From Valuewalk.com: Southpoint Capital Advisors, the $3 billion New York hedge fund founded by former employees of David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital, added 3.8% net during the third quarter of 2016, bringing year-to-date returns to 5.2% and cumulative returns since inception (July 2004) of 237.4% according to the fund’s third-quarter letter to investor a copy of which has been reviewed by ValueWa...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Robo-investing platforms are having a moment. From Wealthfront to Betterment to Stash, a plethora of smartphone apps now promise to help you invest. But, the vast majority of these applications are targeted to millennials who want to set it and forget it. When it comes to robo-advisers for family offices or institutions, there are fewer options. Enter qp...

Hooked on QE: Hedge funds see dangerous addiction From WSJ.com: Some of the world’s top hedge-fund managers are worried. They say central bank bond buying programs that are pumping trillions of dollars into global markets will end badly. The European Central Bank said Thursday it would extend its asset purchase program to the end of next year, buying bonds...

Texas County & District culls 5 hedge funds, reallocates to existing managers Texas County & District Retirement System, Austin, continues to reduce the number of hedge funds, but not the size of its $6.2 billion hedge fund portfolio. It will redeem a total of $760 million from five hedge funds in the portfolio, Paul J. Williams, chief investment officer, told...

UK investors to pay more tax on money in offshore funds From FT.com: Hedge funds in Dublin and Luxembourg are set to be hit by new rules that will force UK investors to pay more tax on the money they hold in offshore funds. As part of the government’s Autumn Statement on the country’s finances, the Treasury said last week that a loophole that makes offshore funds more...

From FT.com: Hedge funds and private equity firms from outside the EU fear they are being frozen out of Europe now that plans to allow alternative managers to target investors across the single market have stalled. The investment industry had hoped the introduction of new rules in 2013 governing private equity, property and hedge funds would allow alternative portfolio managers outside of Europe t...

From WSJ.com: A Carlyle Group LP hedge fund has lost the $400 million it invested last year in a Moroccan oil-refinery deal, according to a securities filing and people familiar with the matter. The hedge fund, known as Vermillion, was to receive a share of revenue at the refinery, which ran into financial trouble and was seized by Moroccan authorities later in 2015, the people said. The refinery,...

Matthias Knab, Opalesque: Contrarian Outlook publishes on Harvest: What a difference three months makes. Back in the summer, real estate investment trusts (REITs) were all the rage—especially after a dismal May jobs report put the final nail in the coffin of a summer rate hike. Fast-forward to today, and we’re looking at a rate hike that’s a 72% certainty at the ...

Making the best of illiquid assets From Barrons.com: One of the conundrums facing income-seeking investors is that some of the highest-yielding securities are the toughest to buy and sell. Investors get paid a premium for holding illiquid assets such as private loans, structured credit, or commercial real estate debt. But regulations from the Securities and Exchange Co...

From Forbes.com: Greenlight Capital hedge fund manager David Einhorn (Trades, Portfolio) joined nine other famed investors on Tuesday to talk about stocks at the annual Great Investors’ Best Ideas Investment Symposium in Dallas. Presenters at the annual conference typically pitch one or several of their favorite stocks, which together have had a solid record. A portfolio of the recomme...

U.S. hedge fund HarbourVest is shock winner in the £1.1bn SVG Capital takeover saga From Thisismoney.co.uk: The fierce battle to buy Britain's biggest private equity group has come to an unexpected conclusion, with the original bidder walking away with the prize. SVG Capital has agreed to sell its entire investment portfolio to HarbourVest – the US hedge fund wh...

Crispin Odey betting the house on a violent unwind of the QE bubble From FT.com: Talk is cheap. Many financial commentators have warned that current monetary policy has inflated a bubble that will one day violently pop. Few of them have risked money betting on the precise manner in which a chaotic unwinding of quantitative easing will play out through financial market...

From Yahoo.com: Billionaire hedge fund legend Julian Robertson, the founder of Tiger Management, highlighted a number of key challenges for the hedge fund business, including the limited number of attractive investment opportunities and the ever increasing pool of players in the business. Speaking at Grant’s Interest Rate Observer Fall Conference in New York on Tuesday, Robertson said: “...

Matthias Knab, Opalesque: The Nobel Sustainability® Trust ("NST") is leading a major new initiative to finance, incubate and accelerate the development of clean technologies. The initiative will start with the formation of the Nobel Sustainability Fund® ("NSF"). NSF will drive faster access to funding for the development and deployment of clean technologies. ...

From PEHub.com: White Oak Equity Partners sees an opportunity to make minority investments in sub-$1-billion hedge funds in exchange for a share of their net income while offering expertise to expand the businesses. Chief Executive Bruce Wilson said middle-market hedge funds offer more growth ... Full article (subscription required):...

