Hedge funds

Europe’s richest families are shifting their investments from traditional assets to hedge funds and commodities, according to a new report profiled by Reuters.

As the stock and bond markets continue to take a beating, institutions, individuals and hedge funds have begun pumping dollars into commodity mutual funds and other investment vehicles based on commodities.

The wealth management unit of Citigroup Inc. has agreed to buy Legg Mason Inc.’s managed account trading and technology operations.

Hedge funds are a little too secretive for the appetite of most institutional investors, but if the funds change too much in order to suit a broader audience, they could lose the very thing that made them appealing. The cachet of the inside know on where the smart money is.

Investors dramatically cut the amount of new money they put into hedge funds, Reuters said.

Money market mutual funds that put cash into investments tied to the mortgage crisis and subprime debt saw huge gains last year, growing by more than 30% to $3 trillion, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The number of brokers and financial advisors considering switching to another firm is expected to nearly double in 2008, up to 9% from 5% in 2007, according to a study released Monday.

Morningstar's database of hedge funds, excluding funds-of-funds, returned an average of 1.98% during the fourth quarter of 2007, outperforming the MSCI World Index and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

A little-known hedge fund was a big contributor to last summer’s subprime mortgage crisis, while the fund itself profited from its skillful swaps, writes the Wall Street Journal.

It wasn't long ago that Eliot Spitzer, reveling in the glory of a national media frenzy for having shaken down Wall Street scams with a power not even the entire Securities and Exchange Commission could muster, hinted he might one day run for president of the United States.

It wasn't long ago that Eliot Spitzer, reveling in the glory of a national media frenzy for having shaken down Wall Street scams with a power not even the entire Securities and Exchange Commission could muster, hinted he might one day run for president of the United States.

Despite signs that mutual funds and hedge funds are converging, long-only mutual funds are slackers compared to hedge funds when it comes to using external research.

The self-policing efforts of the $1.8 trillion hedge fund industry took a step forward with last week's release of the Managed Funds Association's guidelines for best practices in the industry.

As smaller hedge funds increasingly expand into foreign countries, they must pay as much attention to building solid operational infrastructure as they do to chasing alpha.

The President's Working Group on Financial Markets will form two private-sector groups to develop best practices for the hedge fund industry, and while it comes far short of requiring hedge funds to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, this is welcome news, both for investors and the market.

The President's Working Group on Financial Markets will form two private-sector groups to develop best practices for the hedge fund industry, and while it comes far short of requiring hedge funds to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, this is welcome news, both for investors and the market.

The hedge fund market is set to continue its rapid growth as institutions, under pressure to demonstrate more clearly that they can meet their future obligations, seek alternative investment products that deliver strong returns.

Hedge funds must learn to open up a little while clamping down on operational risk management, according to a recent web presentation by Deloitte & Touche Tohmatsu.

Increased disclosure and transparency of hedge funds, and investors who have pension funds invested in them, were at the forefront of a House Financial Services Committee hearing last week on whether hedge funds pose a systemic risk to the market.

U.S. retail investors have had a growing appetite for hedge funds, and now European investors will get the chance to test the waters in these high-return, sometimes risky investments, as Spain is the first European country to introduce retail investors to hedge funds, according to Boston-based consultancy firm Aite Group.