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Hedge Funds SEC Database

Hedge Funds SEC Database

One Third of Billion-Dollar Hedge Funds Need to Register

Almost a third of the hedge funds managing more than a billion dollars still have to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Of the 220 hedge funds managing above $1 billion, 66 hedge funds still have to register with the SEC's database.
The firms that have yet to be registered include well-established names: Billionaire George Soros' $27.9 billion Soros Fund Management; Brian Higgins and Francis Biondi's $20 billion King Street Capital Management; Steve Cohen's $13 billion SAC Capital Advisors and Andreas Holvorsen's $12.3 billion Viking Global investors.

The funds all declined to comment.

Those that haven't registered also include Shumway Capital Partners and Level Global Investors LP, which have recently returned money to investors. These managers, which are investing only money from their staff and themselves, are likely to be viewed as family offices and be exempted from registration.

With nearly four months to go before the deadline, some firms are delaying until the last minute to sign up. However, consultancy firm National Regulatory Services said some managers are still hoping against hope to stay below the radar and avoid the need to register.  Source

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Man Group Japan

Man Group Japan

Man Group Loses Billions After Devastating Tsunami in Japan

Man Group, one of the biggest hedge fund managers in the world, has lost more than a billion dollars as a result of Japan's earthquake and tsunami. Man Group's flagship computer driven fund, AHL hedge fund, is said to have posted significant losses. The hedge fund firm reportedly lost more than $2 billion during the last month.
The company on Tuesday warned investors of the impact the crisis was likely to have on its business, but remained upbeat on a medium and long-term view for the company and its investments.
The past few months had been a “negative period” for its computer-driven flagship AHL fund, it said, with performance turning “sharply down with markets” following the earthquake in Japan.

“March brought an extraordinary concentration of macro shocks,” Peter Clarke, chief executive, told shareholders in the FTSE-listed company’s pre-close trading update. The situation in Japan had led to a “decreased risk appetite and increased volatility in markets,” he said.

AHL, which manages about $22bn – almost a third of Man’s $68bn total – has in recent weeks suffered alongside several other large algorithmic funds, some of which have had steep drawdowns.  Source

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Metals and Energy

Metals and Energy

Hedge Funds Succeed Investing in Precious Metals and Energy

Hedge fund strategies focusing on precious metals and energy have fared the best so far in 2011. Investors have primarily favored commodity and corporate bond strategies.
” The on-going conflicts in the Middle East and the  debt crisis in Europe have resulted in precious metals and energy price rebounds past prior peaks while U.S. equities have surpassed beginning month’s highs  as  well,” reports HedgeFund.net in its Monthly Performance Report for February, 2011.
Investors poured money into commodity strategies, corporate  bond  strategies,  and Asia focused funds.  While  this  shows confidence of big  money in these areas, it is quite late in the game to be betting on commodities,  high yield bonds or  the emerging markets of Asia, especially when leverage is being used.
While gold and silver are close to their peaks, it is true that crude oil is still selling at a 30-40% discount from its peak in 2008. Energy sector hedge fund  strategies  rose by 2.64% in February, which annualized is an impressive figure of over 30%.  Source

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Hedge Funds Computer

Hedge Funds Computer

Computer Driven Hedge Funds Performance Suffers Post Japan

Computer-driven hedge funds have suffered performance-wise after the earthquake and tsunami.  For example, Connecticut's Graham Capital's flagship fund has lost at least 8% and other computer-driven hedge funds have suffered equally.
Other so-called trend following hedge funds – which use complex computer algorithms to identify trends in futures markets – have also seen losses.
The strategy has been one of the worst hit among hedge funds by Japan’s worst natural disaster.
In London Winton Capital, which manages around $17bn, saw its flagship fund drop 3.6 per cent midmonth.
AHL, the world’s biggest computer fund, run by FTSE-listed Man Group, is down just under 4 per cent this month, according to the latest data from the company.
Movements in Japanese equities and the yen have driven losses for many quantitative funds, but most managers are hopeful.
Computer-driven trend followers often lose money during periods of increased market volatility, though movements can affect them in different ways, depending on what their trading models are betting on. Source

