Reuters – A switch by some big investors chastened by the Madoff scandal and the credit crisis into managed accounts at hedge fund firms could end up penalising smaller clients in mainstream funds.

Managed accounts offer greater visibility and flexibility for larger investors such as funds of funds and big institutions by giving them direct ownership of underlying assets and the option to sell the portfolio if they want to get out quickly.

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Tags: assets, credit-crisis, flexibility, institutions, investors, mainstream, reuters, scandal, visibility

Wall Street & Technology – Now that Apple has improved security and enterprise connectivity capabilities for the iPhone 3G, industry specific applications are starting to emerge. One of the first iPhone applications for the securities industry is a tool that provides real-time portfolio management called Lab49 Capital from Lab49, Inc. a technology consulting firm that builds solutions for the financial services.

The application helps buy-side portfolio managers track the performance of their assets in real time, and "slice and dice" positions, P&L and changes in the portfolio across multiple dimensions such as strategy, industry, country and manager, according to Marc Jacobs, director at Lab49. (See a Lab49 Capital ScreenCast demo.)

"For a portfolio manager, they don’t spend all of their time at their desks," Jacobs adds. "But their mind is always ‘where are we right now?’ Allowing portfolio managers to such visibility into their fund is a key aspect that this application provides. Lab49 Capital is inspired by several projects we have going on with a number of firms. Lab49 Capital is a representation of actual work we are doing with some of our clients."

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Tags: capabilities, demo, desks, director-research, industry-group, journalism, lab49, losses, macdonald, marc-jacobs, monsoon, newcastle, portfolio-management, securities-industry, statement-saying-that, technology-consulting-firm, tracking-error, visibility, volatility