Hedge Funds Dramatically Outperform Equity Markets Despite Losses
MarketWatch - USA
Hedge funds measured by both the Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index ("GGHFI") and the Greenwich Composite Investable Index ("GI2") significantly outperformed equity indices despite posting their greatest losses since August 1998 during September. The GGHFI and GI2 posted declines of -4.85% and -5.87% on the month, respectively, compared to global equity returns in the S&P 500 Total Return (-8.91%), MSCI World Equity (-12.08%), and FTSE 100 (-13.02%) equity indices.

Top hedge funds suffered in September
MarketWatch - USA
Leading hedge funds run by firms including Maverick Capital, SAC Capital and Farallon Capital, lost more than 10% in September, making it the worst month in at least a decade for the $2 trillion industry.

Hedge Funds Fell 4.68% in September, Biggest Drop in 10 Years
Bloomberg - USA
Hedge funds worldwide in September recorded their biggest drop since August 1998, hurt by losses in commodities and fixed-income convertible arbitrage securities.

Markets' Volatility Pays for Niche Hedge Funds
Wall Street Journal - USA
Global financial mayhem may be laying waste to many hedge-fund portfolios, but whipsawing markets are boosting a small group of hedge funds that bet on rising volatility.

The US Treasury: The World’s Biggest Hedge Fund
Wall Street Journal Blogs - New York, NY, USA
Deal maker Hank Paulson has transformed the Treasury Department into a larger, more powerful form of Goldman Sachs, with extensive direct lending abilities and profit-making stakes in companies including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and American International Group, all financed using debt.

Hedge Fund Redemptions: Let the Bloodbath Begin
Seeking Alpha - New York, NY, USA
September 30 was the final day (end of the quarter) that investors in most hedge funds could request to redeem their money in December. If you've been following my posts on this matter, you know we're in for a rough ride. There have already been reports of massive redemption requests by investors. As of right now, redemption estimates are in the hundreds of billions. Nouriel Roubini, respected Professor of Economics at NYU, recently predicted this and said the run on hedge funds could last up to two years.

Hedge funds face worst year since 1990
Financial Times - London, England, UK
Hedge funds yesterday closed out one of their worst ever quarters as US managers braced for an extension of the short-selling clampdown that has robbed them of one of their most popular strategies.

Hedge investors ask for lock-ups to avoid closures
Reuters - USA
Hedge fund investors are increasingly demanding longer lock-ups for their money -- a move almost unheard of a few years ago -- as fears of big withdrawals start to outweigh the need to get out of badly-performing funds. While hedge fund performance has been poor this year -- Hedge Fund Research's HFRX Global Hedge Fund index fell 6.9 percent in September, its worst monthly performance on record, taking the year-to-date drop to 11.61 percent -- many investors are more worried about the survival of funds they invest in.

Breakingviews.com A Gloomy Picture for Hedge Funds
New York Times - United States
Hedge funds’ annus horribilis is getting worse. The average fund, after losing nearly 5 percent in the first eight months of the year, was down an additional 7 percent in September, according to Hedge Fund Research. Many other factors are making life difficult for fund managers, too. An industry shakeout looks inevitable.

Bonfire of the hedgies
Times Online - UK
In happier times, the bronzes in the window of WH Patterson’s gallery in London’s Mayfair would have been quickly snapped up. Their titles — Lioness Attacking, Lioness Stalking and Cheetah I and II — would have appealed to the hedge-fund managers who work in the area and fancy themselves as financial-market predators.

Commodity Hedge Funds Escape Full Force Of Credit Crisis
CattleNetwork.com - Overland Park, KS, USA
Market upheaval hasn't spared hedge fund managers specializing in commodities, though unique circumstances have so far armored them against some of the harshest effects of the credit crisis.

PwC predicts more hedge fund controls
Accountancy Age - London, UK
In its newly released sixth annual global hedge fund whitepaper - ' Operational Risk: an alternative challenge' – PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is predicting regulatory pressure will induce the hedge fund industry to be more transparent to its investors about its operational controls.

Down hedge fund alley
guardian.co.uk - UK
Wall Street's meltdown has claimed major scalps, but the smart Masters of the Universe had already escaped to this leafy town 50 miles away. Did they see it coming?

Hedge fund standards chief fears backlash - A Letter to the FT
Reuters - USA
The chairman of the Hedge Fund Standards Board on Wednesday voiced fears that financial regulators could be swayed into implementing potentially harmful legislation in the wake of the credit crisis. Antonio Borges is at the forefront of the hedge fund industry's drive to head-off increased regulation. The HFSB was set-up to develop a voluntary code of best-practice that would offer sufficient oversight of the industry.