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Hedge Funds Subprime Mortgage Bonds

Hedge Funds Subprime Mortgage Bonds

Hedge Funds Looking to Get Back into Subprime Mortgages

Hedge funds are once again returning to betting on a now notorious asset. The Federal Reserve is trying to sell off subprime-mortgage bonds and hedge funds are said to be "champing at the bit" to get a hold on some of the assets. The Federal Reserve had to absorb a large number of the subprime-mortgages that nearly bankrupt AIG.
“Champing at the bit,” is how one hedge fund trader who invests in distressed debt put it.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the Fed had tapped asset management firm BlackRock to help sell off portions of the $30 billion Maiden Lane II portfolio, which is made up of bonds and derivatives acquired when the government bailed out American International Group.

Earlier this month, AIG offered to buy the bonds from the Fed for $15.7 billion—about half their face value.

People familiar with the matter say the interested hedge funds include John Paulson’s Paulson & Co, Jeff Gundlach’s DoubleLine Capital LP, Mark Lasry's Avenue Capital Group and Oaktree Capital Management. The funds either could not be reached or declined to comment. They declined to comment for competitive reasons. Source

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China Hedge Funds Assets

China Hedge Funds Assets

China Funds Add Assets Despite Mediocre Performance

China-focused hedge fund performance is not very impressive but the money is still pouring in. Hedge funds focused in the country are still receiving massive amounts of money despite weak performance. Last year, funds focused on China brought in $3.5 billion even though performance was below the global average.
HedgeFund.Net said China funds added $3.5 billion in assets in 2010 to a total $18.68 billion, even as their 6.11% gains were short of the global industry average of 10.55%.

"The country's equity markets have reacted negatively as the Chinese government's concerns about inflation become clear, evidenced by recent increases in interest rates, reduced growth forecasts in its 5-year plan and an increase in reserve requirements in January," it said.

The 23% asset growth at China funds was much faster than the 14% for the industry as a whole.

Still, China funds' asset level hasn't rebounded to the previous peak of $22.84 billion in the third quarter of 2007, after a dramatic plunge to a post-crisis low of below $10 billion. Global hedge fund assets totaled $2.47 trillion at the end of 2010, HFN said.

So far this year, China funds' performance also paled compared with global and Asia-Pacific peers. They recorded a 1.88% decline in the first two months of the year, while global funds gained 1.33%, Japanese funds rose 4.13%, and Australian funds rose 2.15%. Source

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Hedge Funds Spain Banks

Hedge Funds Spain Banks

Hedge Funds Looking to Invest in Spanish Savings Banks

Hedge funds are looking for new opportunities in the struggling Spanish savings banks.  Reportedly, Spain is teeming with hedge funds and private equity firms considering taking over savings banks that are saddled with defaulted loans.
"Spain is crawling with hedge fund and private equity people" considering investments in the country's regional savings banks, which are saddled with busted loans due to the bursting of Spain's property bubble, one savings bank executive told the Financial Times. Among the alternatives looking at the troubled Spanish banks are Apax Partners, Cerberus Capital Management, Paulson & Co. and Soros Fund Management.
Those talks hit a roadblock when the banks, including Bankia and Banca Civica, turned their noses up at the low valuations on offer. But everything changed when Moody's Investors Service slashed the credit ratings of 30 Spanish lenders, noting that it is "increasingly likely that the sovereign will not be prepared to write all banks a blank cheque."
Now, facing a government-imposed deadline to recapitalize, the banks are back at the bargaining table. And at that table, they're hearing more bad news.  Source

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Lloyd Blankfein Witness

Lloyd Blankfein Witness

Lloyd Blankfein Testifies in Raj Rajaratnam Trial

One of the biggest names in finance now has the misfortune of being called as a witness in a massive hedge fund insider trading case. Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, took the stand today to testify in the trial of embattled hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam.
Blankfein was called by prosecutors to serve as a link in the alleged chain of confidential information: He is expected to testify about what former McKinsey & Co. chief Rajat Gupta heard as a member of Goldman's board; Gupta is accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of passing some of that information on to the Galleon Group founder, often within minutes of board meetings.
Blankfein took the stand at about 10:30 this morning, after prosecutors and Rajaratnam's defense team settled their issues about the scope of questioning. Rajaratnam's lead attorney, John Dowd, said he did not plan to question Blankfein about any pending investigations of Goldman, a line that prosecutors wanted him barred from. Dowd did reserve the right to recall Blankfein as a defense witness later in the trial.
On the stand, Blankfein identified Gupta from a photograph. Gupta is expected to testify for the defense later in the trial.