Brexit has made UK property extremely attractive for one of Britain's top hedge fund managers From Businessinsider.com: Britain voting to leave the European Union — Brexit — caused the pound to crash to 30-year lows, forced the Bank of England to lower rates to record lows of 0.25%, and, in turn, is making UK property seriously attractive to investors. ...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: Carlsbad, California-based Young Capital Management has announced the launch of fixed-income hedge fund that promises returns 60% a month to investors. In a ...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: Water, the world’s most precious and undervalued commodity, is set to lead the socially and environmentally responsible investment themes. This is according to specialist fund manager Thomas Schumann. His firm, Thomas Schumann Capital, based in Santa Monica, CA and found...

From Asianinvestor.net: More flows are likely into insurance-linked strategies, private equity and trend-following strategies/CTAs, given the benefits of such investments, argues LGT Capital Partners. Despite the numerous quantitative easing programs and bailouts of recent years, the quest for self-sustaining global economic growth has proved elusive. Furthermore, the effectiveness of ...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: Last month, Quantopian received investments from Point72 Ventures, the new venture capital arm of Steven Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management. Quantopian is a Bo...

From Newsoftheweird.com: Notorious French derivatives trader Jerome Kerviel was fired in 2010 after his employer (Societe Generale bank) discovered that he had made unauthorized trades worth about $55 billion and then, by forgery and fraud, covered them up. In June, however, Kerviel won a wrongful-discharge case when France's Court of Cassation concluded the bank had "no real and serious...

From FT.com: Gramercy, a US hedge fund, has handed investors in its two-year Argentina-focused vehicle about $750m, a gain of 20 per cent net of fees two months ahead of schedule, after the new centrist government restored investor confidence and boosted the country’s financial markets. The Connecticut-based money manager known for its emerging markets investing set up its “Gramercy Di...

Aquila Capital has announced plans to launch an alternative beta strategy in cooperation with Alpha Centauri. The launch brings the Hamburg-based specialist investment boutique, which offers liquid alternative risk premia and equity factor strategies, onto Aquila Capital’s Associated Manager Group platform. The new alternative beta strategy is a liquid alternative to traditional bond i...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London for New Managers: SJL Capital LLC, an investment advisory firm based in California, has launched its maiden fund, the SJL MarketDNA Hedge Fund LP. The fund, which began trading on 15th May, employs a US equity long/short strategy with a proprieta...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Index, which provides a representative baseline for how the broad liquid alternative investment category performs, returned 0.36% in June (+0.85% YTD), outperforming the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index’s 0.20% return by 16 basis points. In its monthly report, ...

U.K. property funds freeze $12 billion to halt Brexit retreat From Bloomberg.com: Three of the U.K.’s largest real estate funds have frozen almost 9.1 billion pounds ($12 billion) of assets after Britain’s shock vote to leave the European Union sparked a flurry of redemptions. M&G Investments, Aviva Investors and Standard Life Investments halted withdrawals becaus...

Soros, Druckenmiller among hedgies profiting in market plunge From HITC.com: Bullish positions in gold and volatility and well-timed short bets on China and emerging markets, among other areas, were some of the trades that benefited hedge funds on Friday as markets digested Britons' surprise decision to exit the European Union , according to people familiar wit...

In the week ending 17 May, 2016, HFR said hedge fund liquidations declined narrowly to begin 2016 after rising sharply to conclude 2015, as investors positioned for macroeconomic volatility in 2Q16, including Brexit and possible interest rate increas...

The hedge fund fee structure consumes 80% of alpha From FT.com: The average hedge fund earns 1.67 per cent in management fees and is paid 18 per cent of investment profits annually. Over the past ten years, investors paid away half of pre-fee returns. Even more troubling is the fact that fees consumed 80 per cent of alpha, the active return on an investment. ...

By: Paul Dimitruk, Chairman and Co-Founder of Partners Capital As an Outsourced Investment Office acting for endowments and foundations, and ultra-high-net-worth families in Europe, North America and Asia, we advise our clients on their total investment programs, including asset allocation and portfolio construction. Most importantly, we provide access to what we believe are best-of-bre...

Scientist turned hedge fund founder cuts profitable Aussie short From Bloomberg.com: AE Capital, a hedge fund run by a former atmospheric scientist, trimmed bets against the Australian dollar as it gauges shifts in the world’s two biggest economies. The Australian, Canadian and New Zealand dollars will likely be the most sensitive to changes in the outlook for U.S. in...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: Paul Tudor’s $11.6bn hedge fund firm Tudor Investment Corp. announced on Monday it would slash down fees of one of its biggest fund to 2.25% of assets and 25% of profits amidst backlash arising from poor performance, ...

Hedge funds in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac lobbying campaign From Theaustralian.com.au: Hedge funds that have bet hundreds of millions of dollars on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s stock are not just leaving the fate of their investment to Wall Street. A group of hedge funds, including Paulson and Perry Capital, is helping to finance a lobbying campaign to lift ­government c...

Man Group slides on worries over AHL funds From FT.com: Hedge fund Man Group hit an 18-month low on Friday as worries grew about a slump for its key funds. Citigroup downgraded Man from “buy” to “sell” on concerns about AHL, the trend-chasing funds that make up about a quarter of its assets under management and are estimated to provide more than half of the group’s ea...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: It's been a rough year for hedge funds and now, even other managers are panning them. "Frankly, I’m blown away by the lack of talent," was Point 72 CEO Steven Cohen's assessment of trying to find candidates to hire in the investment business at a panel on the future of hedge funds yesterday afternoon at the Milken Institute Glob...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: The hedge fund industry saw net outflows of investor capital in the first quarter of the year, totaling $14.3bn, data from Preqin showed. This continues from the $8.9bn overall net outflows that funds recorded in Q4 2015, and is in contrast to the $28.8bn that the industry gained in investor capit...

