Hedge funds

The operational strength of a hedge fund is now just as important to institutional investors as the pedigree and track record of its manager. And fund managers are taking notice

TD Ameritrade and Vanguard Group have added the Thesis Flexible Fund, an alternative strategies fund, to their respective platforms. Grand Distribution Services of Milwaukee distributes the fund, managed by Thesis Fund Mgmt. of New York. The fund uses hedging strategies and is managed by the Thesis team with Stephen Roseman, Thesis Fund Mgmt. chief executive officer, as senior portfolio manager.

Though world gross domestic product shrank in 2009, high-net-worth individuals managed to almost make up for 2008 losses, according to the Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini 14th annual "World Wealth Report."

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association Monday said the creation of a system of monitoring overall risks to the nation's financial industry could take one of eight forms, each of which would be costly.

Chief executives are feeling optimistic about the U.S. economy over the next 12 months for the first time since the second quarter of 2007, with CEOs of private companies with international operations being slightly more optimistic than those that are only domestic.

WASHINGTON — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd Wednesday endorsed a proposal to force banks to spin off their derivatives desks, saying Sen. Blanche Lincoln's primary win this week had increased odds some form of it would be in the final regulatory reform bill.

Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc. announced Tuesday Clayton G. Deutsch will succeed Timothy L. Vaill as chief executive officer and president on July 31.

The battle between Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch is heating up as both firms sweeten their recruitment packages, recruiters say.

WASHINGTON — With lawmakers intent on sending a final regulatory reform bill to President Obama by July 4, much of the legwork is already happening behind the scenes on how to tackle a host of unresolved issues, including a proposed swaps ban, a stringent capital requirement, interchange fee regulation and a consumer protection agency.

LPL, the largest independent broke/-dealer, filed S-1 forms with the Securities Exchange Commission Friday to become a public corporation.

A former Merrill Lynch broker is out one red Ferrari.

BALTIMORE—The uncertainty and confusion around the fiduciary standard has jolted the financial services industry leading hundreds to pack the rooms at FINRA’s annual conference in Baltimore.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a Walt Disney Co. employee and her boyfriend with insider trading for plotting to sell confidential information about the company’s quarterly earnings to hedge funds.

Kenneth A. Johnson, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new chief financial officer as of last Friday, takes over the agency’s financial operations just as the regulator prepares to amass a bigger operating budget and beef up examinations of mutual fund complexes and hedge funds to get ahead of systemic risk and ponzi schemes of the Madoff magnitude.

BOSTON -- As finance ministers in Europe consider proposed rules to toughen the regulation and oversight of alternative-investment funds, hedge fund and private-equity fund lobbyists are hoping members of the European Parliament are still open to compromise.

Peter Adamson, 47, a well-regarded money manager who pioneered the use of hedge funds in the 1980s, family office investments in the 1990s and currently serves as billionaire Eli Broad’s chief investment officer, has landed a job with the family office Oprah Winfrey is setting up to manage her billions. Adamson is reportedly Winfrey's first hire and is seen as a coup for the media mogul, worth an estimated $2.4 billion.

"I've been everywhere and seen everything and done everything...sophisticated, God, I'm sophisticated." -- Daisy Buchanan, The Great Gatsby

Hedge funds’ take on the wide array of new regulations being proposed for collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps and derivatives, in addition to taxes on risk retention, is simple: Bring it on.

Recent revelations such as those involving Goldman Sachs demonstrate that when it comes to investing, many commercial banks, pension funds, endowments and other institutions are not sophisticated.

New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the hedge fund division of Ivy Asset Management, a unit of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., and two of its executives alleging they “deliberately” mislead clients about investments tied to Bernard L. Madoff.