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Watch Hedge Fund

Watch Hedge Fund

New Hedge Funds Investing in High-End Watches

Hedge funds are famous for investing in very niche markets.  One such niche market is that of high-end watches.  A few hedge funds are now dedicated to investing in watches, such as Precious Time.
The funny thing is, the fund has only raised enough money to buy about 4 of the world's most expensive watches.
And those are the watches commanding the really high prices year after year. The rare Patek Philippes, the watches owned by famous people, etc.
But it's tiny right now. “By early March, we had raised €6 million for the first quotation and are looking to grow about €100 million to €250 million,” Ms. Mascherin told the Wall Street Journal. “Our objective is to generate 15 percent returns per year in the next few years,” she added.
Composition of the fund:
70% vintage,  30% modern
80% complications, 20% simple mechanicals
50% in Patek Philippe, 30%t in other top brands, like Breguet, Rolex,
Audemars Piguet, Lange & Söhne, Vacheron Constantin and Cartier
50% gold, 35% steel, and 15% platinum 
Source




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Hedge Fund Firm Investors

Hedge Fund Firm Investors

Man Group Hedge Fund Buys & What it Means for Investors

Man Group's investments in hedge funds may serve as a cautionary tale to hedge fund investors. Man Group first invested in BlueCrest Capital Management thinking that it would offer some diversification to Man, but BlueCrest eventually grew to mirror Man. Thus, Man Group had to go look for a new way to diversify its business and settled on a $1.6 billion acquisition of GLG Partners. It recently sold its stake in BlueCrest for $633 million.
When Man bought the stake back in 2003, it sought preferential access to BlueCrest's funds and to diversify its product range. But the capacity constraints Man had envisioned for its own funds never materialized. And BlueCrest, which had been a predominantly fixed-income manager, developed a rival to Man's main fund AHL in the form of BlueTrend, now responsible for half of BlueCrest's assets under management. That meant Man was forced to look elsewhere for product diversification: through its $1.6 billion acquisition of GLG Partners.

Banks, too, have been exiting from minority hedge-fund investments, spurred by changes to U.S. regulation that threaten to make ownership of such stakes difficult. Morgan Stanley has sold its stake in FrontPoint. Citigroup, too, is selling hedge-fund assets. True, some, such as Credit Suisse, are going the other way. But Royal Bank of Canada bought BlueBay Asset Management outright last year rather than taking a minority stake.

Hedge funds can be difficult businesses to value. Management departures can spark a wholesale flight of assets; strategy can be difficult to influence. Although Man's financial returns from the BlueCrest deal are impressive—it booked a pretax profit of $250 million from the disposal, on top of the share of BlueCrest's profits it has taken every year—it is unlikely to do a similar deal in the future. Source

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Swiss Hedge Fund

Swiss Hedge Fund

Switzerland Approves First Single Manager Hedge Fund

Switzerland has approved the first single-manager hedge fund. Swiss & Global Asset Management launched the Swiss Hedge Trading Fund and it will be the first hedge fund to be regulated by Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority.
The Swiss Hedge Trading Fund has been launched by local distributor Swiss & Global Asset Management and is run by local manager Swiss Hedge Capital. It is the first single-manager hedge fund - as opposed to a fund of hedge funds - to be regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, Finma, according to Swiss & Global.

The long/short European equity fund replicates a strategy used by the manager in a Cayman-domiciled fund.

Reto Barbarits, a project leader at Swiss & Global Asset Management, said: "Institutional investors, mainly from Switzerland but also from the European Union, have told us that they would prefer hedge funds that come from a more regulated environment than an offshore domicile such as the Cayman Islands. We have seen investors asking for that in the last two months.

