Alternative investments

NEW YORK - The freewheeling days for hedge funds may be numbered.

WELLESLEY, Mass. - Gone are the supposed days when wholesalers stood around conference booths all day, cavalierly handing out golf balls, or taking brokers out for cigars and whiskey. To get through the new "Fund Selection Unit" gatekeepers at brokerage firms, today's wholesalers need not just have excellent people skills and be nimble, but be highly knowledgeable about the mutual funds they are selling, retirement planning issues and the economy, as well as be technologically savvy.

Cash-strapped banks are hoping the Federal Reserve will loosen restrictions keeping private-equity firms from giving them capital, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Hennion and Walsh, a small New Jersey fund firm, is introducing ETFs into 401k plans by wrapping them in mutual funds.

Fred Alger Management has announced its plans to consolidate all of its open-end mutual funds into the Alger brand by September.

Direxion Fund’s Commodity Trends Strategy Fund has been benefiting from all this interest in commodities.

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Gavin charged UBS AG's UBS Securities, LLC and UBS Financial Services with fraud and dishonest conduct regarding the firms’ retail sales of auction-rate securities.

Leading mutual fund and exchange-traded fund provider Vanguard has launched the Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund. This fund is set to track the performance of the FTSE All-World Index, which is a market-capitalized-weighted index serving as a benchmark of about 2,900 stocks throughout 47 countries.

Retirees may need more money than previously expected in order to cover all their health care costs, according to a supplemental study released Thursday by Fidelity Investments.

Barclays Bank PLC has introduced its iPath Global Carbon Exchange Traded Note on the NYSE Arca stock exchange.

Plans are currently underway to create a new commodities exchange in Hong Kong, potentially giving China a larger role in setting the world’s petroleum prices and adding to the reputation it craves as a global, economic powerhouse.

Hedge funds have recently increased their investment in aggressive, exchange-traded funds.

Recent hikes in oil prices and far-too-turbulent markets may have caused unwanted stress for investors, but Steven Lehman thinks he might be able to provide a glimpse of hope to pessimists by ditching the traditional pattern of investing domestically, according to The Wall Street Journal.

For the next few days, 1,500 fund managers from across the nation will gather in Chicago for the 2008 Morningstar Investment Conference, with the hopes of hearing new ideas and investment strategies that can help them reengage their clients in investments.

Lately, many frustrated preferred investors have searched for an opportunity to cash in on the subprime crisis and move on. Responding directly to investor woes, several closed-end fund companies like Nuveen Investments Inc. and Eaton Vance Corp. decided that they would be offering investors a chance to redeem their auction-rate preferred securities, The Wall Street Journal reports

WELLESLEY, Mass.—Mutual fund wholesaling isn’t what it used to be. Today, highly sophisticated gatekeepers at broker/dealers go by the name of “Fund Selection Units,” where they hold mutual funds up to a whole new set of demanding criteria akin to the rigors that pension plans put investments choices through.

Security Global Investors (SGI) has announced it is intensifying its efforts to raise capital for global equity expansion.Out of the $9 billion in assets that SGI currently manages, $1 billion is in global equity investment strategies.The current global equity team within SGI manages two programs, the Global Long Only and the Global Long/Short Long Biased, and is planning on launching the Global Market Neutral strategy later this year.The success of the long/short program has drawn the attention of hedge fund investors throughout the industry. John Boich leads the GLS with 17 years of successful global equity portfolio management experience.In addition to the promotion of new global programs, SGI hired Sanjay Yodh, an industry veteran who previously worked at JPMorgan and Deutsche Asset Management, to focus on the global equity investment expansion of SGI.

Backed by the Omidyar Network's recent $10 million contribution, Latin America's first social venture capital fund, IGNIA Fund I has now raised $20.6 million in capital commitments. This first close is only the beginning for the Monterrey, Mexico-based fund, which hopes to raise $50 to $75 million in total."This is a unique group of investors because of their commitment to pioneer solutions to poverty through high growth, profitable and scalable businesses that simultaneously generate wealth for the poor and provide attractive returns to its investors," said lvaro Rodrguez Arregui, IGNIA co-founder and managing partner.Specifically, IGNIA attempts to locate and then aid various Latin American entrepreneurial businesses that seek to positively impact low-income families and or individuals suffering from the effects of poverty. Industries of particular interest for the socially aware fund are health care, housing, and education."The IGNIA Fund hits an Omidyar Network sweet spot: creating economic opportunity by leveraging the energy and creativity of entrepreneurial ventures," said Jim Bunch, director of investments at Omidyar Network. "We expect IGNIA to provide a compelling demonstration effect of the power of entrepreneurship, and we are pleased to join the fund at the start of what we expect to be an exciting and productive journey."

NEW YORK - Hedge funds are notorious for being secretive, private investment pools, but the time has finally come for them to become more transparent in order to capture the billions of dollars floating around alpha-seeking institutional investors' pockets.

Invesco, the global investment management firm with its U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, is continuing its efforts to evolve into a bigger global power brand with both diverse and expansive investment offerings. Parent company Invesco Ltd. is headquartered in London.