Ambiguous speculation about possible changes in the hedge fund industry has begun to run rampant, according to lawyers and managers analyzing recent probes resulting in, most importantly, Canary Capitals $40 million fine payout amid after-hours trading allegations.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to release a report any week now that will regulate the previously untouched industry, Reuters reports. What experts dont know, however, is how far-ranging or burdensome those regulations may be.
"My sense is that there is a lot of pressure on the commission from the outside and from people, including senators and representatives and even state regulators, that something be done to regulate the hedge fund industry," Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw partner Michael Butowsky told Reuters.
With its loose rules like the allowance of short-selling, a forbidden practice in the mutual fund industry, hedge fund managers have always operated secretly in order to conduct a more profitable business. But the SECs report, many fund managers worry, will sweep a lot of the secrecy from the legal side to the illegal.
Said Butowsky, "People are more worried now that something is going to happen and that the pendulum will swing too far in the other direction, and that whatever will be done will break something that wasnt broken."