Man Group’s AHL fund steps up AI push From FT.com: Man Group’s computer-powered AHL hedge fund plans to ratchet up its investment in “machine learning”, a hot new area of artificial intelligence that is garnering increasing attention in the investment industry. AHL, which manages more than $19bn, is mostly known for investment strategies that follow trends and its two ...

ICAP plc, a markets operator and provider of post trade risk mitigation and information services, announces that it has acquired ENSO Financial Analytics (ENSO), a provider of a data analytics platform for hedge funds and prime brokers. The acquisition has been led by Euclid Opportunities, ICAP's early-stage fintech investment incubator, founded by Steve Gibson in 2011. Euclid made its fir...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: Hedge funds posted strong gains in March, with the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index up 1.24% during the month (-1.87% YTD) on the back of rebound in the global financial markets as investor risk tolerance returned, reported Hedge Fund Research. The HF...

From CNBC.com: As biotechnology shares cratered on continued criticism from presidential candidates about rising drug prices, one hedge fund has managed to find eye-popping returns in the space. While the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF saw an 11 percent gain in 2015, the Perceptive Life Sciences Fund posted a 51.8 percent return and was the No. 1 performing hedge fund of last year, a...

The Doctors Company, the largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer in the United States, has announced the selection of Pier 88 Investment Partners to manage $150 million USD in a convertible bond fund strategy and the purchase of a 25% equity position in Pier 88 as part of a long-term strategic partnership. The Napa-based insurance company has looked to increase their allocation to alte...

From AFR.com: The world's most sophisticated hedge funds gathered in New York on Wednesday to pay homage to a force of profit and destruction – volatility. The Global Volatility Summit, set up seven years ago by hedge fund Capstone and held behind closed doors, attracted investors, fund managers and analysts who study and invest in the unseen dimensions of financial markets. The g...

From Businessinsider.de: Perry Capital, a $10 billion New York-based multi-strategy hedge fund led by Goldman Sachs alum Richard Perry, is preparing for another credit event like 2008. Perry Capital bought $1 billion worth of credit-default swaps (CDS) on about 10 investment-grade corporate bonds, The Wall Street Journal reported last month. Investment-grade bonds have a rating of BBB ...

From Royalgazette.com: A bid is being made to bring more jobs to Bermuda by boosting the presence of hedge funds. Island professionals are to combine to form a branch of the Alternative Investment Management Association to attract the hedge-fund sector back to Bermuda. Craig Bridgewater, a managing director at professional services company KPMG, is part of a committee set up to promote...

Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass could cash in on UDF From Bizjournals.com: Even after the FBI pulled boxes of documents from Grapevine-based United Development Funding's corporate office on Thursday, how this will impact the Dallas-Fort Worth real estate market is still unclear to industry professionals. But if hedge fund manager Kyle Bass' instincts are right,...

UBS sees capitulation as hedge fund net leverage gets to 2009 lows From Valuewalk.com: “We see six signs of capitulation flows data,” begins UBS’s weekly European Flow Watch research note sent to clients yesterday. According to the bank’s analysts, the six signs of capitulation in European equity markets in European equity markets are: Banks: Investors...

From FT.com: Credit Suisse Asset Management plans to cherry pick profitable concepts from hedge funds with the launch in Europe of a “best ideas” strategy. The investment arm of the Swiss bank said the strategy will separate it from other funds blighted by “overcrowding problems”. It comes at a time when the industry, characterised by high fees, struggles to deliver outperformance. The...

From Bloomberg.com: Even when a hedge fund has an awful year, which was the case for David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, there are lessons to be learned. Many funds would have had a tough time surviving a year like Einhorn experienced in 2015, when all the stars seemed to align against him and Greenlight Capital lost more than 20 percent. Investors tend to flee funds that underperform like th...

Odey near top of hedge fund list on back of short China bet From Valuewalk.com: Hedge fund manager Crispin Odey found a late holiday gift in market volatility, as his long / short fund, now in second place on the HSBC Hedge Weekly list with 12.72% year to date performance as of January 14, erases memories of a bad 2015. Some hedge funds such as Odey European and Horse...

By: David Frank, CFA CEO & Managing Partner at Stonehaven, LLC Over Stonehaven’s 15 year history we have witnessed and played a role in many shifting dynamics across the alternative investment industry. We are well-positioned in the marketplace to see trends with a 26 person platform representing over 20 asset managers to the global investment community. Below we have sum...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: Blackstone ’s vice chairman of multi-asset investing Byron R. Wien on Monday issued his annual list of ten surprises on a number of economic, financial market and political surprises for 2016. His predictions ranges from Hillary Clinton’s victory in the upcoming U.S. presidential el...