Alternative investments

Dennis Sugino, president and co-founder Marina Del Rey, Calif.-based Cliffwater LLC, is retiring, as part of changes in the ownership structure of the alternative investment consulting firm.

Bond behemoth PIMCO is making a push into the equities space with the hire of Geoffrey Johnson as an executive vice president and global equity portfolio manager. He will begin with the firm in April and will be based in the Newport Beach office.

U.S. securities regulators have widened their inquiry into the trillion-dollar market for exchange-traded funds, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A new study by is looking to answer the age-old question: Do active investment managers (e.g., mutual funds and hedge funds) add value above and beyond simply investing in an index?

Key Additions at Northern Trust Alternatives; MMI Appoints Lensing and Ledbury as VPs; Stephenson and Klaas Join Heartland Marketing; Eze Castle Promotes Holden to CFO

The leadership team for Citi Capital Advisors (CCA) disclosed in a memo yesterday that the global alternative asset management platform for institutional and ultra high net worth investors will soon be under employee ownership separate from its parent company.

Hedge fund manager and long-time gold bull John Paulson cut his gold ETF bullion holdings by about $600 million in the fourth quarter, a second straight reduction that was likely driven by client redemption needs as he remained upbeat on the metal.

Citi has entered into an agreement with Credit Suisse’s Asset management division to provide a comprehensive suite of milled office, custody and hedge fund administration services to support part of its U.S.-based alternative investments business.

Alternative investment manager Direxion has launched a “buy and hold” fund designed to replicate the Auspice Managed Futures ER Index.

More than six in 10 advisors predicted market gains greater than 5%, a sentiment that has increased from just three weeks ago.

Three new exchange-traded funds aim to use wild stock market swings, like those of the last few years, to automatically cut losses and improve investor returns.

ProShares Trust has expanded Citigroup’s regulatory administration services contract to include the alternative investment manager’s exchange traded funds.

Less than half of Generation X and Y investors plan to contribute to their Individual Retirement Account (IRA) funds for the 2011 tax year, according to new survey results published by T. Rowe Price.

Credit Suisse said its Wealth Management clients contributed net new assets of $4.4 billion in the fourth quarter, even as its investment banking business took a steep plunge that led to a loss for the company as a whole.

These products set a new global monthly record of $9.1 billion of inflows in January 2012, soundly besting the previous record of $6.7 billion of inflows set in January 2009, according to BlackRock.

Fidelity Investments has warned regulators that more than half of its money-fund clients would move some or all of their assets out of the investments if the net asset value of the funds were allowed to fluctuate.

Alternative assets. Alternative styles. Absolute return.Those are the three bases of John Hancock Mutual Funds newly launched effort to set itself apart as, in itself, an alternative to larger mutual fund creators, marketers and managers.

Hatteras Funds CEO Brian Jacobs predicts there will be an increasing convergence between the mutual fund and hedge fund worlds as more companies seek to offer hedge fund strategies to mass-market investors.

BATS Global Markets said the Securities and Exchange Commission approved its Competitive Liquidity Provider program, proposed last year.

FINRA arbitration panel has ordered Merrill Lynch to pay an investor $1.4 million in a case that called into question the value of the collateralized loan obligation investments the firm sold.