Hedge funds

Absolute-return mutual funds that seek to provide investors with positive returns whether equity markets are rising or falling, are growing in rapid numbers in today's volatile market and hoping to attract a loyal investor following.

Rydex Investments has launched a fund of funds that offers exposure to the alternatives marketplace.

Hedge Fund Investments Drop in First Quarter

Fines Continue to be Levied on Fund Companies for Market Timing & Late Trading, With a Renewed Focus on U.K. Orders

A number of news events in the past week alone indicate without question the U.S. economy is at a dangerous inflection point, but so far, no one-no economist, analyst, fund manager, regulator, legistator, president or CEO-is willing to put together the pieces to talk about something other than snapshot first-quarter, year-over-year or historical trendline data that make a case for the return of the markets.

John Paulson, founder of the hedge fund Paulson & Company, made an unprecedented $3.7 billion last year by betting against subprime mortgages and the financial products that held them.

Mutual fund managers invested in securities with any type of credit exposure will want to know that sister publication Asset Securitization Report has learned that another major wave of $2.8 billion-to perhaps as high as $8 billion-in collateralized debt obligation (CDO) liquidations is set to hit the market.

John Paulson, founder of the hedge fund Paulson & Company, made an unprecedented $3.7 billion last year by betting against subprime mortgages and the financial products that held them.

Samuel Israel III, the former Stamford, Conn., Bayou hedge fund manager who authorities found to have cheated investors out of $400 million, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a federal judge, the Associated Press reported Monday.

While criticisms abound as to who, or which regulatory entity, or set of laws and oversight, is to blame for the credit crisis, the Securities and Exchange Commission is quietly flexing new muscle of its own on the mutual fund trading scandal front.

A U.K.-based hedge fund that was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday said the lawsuit is “utterly misguided,” and vowed to fight the charges.

Hedge fund managers had a tough month in March, lagging behind equity and bond benchmarks but outperforming equity markets, according to firms who monitor their performance.

The global credit crisis remains a significant threat to economic growth, despite recent improvement, according to the International Monetary Fund.

While those at Bear Stearns who've lost their positions are flooding Wall Street with resumes daily, federal data for the finance jobs in NYC for the 12 months through February paint a picture of an industry faring not too badly.

The Investment Company Institute said it welcomes Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s plan to overhaul the financial system’s regulation apparatus.

Albany District Attorney David Soares has done an about-face and has told New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno that ex-governor Eliot Spitzer’s alleged involvement in an investigation into Bruno’s whereabouts was absolutely, positively Spitzer’s orders, according to reports over the weekend.

A £1 billion ($2 billion) hedge fund run out of London by Lewis Chester, Pentagon Capital Management, is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, The New York Times reports this morning.

While the Securities and Exchange Commission looks into unusually high “put” activity at Bear Stearns beginning on March 7, a handful of hedge fund managers used their magical touch as far back as the summer to foresee what was going down with regards to the subprime exposure at the investment firm. Greenlight Capital , Harbinger Capital Partners , Paulson Investment Co . and Tremblant Capital Group are among the larger hedge funds to place short positions on the stock, undoubtedly inspired by the subprime troubles in its hedge funds, The Wall Street Journal reports. Thus, the hedge fund managers handily earned themselves millions. As The Journal puts it, the asset managers are undoubtedly “trying to contain their joy among all the gloom on Wall Street.” Also this morning, the Associated Press cites a regulatory filing indicating that U.K. billionaire Joseph Lewis is valiently attempting to hold onto his 8.4% stake in Bear Stearns. And further across the pond, the Russian police have raided the Moskow offices of energy joint venture TNK-BP. So while the market gyrates with bad news from Bear Stearns, there is, of course, always the counterplay—as evidenced by JPMorgan Chase, Mr. Lewis, Greenlight Capital and other savvy hedge fund managers. The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

Two former designers of sports cars and fighter airplanes have formed the hedge fund Solytix Capital, which focuses on quantitative analytics.

Assets of the top 10 hedge fund companies in the U.S. grew by more than a third in 2007, despite a combined loss of $24 billion, due to redemptions and faltering performance, the Financial Times writes.