Reuters – Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses and despite new support from its largest individual investor.

The second-largest U.S. bank by assets is looking at options now, including a sale of parts of the company or a merger with another firm, after its stock fell 50 percent this week, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Discussions so far have been internal, and some options –such as entering into a merger where other executives end up running the company — are unpalatable to managers at Citigroup, the person said. The bank’s board of directors is set to meet on Friday, and Morgan Stanley is not

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CNBC – Returns are meager or negative, capital flows are slowing and hedge funds appear to be folding at a record rate; so monied investors might be prompted to ask … who needs a hedge fund anyway? 

“Institutions have taken over the hedge fund space," says Morningstar analyst Nadia Van Dalen, adding they are intrinsically better able to identify the best-performing funds and then pour money into them. “The high net worth investor is at a worse disadvantage now [than in the past].”

So much for letting the individual investor play with the Big Boys.

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