Fitch Downgrades 6 Tranches from 5 Hedge Fund CFOs; Remains on Watch Negative
MarketWatch - USA
Fitch Ratings has downgraded six tranches from five hedge fund collateralized fund obligations (HF CFOs). All 22 tranches remain on Rating Watch Negative. A complete list of ratings is at the end of this release.

This Is Not Your Father's Market Crash.
Wall Street Journal Blogs - New York, NY, USA
In the worst week of the 1929 stock market crash, the week ended Oct. 19 that year, the Dow took a loss of 8.2%; the blue-chip index lost 13% on the week that started with Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987. So far in October, the Dow is off 14%, compared with a loss of 20% in October 1929 and a loss of 23% in October 1987.

The Hedge-Fund Exodus Trickles Down
Washington Post - United States
Big-money investors in hedge funds are fleeing the market just like the small guys. And as they demand their money back, hedge-fund managers are having to raise cash to meet the redemptions.

Hedge Fund Cowboys Add to the Sell-Off
Dividend.com - Brigantine, NJ, USA
It never fails that whenever an industry sees record growth, there is always a point when people that shouldn’t be in the industry, jump in.

The Demise of a Giant Hedge Fund
The Weekly Standard - USA
The old Wall Street is dead. Long live the new Wall Street!

SEC short-selling ban to end Thursday
MarketWatch - USA
The Securities and Exchange Commission said late Friday that its short-selling ban will expire just before midnight on Wednesday.

Hedge fund funds are under pressure
Boston Globe - United States
Funds of hedge funds will need to pull more than $100 billion before year-end to meet investors' demands for cash, exacerbating market drops as hedge funds sell assets, according to London's advisory firm Clontarf Capital.

Frank looks ahead to the next step
Boston Globe - United States
US Representative Barney Frank yesterday staked out the next battlefront in the economic crisis gripping the world: more regulation of hedge funds, investment banks, and other financial institutions.

Hedge fund play boosts VW shares
Globe and Mail - Canada
Volkswagen AG yesterday surpassed Toyota Motor Corp. to become the world's biggest auto maker by market value as the shares benefit from hedge fund trading strategies and the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Looking for trouble
CNNMoney.com - USA
The swaggering, ultra-rich hedge fund manager, manager, an unloved species to begin with, is very possibly becoming endangered.

HedgeCo Unveils Revolutionary Hedge Fund Calculator
PR Web (press release) - Ferndale, WA, USA
HedgeCo Networks LLC announced the launch of the next generation online analytical and reporting tool, the Hedge Fund Calculator. Available as a monthly or annual subscription service

If hedge fund managers spoke only the truth …
Business Report - Johannesburg, South Africa
Dear investor: It is that time of year again, when we are obliged to update you on the performance of our hedge fund, Short-Term Capital Mismanagement. I apologise for the photocopied letterhead, the handwritten envelope and the fact that you had to pay the postage upon receipt of this missive.

General News | People and Funds | Launches| Hedge Fund Activism | Crime and Law

Merchant Commodity Trounces Hedge Funds in September
Bloomberg - USA
Merchant Commodity Fund, the hedge fund run by former Cargill Inc. traders Michael Coleman and Doug King, gained 12 percent in September as energy and agricultural prices slumped, two people with knowledge of its performance said.

Nuveen Investments President Mark Anson Honored
MarketWatch - USA
Nuveen Investments, a leading global provider of investment services to institutions and high-net-worth investors, today announced Nuveen president and executive director of investment services, Mark Anson has been awarded the Martello Award for Best Practitioner Article in The Journal of Alternative Investments.

Market chaos batters hedge-fund star
CNNMoney.com - USA
David Einhorn should be celebrating one of the best months of his career. Two companies whose stock he bet big against - Lehman Brothers and Allied Capital - suffered grave blows, with Lehman filing for bankruptcy and Allied shares plunging 60%.

Banerji quits job at London hedge fund
Financial Times - London, England, UK
Arnab Banerji, the former Downing Street adviser, has quit his job running a hedge fund to concentrate on selling garden sheds and greenhouses.

Star hedge fund crashes to earth
CNNMoney.com - USA
Tontine Associates' concentrated bets made it the envy of peers, but now the fund's investments are going south.

Lehman Sheds Minority Hedge Fund Stake
FINalternatives - New York, NY, USA
Bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings has reportedly agreed to sell its 45% stake in hedge fund R3 Capital Partners for $250 million in cash and a $250 million investment in another fund managed by R3.

Och-Ziff reports decline in flagship hedge fund
Wealth Bulletin - London, England, UK
Och-Ziff Capital, the listed hedge fund run by Daniel Och, on Thursday said that all four of its funds had posted declines last month, with its flagship OZ Master Fund down 5.4%, according to a report in The New York Times.

PMA says Harvester hedge fund up 1.82 pct in Sept
Reuters - USA
Hedge fund manager PMA said on Wednesday its flagship macro vehicle focusing on foreign exchange and interest rate markets returned 1.82 percent in September, even as the global financial crisis battered many of its peers.