"One way to achieve that would be to use the European Union's Ucits fund structure, but that would not allow the physical borrowing of stock that the manager uses for short selling. The Swiss regulations don't impose that restriction, and we wanted the manager to have the chance to do what he does exactly, so we domiciled the fund here." Source

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Compliance Costs

Compliance Costs

Hedge Funds, Buyout Firms See High Compliance Costs

Alternative investment firms, such as private equity firms and hedge funds, are facing new costs related to compliance. Hedge funds and buyout firms registering for the first time with regulators will have to pay a significant cost. The costs include legal, staffing and technology.
How much?

An Aite report released Monday says that depending on the size, complexity and products of an alternative fund, a portfolio management and accounting system could cost $100,000 to $400,000 at a minimum and over $1 million at most. Portfolio management systems are needed to retain the books and records of the hedge funds.

The estimates are contained in a report titled "Alternative Funds, Meet Dodd-Frank and the EU Directive."

Chief compliance officers won't come cheap, for instance. Such executives can earn from $300,000 to $500,000 a year, if they have previously worked for a regulator or have a legal background.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Source

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Hedge Funds Oil 2011

Hedge Funds Oil 2011

Hedge Funds Cutting Oil Bets Amid Japan Disaster

Hedge funds are responding to events in Libya and Japan by getting out of oil. Although the price of oil has risen hedge funds appear to be concerned over a short-term decline in demand in the wake of the earthquake in Japan. Still, there is a great degree of uncertainty with the Middle East remains unstable, the war in Libya and the disaster in Japan.
Following the devastating earthquake in Japan on March 11, the latest data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission shows the largest weekly decline in long positions since May 2010. From March 8 to March 15, hedge fund net long positions in oil decreased 13%.

Since February, hedge funds have piled into oil futures as civil unrest in the Middle East and North Africa disrupted global oil production, forcing the price of crude oil above $100 a barrel for the first time since Q3 2008.

But multitude of shocks to the global economy has made predicting future oil prices increasingly difficult. Prices for WTI crude oil fell in mid-March, over fears of a decrease in short-term Japanese demand - the country is the world's third largest oil consumer - but prices today broached $100 a barrel as the United Nations continued to impose a no fly zone across Libya.

In a recent note in Monday, Jim O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management said: “I have no idea where oil prices are going to go next.” Source

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Hedge Funds Japan Exposure

Hedge Funds Japan Exposure

Hedge Funds Looking to Reduce Risk Exposure in Japan

Until the tsunami brought still untold destruction to Japan, hedge funds had been steadily boosting their presence in the country. Now, in the wake of the disaster, hedge funds are seeking to limit their exposure, rather than looking to make big gains off the instability.
"Most hedge funds have been very much keeping a low trading exposure around Japan," said Randall Dillard, chief investment officer and co-founder of fund of hedge funds firm Liongate.

"You'd think in a market like this that they would be extremely aggressive but the reality, from a gauge of our managers, is that they've minimised trading exposure. Their primary concern is if there's worse severity in the nuclear situation."

Japanese stocks have been extremely volatile this week in the wake of the natural disaster. The Nikkei 225 .N225 plunged 6.2 percent on Monday and 10.6 percent on Tuesday, before rebounding on Wednesday then falling again on Thursday. Source

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Hedge Fund Investors Research

Hedge Fund Investors Research

Investors Investigating Hedge Funds More Thoroughly Today

Hedge funds suffered terrible losses during the financial crisis and now, it appears that investors are exacting their revenge. Well, maybe that's a stretch, but investors are certainly turning the table on hedge funds by sniffing out the less talented hedge fund managers and increasing their due diligence. Institutional investors are especially picky when selecting which managers to trust with their money, as a Reuters report shows.
"I'm not a conference room type of guy," sniffed Chelo, director of research for Tacoma, Washington-based Benchmark Plus, a $1.8 billion so-called fund of hedge funds that invests money with 25 managers. "It's very easy for people to fake it for two hours in a conference room, but it's a lot more difficult if you are at their desk going through their portfolio."

