock as a means of leveraging directional bets. Clearly it should never have been expected that a fund that was short financials and long commodities, as many hedge funds were last year, would have a market neutral, "absolute return" profile. The majority of Canadian offerings fall into that camp, so it’s no surprise we’ve seen stark declines among many of our homegrown funds.
Enews 2.0 – Gold prices have been rising throughout February, in tandem with the world market, which stood at about 975 dollars per ounce on Thursday.
"I have never seen the gold market like this, with steady rises every day," Jitti said. "It’s being driven by big speculators abroad, the hedge funds," he opined.
BusinessWeek – The market for exotic securities hasn’t entirely gone away. It’s just gone underground—-six feet under, to be precise.
Hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management is plunging into life settlements—a market in which speculators buy-up unwanted life insurance policies from wealthy individuals looking to score some quick cash. The $10 billion New York-based fund is planning on selling so-called “death bonds” to overseas investors, as part of a plan to potentially raise cash to finance its life settlements acquisition business.
Bloomberg – OPEC wants U.S. regulators to curtail oil trading by hedge funds and speculators who helped make last year the most volatile in crude oil trading.
Abdalla el-Badri, secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is seeking rules to “limit the level of speculation” by investors who buy oil without planning to use it. Oil surged 46 percent in the first half of 2008 to a record $147.27 only to plunge by the end of the year, prompting OPEC to make its biggest ever supply cuts.
“OPEC has repeatedly called for the need to reduce the role of excessive speculative activity in the market,” el-Badri, who will attend this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “Today, it is impossible to know who is actually buying and selling oil futures.”
Times Online – They are the financial world’s most secretive and unaccountable men — but also among its wealthiest and most influential. Today, four of the sharpest speculators in the hedge fund industry will be thrust into the spotlight when they appear before a Commons committee to defend themselves.
Christopher Hohn, the multi-millionaire founder of The Children’s Investment (TCI) fund, and Paul Marshall, the City financier who chairs Marshall Wace, will be appearing before the Treasury Select Committee hearing into the banking crisis.
They will be joined by Douglas Shaw, the head of alternatives at BlackRock, the biggest listed asset manager in America, and Stephen Zimmerman, the former Merrill Lynch executive who co-founded NewSmith Capital Partners. John McFall, the MP who chairs the committee, will be in charge of the hearing. Mr McFall, an ally of Gordon Brown, is likely to push his witnesses hard on short-selling.
The Austin Chronicle – Oh, this is just dandy! Hedge-fund schemers and Wall Street manipulators – the very characters who brought us the Great American Housing Collapse – have a new target for their fast-buck profiteering: farming. E-I-E-I-O!
Speculators have long messed with farmers by artificially manipulating prices on everything from corn to soybeans. But now they’re pooling up billions of dollars from global investors to go after the farms themselves, as well as fertilizer plants, grain elevators, ships and barges, and other basic tools for producing, transporting, and storing our food supply. As one hedge-fund operator says: "It’s going on big time.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – In the last week leading up to today, (Tuesday) hedge funds and other "large speculators" took their largest bullish position (when compared with the number of bearish bets) since early August.
Commercial traders such as refineries, mints, wholesalers and bullion banks, took their smallest bull position in 19 weeks, as they sold the "long" contracts bought by speculative players.
This has returned the balance of bull/bear positions in December to what has been considered the norm for the last four years, with over 85% of speculative position betting on a rise.
Last week also saw the outstanding number of open contracts in Gold Futures and options rise more than 9%, but it remained one-third below the record set in Jan. 2008.
"If gold can close the year above its January 2008 open, it will be one of the few positive asset stories of the year," notes new analysis from Mitsui, the precious metals dealer in London, "from a wealth preservation perspective at least."
"With the Bernanke printing press set to move into overdrive next year," Mitsui said regarding the future of Gold in 2009, "along with the not so pretty reality of negative real interest rates, it is difficult to put together a positive thesis for the US Dollar," Mitsui said, "In such a climate, gold could flourish."
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
