Fund performance

With the beginning of a new fiscal quarter this month, many hoped for an end to the credit crisis that has plagued the market thus far this year. Yet these hopes have been disbanded as threats of further losses throughout financial institutions, concerns of inflation, and record high oil prices continue to persist.

According to data firm Hedge Fund Research, the $2 trillion hedge fund industry has been hit hard by the credit crisis.More funds have left the industry, and fewer have entered, over the past six months than collectively last year.

In a report released yesterday on what went wrong at the ratings agencies responsible for grading instruments tied to subprime debt, the Securities and Exchange Commission found a breakdown in communications.

Chrisopher Hohn, who runs the $15billion hedge fund The Children’s Investment Fund Management in the U.K.—and who is practically revered for the average annual returns of 42% he has delivered since the fund’s inception in 2004—has reached an impasse, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Morningstar's Investor Conference in Chicago may have echoed with many of the same old solutions of the past, but for those who listened carefully to Mohamed El-Erian's message, "This time it's different."

In light of Legg Mason's recent struggles and dropping stock price, the company has slashed the pay of CEO Mark Fetting and its founder Raymond "Chip" Mason.

Cash-strapped banks are hoping the Federal Reserve will loosen restrictions keeping private-equity firms from giving them capital.

Adviser confidence in the economy and stock market declined in June, according to Rydex AdvisorBenchmarking. The Rydex Advisor Confidence Index fell 3.07%, to 96.93, from a month earlier, due to heightened concerns about rising energy costs, higher inflation and the subprime mortgage crisis.

Back in 2005, the chances that Amvescap, now Invesco, would make a 360-degree turnaround seemed virtually impossible, but with a little bit of time and the addition of Martin Flanagan as chief executive officer, the unlikely actually occurred.

At first glance, Forward Management LLC of San Francisco looks like a typical investment management boutique, presiding over a current family of 16 niche mutual funds.

For professionals on Wall Street, the June jobs number confirmed what many already knew: The financial services segment of the U.S. economy lost jobs last month. Some observers say the pace of jobs lost on Wall Street could exceed all other previous downturns faced by banks and brokerages since World War II.

Back in 2005, the chances that Amvescap, now Invesco, would make a 360-degree turnaround seemed virtually impossible, but with a little bit of time and the addition of Martin Flanagan as chief executive officer, the unlikely actually occurred, Institutional Investor reports.

Last week’s Morningstar Investor Conference in Chicago may have echoed with many of the same old solutions of the past, but for those who listened carefully to Mohamed El-Erian’s message, “This time it’s different.”

Economists throughout the U.S. continue to weigh in on their predictions, rationalizations, and remedies for the current market crisis. As many forecasts indicate, hard times are still ahead for the American economy, The Christian Science Monitor reports.

WASHINGTON - Volatile market conditions and the credit crisis have put the hard brakes on new hedge funds. The number of hedge funds launched in the first quarter was the lowest for a quarter since 2000, while fund liquidations increased from a year earlier.

"I cheated my investors because I was afraid to admit my failure. I did not want the world to think I was not good enough and I did not want my family to see me as a failure."

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.

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

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.

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.