Chelo, 39, typifies the new, harsher reality facing the $1.9 trillion hedge fund business. In the aftermath of the industry's generally terrible performance during the financial crisis, institutional investors such as pension funds, university endowments and non-profit groups are far more finicky about where they put their dollars.

These newly-empowered investors are increasingly demanding -- and receiving -- a cut in fees, as well as provisions that require managers to meet certain performance goals and provide greater flexibility to ditch a fund if it flounders. And like Chelo, they are also doing a lot more snooping around before writing a check.  Source


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Goldfinch Capital Natural Gas

Goldfinch Capital Natural Gas

Goldfinch Capital Fined for Exceeding Natural Gas Limit

Goldfinch Capital Management LP has been fined by CME Group Inc. for violating natural gas trading rules. This is the third time in two years that the hedge fund has exceeded the limits on the size of natural gas bets. Goldfinch Capital Management has been fined $50,000 plus $17,287 in profits from the trades.
Goldfinch had a net short position of 1,053 on Nov. 23; in other words, the hedge fund had 1,053 more bets that prices would fall than bets that prices would rise. This is 5.3% more than speculative investors are permitted to hold in the front-month contract during the three trading days preceding its expiration. The fund later closed out its short positions to comply with exchange limits.

Position limits are intended to prevent large speculators from wielding an outsized influence in the futures market. These limits are usually concentrated in a contract's last days, when prices are most likely to affect producers and end users.

"It's a hard rule," said Tom Saal, a broker with INTL Hencorp Futures in Miami. "If you're over the rule, you get the fine for it."

Position limits have been a source of debate as policy makers try to reshape the regulatory landscape after 2008's surging energy prices and financial crisis.

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Hedge Fund Training Manual Reviews

Hedge Fund Training Manual


Even though I have now sold 1,000's of copies of my Hedge Fund Training Manual Book published by Wiley last year there are only 13 reviews posted on Amazon.com.

If you have not purchased a copy yet please pick one up here.

Thank You Gift for Amazon.com Reviews : If you have purchased a copy of the book and have not left a review yet please do. If you leave a review for this book and then send me an email at richard@hedgefundgroup.org showing me that you have left me a review on Amazon.com I will send you the next book I publish on Speed of Implementation for free as a thank you gift (please leave an honest review of the book).  This new book coming out on speed is taken directly from the content that I present during our live hedge fund workshops that we offer.

To learn more about the book please click here to read the overview page or click here to view more information on the Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) program which includes this book as required reading.

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Nikkei Hedge Funds

Nikkei Hedge Funds

Nikkei Plummets As Hedge Funds Leave Japanese Market

The Nikkei had a huge decline as hedge funds fled amid fears of radiation in Japan. The country was hit with a tsunami of almost biblical proportions that has left thousands dead, many more injured or without a home, and there are new concerns of a possible meltdown of the reactors at the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Station. The fear of a nuclear disaster has prompted a mass exodus of hedge funds from the Japanese markets.
Nuclear fallout spurred financial fears as Japan’s Nikkei saw its largest two-day drop since 1987 on Tuesday. Losing an additional 10.6%, or 1,015.34 points, on top of Monday’s losses of 6.2%, the Nikkei share average, which closed at 8,605.15, was hammered by the mass rout of hedge funds, which beat mutual funds to the exits.

Record market volumes left mutual fund managers in the dust, and one unidentified manager said in a Reuters report, "Even if we wanted to sell today there was very little we could do. We didn't sell and waited, sidelined because hedge funds were just dumping stocks in panic." Yields on government bonds rose as investors had to sell to offset losses. In an effort to stem the tide of panic, the Japanese central bank added another $98 billion to the money markets, after a cash injection on Monday of $184 billion.