Tosca seeks to restructure largest fund
Financial Times - London, England, UK
Toscafund Asset Management is asking investors if it should restructure its largest hedge fund, after the $3.5bn (£2bn) Tosca Fund fell almost 35 per cent in September to leave it down 52 per cent this year.

Close Man fund to shut amid fall to £4m
Financial Times - London, England, UK
Hit by a wave of redemptions and poor performance, the Close Man hedge fund, which has seen assets dwindle from £70m ($123m) at its launch in 2004 to less than £4m, is set to close.

Hedge fund maestro William Ackman: Short-sale rule was a disaster
BloggingStocks - USA
Short selling sounds un-American -- hey, it's about making money when securities fall. Yet, it has been a part of markets for centuries.

Hedge Fund Finds Itself on Defense
New York Times - United States
Kenneth C. Griffin was one of those Wall Street whiz kids. As a teenager, he traded out of his dorm room at Harvard. In his 20s, he opened his own hedge fund. In his 30s, he boasted that his company might one day rival Goldman Sachs.

UK Hedge Fund Capula Sells a 5% Stake to Mitsubishi Corp.
Bloomberg - USA
Capula Investment Management LLP, the $4.2 billion U.K.-based hedge fund, sold a 5 percent stake to Mitsubishi Corp., Japan's biggest trading company, as it aims to expand its sales network in Asia.

Salida Capital Freezes Three Funds That Used Lehman as Broker
Bloomberg - USA
Salida Capital Corp., a Toronto-based hedge-fund manager with assets of about C$900 million ($834 million), halted redemptions on three of its funds after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Paulson's Advantage Fund Rises 4.3% in September, Tops Rivals
Bloomberg - USA
John Paulson, founder of $35 billion investment firm Paulson & Co., beat most rivals in September when turmoil in financial markets led to the worst returns for hedge funds in a decade.

Hedge fund manager Ackman sees premium for Wachovia
MarketWatch - USA
Wachovia shareholder and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said the financial firm could be worth between $7.29 a share and $19.59 a share, well above its recent trading level of $5.62 a share on Monday.

Hedge Fund Third Party Marketing Firm, Agecroft Partners, Hires Fifth MD.
PR Web (press release) - Ferndale, WA, USA
Hedge fund third party marketing firm, Agecroft Partners which recently received the 2008 Third Party Marketer of the Year award, has hired its 5th Managing Director, Jarratt Ramsey.

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NY Hedge Fund Launches Global Macro Fund
FINalternatives - New York, NY, USA
New York-based MQS Asset Management recently launched a quantitative global macro hedge fund to invest in currencies and commodities.

Frontier Capital launches global fund of hedge funds
CityWire.co.uk - London, England, UK
The Frontier Global Hedge fund has been seeded with £1 million of internal capital and will be open to external investors in January 2009.

Hedge fund firm GAM planning distressed fund
Reuters - USA
GAM, the hedge fund firm owned by Julius Baer AG, said it is preparing to launch a distressed debt fund of funds after watching asset prices reach "extreme levels".

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Noront Advises Shareholders of Unwarranted Proxy Contest Launched ...
MarketWatch - USA
Noront Resources Ltd. announced that Rosseau Asset Management Ltd. (and certain related parties) (collectively, "Rosseau"), a hedge fund manager that, together with its officers and employees, owns or exercises control and direction over approximately 9.2% of Noront's common shares, has filed a dissident's proxy circular (the "Dissident's Circular") in which they ask Noront shareholders to vote against the re-election of the Company's current Board of Directors and instead vote to elect a new slate of directors at the upcoming annual and special meeting of Noront shareholders scheduled to be held on October 28, 2008.

Hedge Fund Steps Up Move on Deutsche Börse
Wall Street Journal - USA
The fight by Deutsche Börse AG to defend its business model from an activist hedge-fund shareholder accelerated Friday, when the exchange operator said the hedge fund had called for the removal of its supervisory board chairman.

General News | People and Funds | Launches| Hedge Fund Activism | Crime and Law

Lancelot investment fund sues and is sued over Petters case
Minneapolis Star Tribune - Minneapolis, MN, USA
An Illinois-based investment fund and its management firm have filed a federal racketeering lawsuit in Minneapolis against Tom Petters, his companies and business associates, alleging that the fund lost "in excess of $1 billion" in a fraud scheme headed by Petters.

Airline Files For Chap.11 After Hedge Fund Founders Arrest
HedgeCo.net - West Palm Beach, FL, USA
Thomas Petters, founder and majority stockholder of Sun Country, resigned Sept. 29 as CEO after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the parent company's headquarters.

General News | People and Funds | Launches| Hedge Fund Activism | Crime and Law