Hedge funds

Credit Suisse has launched the Global Macro Replication Index, which aims to capture the risk and return characteristics of the Credit Suisse/Tremont Global Macro Hedge Fund Index.

Talk about reversal of fortune. Up until the economic crisis took full effect in 2008, mutual fund companies were anxious to get into the hedge fund game. Now, with investors heading to the hedge fund exits, the opposite is happening.

Hedge funds are singing a new tune when it comes to customer service, the Deseret Morning News reports. After losing 37% of assets in 2008 to poor performance and withdrawals, hedge funds are traveling to see clients, rather than have them meet in their offices.

Hedge funds were not the speculators that caused the financial crisis. Blame it on the banks.

The Managed Funds Association has drafted the fifth edition of its best practices for hedge funds, this year with special emphasis on restoring confidence, along with a due diligence questionnaire for investors.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - The United States is determined to show the world it is leading global economic recovery efforts, even if that means creating what some in the industry view as risky new risk regulators.

Hit with $3.2 billion in redemptions in the first quarter, an 11% reduction in assets under management, Man Group said it plans to reduce its headcount by 15%, or approximately 270 positions, to save $60 million a year.

While the economy has hit most asset managers and investors hard, the top 25 hedge funds earned a breathtaking $11.6 billion in pay last year, according to Alpha Magazine.

Fifteen percent, or 778 hedge funds, closed in the final quarter of 2008, directly due to the financial markets meltdown, according to Hedge Fund Research. That topped the previous record for quarterly closings, which occurred in the third quarter of 2008 when 344 hedge funds shut down.

IndexIQ has submitted filings to roll out five exchange-traded funds, each of which will track indexes created by IndexIQ subsidiary Financial Development HoldCo LLC.

Samuel Israel, Bayou Group

Hedge funds will continue to suffer poor results and redemptions for the next four years, Sanford C. Bernstein Analyst Brad Hintz told Reuters. And over the next year, one in four hedge funds will shut down, Hintz added.

Investors in need of cash or traumatized by the Bernard Madoff scandal will continue to redeem hedge fund shares in droves, HedgeWorld News predicts, shrinking the industry by 30% this year to as low as $1 trillion. That was the size of the industry in 2005.

In order to achieve meaningful reform of the financial services industry, Congress should create two key regulatory positions to oversee financial markets, according to a proposal last week by the Investment Company Institute.

Hedge fund executives are bracing for a dramatically different outlook on their industry in the year ahead, with 84% expecting increased competition, 82% bracing for increased costs and 99% believing regulation is inevitable.

Global hedge funds assets declined more than 30% in 2008 to $1.8 trillion, according to a report issued by publisher HedgeFund Intelligence. The sharpest declines occurred in the second half of last year.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly scrutinizing asset management firms’ custodial arrangements to ensure that they are properly protecting customers’ assets.

Fidelity Investments is expanding its capital markets division by 20%, or 80 positions, in trading, sales, prime brokerage and operations to serve clients trading mutual funds and hedge funds.

Connecticut lawmakers have proposed hedge fund regulations, including obtaining a license, annual audit, disclosure of fees and significant changes in management or investment strategy, as well as a higher minimum investment threshold of $2.5 million for individuals and $5 million for institutions.

Since the onset of the credit crisis in August 2007, the financial services industry has lost 325,000 jobs around the world, according to the International Labor Organization.