The TOPIX index of Japanese stocks fell 16.3% this week, its worst two days since the crash in October of 1987. At one point the Nikkei was down 14%, after Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that nuclear contamination risk was rising at Fukushima Daiichi on the northeastern coast. Source

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Galleon Group Loss

Galleon Group Loss

Crime Doesn't Pay? Manager Lost Money on Inside Tip

A government witness in the insider trading case against Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam has alleged that Mr. Rajaratam took a loss, even with an inside tip. According to accounts from the trial, he made a big bet in 2008 based on inside information but later was said to have "lost quite a bit."
A government witness has testified that a high-flying hedge fund manager took a loss on a big trade in 2008 even though he had an inside tip.

Jurors heard Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam (rah-juh-RUHT'-nuhm) on tape Tuesday at his insider trading trial. He told one of his employees that he "had a big bet" on a then-secret multibillion-dollar deal that was to be announced the next day.

He had learned about the deal from Anil Kumar, a financial consultant he is accused of paying for tips.

Kumar said the deal went through just as the market was crashing in 2008. Afterward, Kumar said Rajaratman told him "he lost quite a bit."  Source

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Speed of Implementation

SPEED of Implementation


Why you should apply SPEED of Implementation starting now…

In mid 2009 I attended a business conference where over 10 guest speakers, all of which were self-made millionaires and business owners spoke.  I took over 15 pages of notes and condensed those down to just one single page. While reviewing common themes from the 30+ hours of advice from these professionals the only piece of advice which each expert mentioned and emphasized was “speed of implementation.”  Since that conference I have developed a deeper understanding of this concept, figured out how to apply it to my business, and why it is so important.

In short focusing my attention on increasing my speed of implementation has brought my productivity, motivation, and sense of progress to another level.  Increasing your speed of implementation means making decisions faster, receiving feedback faster, and adjusting and growing further more rapidly as well.
With everything in life we move through learning curves whether it is starting a new career, starting a new business, or launching a new product.  Speed of implementation is about moving up that learning curve 3x faster than your competition so by the time they have reached the top of that first curve you have conquered three new areas of knowledge or ability.  That may sound very loose and non-exact but stay with me here and I will provide some examples below.

In short you can speed up the success that you realize but analyzing what actions you know will need to be taken, whether you know what the following steps are or not.  Many times in life we cannot see the full path to success, only a few steps that we could be taking right now.  If you seize those first few steps more quickly than others additional paths of actions will unfold that others who are contemplating the risks of the unknown will never be able to see.

Iterative Processes

Applying speed of implementation requires a fundamental understanding how it will help you reach a level of breakthrough success that surprises even yourself.  Within the diagram below you see four letters: A,B,C,D, followed by a single letter T.

A –> B –> C –> D –> T (Breakthrough Success)

Steps A, B, C of most projects are obvious, you know what first steps you need to take…yet step #20 which is T is so far removed from the knowledge and foresight you have now that the project seems unachievable, unrealistic, or risky.  The result? Typically we enter gathering more information and  asking others for their opinion mode.  This has its time and place but 99% of the time if you would just start on Steps A, B, and C, by the time those are complete you would have a much better vision and more clarity on exactly what steps D, E, F, and G are.  Once you get those next steps complete through G you may even be able to see all the way to step L, etc. Eventually you will get to T, step #20 but there is no way that you can get there without first going through the iterative process of taking the first steps that are clear right now.

In short you can evolve faster, meet your goals sooner, and over a short period of time out-pace everyone around you in your industry by just taking massive action within the areas where you have identified the next 1-2 steps to take.

Happy implementing!

- Richard Wilson

p.s. This is a topic that we teach every time that we hold one of our full day live hedge fund training workshops.  Without understanding this principle someone with less resources and experience can move past you very quickly in the industry.  This is just as important for hedge fund marketing as it is for hedge fund career management or running a hedge fund business overall.

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Avoiding Hedge Fund Risk

Avoiding Hedge Fund Risk

WSJ: Tips for Hedge Fund Investors Looking to Avoid Fraud 

The hedge fund industry has taken a hit to its reputation in the wake of the Galleon trial and the Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme. The Wall Street Journal has provided a guide to avoiding risk. "How to Size Up the Risk of Fraud in Hedge Funds" gives some good tips for sniffing out seedy would-be managers.
The biggest hint that something was amiss with Bernie Madoff's strategy was that it never missed. "Be skeptical: Very few people are better than everybody else all of the time," says Chris Addy, chief executive of Castle Hall Alternatives, which appraises hedge funds for institutional investors.

