Coping with Government Sponsored Market Manipulation

RCM EDITORIAL RCM Comment: We live in a world where markets are manipulated by governments. To argue this point is to howl at the moon. We are not conspiracy theorists; we are realists. In order to successfully manage a portfolio in this environment one must understand the playing field and the rules. There is no point in complaining about the […]

RCM Editorial: Democratic Lawmakers Urge Reduction in Lending Standards / Barney the Dino Strikes Again

RCM Comment: We here at RCM have uncovered the mystery behind the housing troubles in the U.S. We have heard countless explanations and witnessed our colleagues struggle with the conundrum. Well, the super sleuths that we are, we have leaped the why in a single bound and here it is, get ready… “Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat, is chairman of […]

HedgeOp Looks At How Obama’s Regulation Proposals May Affect Hedge Funds

HedgeOp Compliance obtained a hard copy of the Obama Administration’s announcment for financial system regulatory reform (the “Proposal”) and wanted to note the following related to hedge funds: (1) The Proposal calls for a requirement that advisers to hedge funds and other private pools of capital (such as private equity and venture capital) register as investment advisers with the SEC. […]

News that Moves: Single Biggest Development – BRIC Countries Dumping Treasuries

RCM Comment: The following stories represent the single biggest development effecting the markets today. I’m dedicating the blog to this development in the hopes that you, the reader, give this story the respect it deserves. There will be those among you who try to minimize the story or wish to overlook it in the vain hope that our government rescue […]

Global Hedge Fund Summit: Date Change

Institutional Investor/Alpha Hedge announced today that their flagship conference, The Global Hedge Fund Summit, held each year in Bermuda, will take place May 2-4, 2010. The Global Hedge Fund Summit, now entering its 16th year, has been traditionally held in the Fall, but will now take place each Spring in Bermuda. Past keynote speakers have included industry legends and leading […]

Art Funds as an Alternative Asset Class

According to Friedrich Kiradi, head of Merit Alternative Investments GmbH and director of the world-wide first Art Photography Fund. “Investments in material assets such as real estate, commodities, as well as art, continues to be an area that investors seem to be focusing on, with the growing importance of ‘art investment’ as bridge between the art and finance world.” In […]

Interest Re-engaged in African and MENA Hedge Funds

International investors are coming back to the African and MENA region, hedge fund manager SilkInvest said in their latest equities update, “Few international investors are actually invested so far, however, it now looks like more investors are getting off the bench.” It was reported that roughly 40% of the volume of the Dubai stock exchange was on the back of […]

News that Moves: Specious Jobs Report, Yellen Concerns, Carnage in State Budgets

ECONX Jobs Report Surprises The market got a kick out of the May employment report, as it cheered the news that “only” 345K nonfarm payroll jobs were lost during the month. That was indeed much better than the consensus estimate of -520K. Moreover, the April nonfarm payrolls data was revised up to show a decline of -504K positions versus an […]

Stanford Completes Second Phase of Hedge Fund Case Study

The second phase of a hedge fund business model case study has been finalized by the Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. GlobeOp is the first hedge fund administrator to be featured in a case study developed for classroom use by Stanford. ‘GlobeOp: Structuring for Hedge Fund Growth, 2003-2008’ follows the initial study that documented GlobeOp’s foundation, strategic decisions and […]

Convertible Arbitrage: Shifting Gears – Review & Summary

Convertible Arbitrage*: Shifting Gears, a new 15 page white paper released by Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index, examines the reasons behind the Convertible Arbitrage meltdown in 2008 and the factors driving the strategy’s recent turnaround. (* is a market neutral investment strategy that is often associated with hedge funds, involving the long position on a convertible security and a short […]

President’s Budget Proposals

By Steven M. Etkind and Roger D. Lorence The Treasury Department has released its lengthy explanation of the President’s wide-ranging tax proposals.  The President aims to deliver on both tax “fairness,” especially the ending of perceived tax abuses and “loopholes,” and increasing federal tax revenues.  Particularly hard hit would be U.S. businesses with operations outside the U.S. and the financial […]

IFCA’s Global Awards Gala

At ICFA’s Global Awards 2009 gala dinner the Bank of New York Mellon took home 7 awards: * Custodian of The Year: Americas – BNY Mellon Asset Servicing * Hedge Fund Administrator – The Bank of New York Mellon AIS * Transition Management Provider – Mellon Transition Management * Transfer Agent – BNY Mellon Asset Servicing * Broker/Dealer Custody & […]

IRS Issues Two Groundbreaking Rules on Life Settlements

By Steven M. Etkind, Roger D. Lorence and Steven Huttler The Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) has issued two rulings on participants in the life settlements industry.  This ever-expanding investment strategy entails the sale of life insurance policies to third party investors, who may themselves re-sell the policies or hold them to maturity (the death of the insured).  The life […]

Review on how Hedge Fund Managers’ Reputation Concerns Influence Investment Strategy

“Nickels vs. Black Swans: Reputation, Trading Strategies, and Asset Prices” by Yale professor Hongjun Yan and his doctoral student Steven Malliaris, looks at how hedge fund managers’ concerns about their reputations affect their investment strategies. The paper explains why “nickel” strategies are popular, even when they offer low expected returns. Nickel strategies are those that earn small positive returns most […]

HedgeCo Front Page Design In Flux

HedgeCo.Net as of April 27th, 2009 Just a short “Housekeeping” note to let you know to keep your eyes on the HedgeCo.Net homepage for the next few days. There are a couple different things that we are working on: Draw traffic to our unique hedge fund breaking news a Enhance our relationship with S&P by adding direct links to their […]