So, if you're looking at a fund with exceptional performance, be sure to ask the manager to explain it. "If a manager cannot provide sensible answers to sensible questions or is evasive…move on," says Mr. Addy.

Janaya Moscony, a former Securities and Exchange Commission examiner, agrees. The fraudulent funds she encountered at the SEC shared a tendency to obfuscate, she says, adding that she would be wary of any fund that can't answer questions in "layman's terms."
The fund's watchdogs look suspect...Read More

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Hedge Funds Over-the-Counter Derivatives

Hedge Funds Over-the-Counter Derivatives

1-in-4 Hedge Funds Clearing Over-the-Counter Derivatives

25% of hedge funds are clearing over-the-counter derivatives trades, according to a recent industry survey, a jump from zero hedge funds in October. The spike comes before new regulations come into effect later this year. The majority of interest-rate, credit-default and other types of swaps will have to go through a clearinghouse under the new rules.
Most interest-rate, credit-default and other swaps bought and sold by money managers will be required to be processed by a clearinghouse later this year under new U.S. regulations. UBS analysts led by Alex Cram in New York surveyed money managers to gauge how they’re reacting to the changes, following an initial survey in October, they said in a note to clients yesterday.

About 50 firms responded to the survey, Cram said in an e- mail. That would include 12 or 13 hedge funds, according to the percentage breakdown of respondents in the note.

“The results from the current survey seem to indicate an increasing level of urgency on the buy side around preparing for the clearing of OTC derivatives,” he wrote.

Congress last year mandated that most OTC derivatives trade on exchanges or similar electronic systems and be processed by clearinghouses after credit-default swaps contributed to the financial crisis. Clearinghouses increase stability in OTC derivatives markets as well as transparency for regulators.  Source

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Hedge Fund Assets 2011

Hedge Fund Assets 2011

Hedge Fund Assets Reach 2008 Pre-Crisis Level

Hedge fund total assets have reportedly reached September 2008 level, and then some. According to Eurekahedge, hedge fund assets are not only back at a pre-crisis level but also on pace for a record year in terms of industry assets.
Hedge-fund assets appear to have not only returned to the level they were at in September 2008 at the height of the financial crisis, but they also are on pace to top out at a record level by year's end.

Two reports that came out this week show an industry on the rise after hedge funds suffered a major setback in the aftermath of the financial crisis, with managers struggling with redemptions and a hefty decline in the value of investments.

The figures come as ramped-up regulatory oversight and the pressure of managing money for fickle investors are driving some hedge-fund managers to pull out of the industry. The data also come as the insider-trading trial of Galleon Group hedge-fund Founder Raj Rajaratnam, which could undermine confidence in the industry, gets under way.


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Hedge Fund Inflows 2011

Hedge Fund Inflows 2011

Survey Says: Hedge Fund Inflows to Quadruple in 2011

While hedge fund returns in February were nothing to write home about, hedge funds do have some good news coming. According to a recent survey, hedge fund inflows are expected to quadruple this year. If that is true, hedge fund total assets will balloon to $2.5 trillion by the year's end.
Part of the reason for the predicted increase in both inflows and assets is because 72% of pension fund executives who participated in the survey and more than half of their consultants intend to increase the size of their internal hedge fund teams in 2011. About 82% of investment consultants said they expect that their institutional clients will increase their hedge fund allocations this year.

Deutsche Bank's survey of 528 hedge funds, funds of funds, consultants, sovereign wealth funds, family offices and institutional investors, conducted in January, also found that all investors intend to reduce their cash holdings by $29 billion in the first half of the year; 75% of investors said they expect to have reduced their cash allocation to below 5% of total assets by June 30.  Source

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Hedge Fund Hennessee Index

Hedge Fund Hennessee Index

Hedge Fund Index Trails S&P 500 in February 2011

Hedge fund returns trailed equities in February, according to a hedge fund index. The Hennessee Group hedge fund index returned 1.39% last month, while the S&P 500 went up 3.2%. The Hennessee Group index is up 2.08% so far this year.
An index compiled by Hedge Fund Research rose 1.21% last month.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index advanced 3.2% in February, leaving it up 5.53% so far in 2011. The Barclays Aggregate Bond Index gained 0.25% last month, while the Barclays High Yield Credit Bond Index advanced 1.31%, leaving it up 3.55% year to date.

“Managers benefited from modest net long exposure, but overweight exposure to cyclicals, shorts and hedges detracted from performance,” Charles Gradante, co-founder of Hennessee Group, said in a statement. “Managers remain constructive on the equity markets, but are closely monitoring oil markets.”

For the second consecutive month, event-driven hedge funds contributed most to gains by HFR’s index, returning 1.45% in February. These types of funds trade around corporate events such as spinoffs, bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions. Source

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Hedge Funds Plastics

Hedge Funds Plastics

Top Hedge Funds Investing in Plastics and Raw Materials

Hedge funds are betting big on plastics and raw materials. Hedge fund managers James Dinan and David Einhorn just a few of many hedge funds who have developed a recent investment strategy of investing in firms like LyondellBasell Industries, Penn West Petroleum and Repsol YPF SA.
A wave of managers snapped up shares of LyondellBasell Industries, which makes chemicals like propylene and polyethylene, the stuff that goes into plastics.

The popularity of plastics and raw materials signals that hedge funds are diversifying commodity bets beyond gold, the darling of 2010 returning 30 percent, as inflationary pressures seep into food and energy.

Top hedge funds' bets on LyondellBasell and other raw materials producers like Penn West Petroleum and Repsol YPF SA suggest investors are seeking out commodity-related plays as the global economy wiggles out of a bruising recession.

LyondellBasell -- the third-largest chemical maker in the United States -- was certainly hurt by the downturn, declaring bankruptcy in early 2009.

But after LyondellBasell emerged back onto the public markets in October, Dinan's York Capital Management and Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, along with Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global Investors and Thomas Steyer's Farallon Capital Management disclosed their stakes in LyondellBasell.


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Bridgewater Associates AR Magazine

Bridgewater Associates AR

AR Magazine Lists Bridgewater Associates as #1 Hedge Fund

Bridgewater Associates has again been named the largest hedge fund firm in the United States. AR Magazine announced that Bridgewater Associates topped the list for the second time--in 2009, Bridgewater was number one with $58.9 billion. Bridgewater's assets grew last year by $15.3 billion.
"The strong performance of Bridgewater's Pure Alpha Fund II, which gained 44.8% during 2010, powered much of this growth," AR said. Hedge funds gained 10.4% on average last year, according to Hedge Fund Research, trailing the 15.1% total return of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

Pure Alpha Fund II is a global macro fund that trades on a wide variety of themes and markets, including currencies, debt, equities and commodities.

Dalio, whose firm has more than 900 employees, made a series of bearish bets on the U.S. economy last year, including trades anticipating continued low interest rates, and bullish investments in the Japanese yen and gold.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management, which ranked second among 225 hedge fund managers with over $1 billion assets or more, had $45.5 billion at the beginning of the year. Paulson & Co. managed $36 billion. Source

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New York City Police Pension Fund

New York City Police Pension Fund

Permal Gets First Hedge Fund Mandate from Pension Fund

The New York City police pension fund has finally started investing in the hedge fund industry. The New York City Police Pension Fund has announced its first hedge fund mandate, hiring the Permal Group to find funds of hedge funds to invest in.
New York's Finest are dipping their toes into hedge funds.

The New York City Police Pension Fund has hired the Permal Group to begin investing in funds of hedge funds, the city comptroller's office said yesterday. The pension is still mulling how much to invest in the asset class, although it is expected to be about $150 million.

The police pension has more than $20 billion in assets.

"Subject to satisfactory negotiations, we expect to initiate a hedge fund-of-funds program which is to be followed by a series of direct investments in hedge funds," Lawrence Schloss, the city's chief investment officer, said.

Permal was picked at the pension's March 1 board meeting, although the hire must still be finalized. Source


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