Opalesque Exclusive: BlackRock taps Artivest for alternative investment platform partnership... [more]Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: BlackRock will be working with New York-based Artivest to provide a platform for broader distribution of BlackRock alternatives funds. Artivest is a technology-driven alternative investment platform that also offers brokerage services. BlackRock has approximatel

Opalesque Exclusive: Ayin Capital Management launches niche credit fund... [more]Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York for New Managers: New York-based Ayin Capital Management, a new hedge fund firm founded by Simon Berring, who was previously portfolio manager at the IMC Credit Fund, has launched a

Lyxor launches multi-manager fixed income fund... [more]Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: European specialist Lyxor Asset Management launched its first alternative multi-manager fixed income fund with daily liquidity in a UCITS format, called the Evolution Fixed Income fund. Lyxor commented , "In t

Private placement life insurance has grown in popularity among affluent investors... [more]Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: Hedge fund investors are looking at private placement life insurance (PPLI) as concerns about tax lingers across the industry, said Aaron Hodari, managing director at US-based wealth advisory firm Schechter Weal

Harvard Endowment names new CEO... [more]Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Harvard Management Company, the professionally managed $36 billion university endowment, has hired N. P. Narvekar, 54, to the roles of president and CEO. He succeeds Stephen Blyth, who resigned in July. Blyth cited health reasons for his departure after 18 month

Hedge funds pull back from Deutsche Bank... [more]Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Hedge funds are pulling some of their business from Deutsche Bank, according to a Bloomberg report. People familiar with th

Update: Perry's retreat piles pressure on hedge funds chasing mergers... [more]From Chicagotribune.com: Hedge fund veteran Richard Perry's decision to quit after almost three decades betting on the success or failure of mergers and acquisitions couldn't have come at a worse time for money managers following comparable strategies. Event-driven hedge funds speculating on corpora

BTG Pactual lulled to sleep by August markets... [more]From Valuewalk.com: BTG Pactual’s Global Emerging Markets and Macro hedge fund had a sleepy August, much like the markets themselves. In an investor update reviewed by ValueWalk, the fund was slightly hit, down -0.13% in August, after being off -0.12% in July. The BTG Pactual fund is perhaps among t

Billion Dollar Club: Redemptions mount in first 12-month drop since crisis... [more]From Hedgefundintelligence.com: The biggest 302 American hedge funds now manage a combined $1.84 trillion. Assets declined at hedge funds managing more than $1 billion following a rocky first half of the year marked by redemptions and lagging performance. The Billion Dollar Club, which tracks

Manager Profile - Behind the life and death of a star money manager accused of insider trading... [more]From Businessiinsider.com: About a year before Sanjay Valvani's wife found him dead inside his Brooklyn Heights home, the star money manager learned he was under investigation for insider trading. Valvani drove profits at Visium Asset Management, an $8 billion New York hedge fund that had been

Comment - 10 comments hedge fund managers should not make to prospective investors, The great hedge fund reversal: When the worst became the best... [more]10 comments hedge fund managers should not make to prospective investors From Forbes.com: …Following are ten “conversation stopper” comments I have heard from hedge fund managers– 1) Hedge fund manager says- I smashed my Bugatti over the weekend. I think- I am here to invest

Regulatory - Fed, BOJ add shine to risk-parity strategy... [more]From Reuters.com: The Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan's actions last week have given a second wind to an alternative investment strategy that relies on cheap money and low market volatility to produce outsized returns. The funds had a rough 2015 when volatility spiked ... Since January, how

Legal - Och-Ziff settles FCPA probe, Former Newport News investment broker gets two more years to serve, Insurer sues executives tied to platinum hedge fund... [more]Och-Ziff settles FCPA probe Och-Ziff Capital Management Group has reached settlements with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), resolving their investigations into the Firm’s former private investment business in Africa and a 2007 investment b

North America - How a reclusive hedge fund boss and his daughter are reshaping the Republican Party... [more]From Time.com: When Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination in Cleveland, some of the most powerful people in the party had a ticket to watch from Suite 245 in Quicken Loans Arena. Invited to the cushy skybox were financiers, real estate developers, a supermarket magnate and an ambassador. H

Europe - Pressure is building for Germany to show it's ready to rescue Deutsche Bank, Wall Street’s ‘fear gauge’ jumps the most in 3 weeks on Deutsche Bank worry, Deutsche Bank admits 'perception issue' as shares slide... [more]Pressure is building for Germany to show it's ready to rescue Deutsche Bank From CNBC.com: Deutsche Bank came under intensified market fire Thursday, the latest salvo being a Bloomberg report that a small number of hedge funds are trimming their sails at the German bank. In a broad persp

Asia - Quant hedge funds are China's hot new export, Europe banks return to Korean brokerage market; target debt, alternative products... [more]Quant hedge funds are China's hot new export From Bloomberg.com: Add China’s quant shops to the list of hedge funds branching out across Asian markets. Quantitative money managers from the world’s second-largest economy are opening offshore funds at a never-before-seen pace, according to

People - Hedge fund legend Steve Cohen is recruiting young trading talent in London and Asia... [more]From Businessinsider.com: Steve Cohen is expanding his recruitment program outside the US. The legendary hedge fund investor is expanding his Point72 Academy for recent college grads in London and Asia. Students spend a year learning how to pick stocks, with courses on financial modeling and r

Investing - Hedge funds’ buying can’t keep pace with institutional, private sales, Tulchinsky’s WorldQuant Ventures buys stake in Benzinga... [more]Hedge funds’ buying can’t keep pace with institutional, private sales From Valuewalk.com: The S&P 500 rose more than 1% last week, with hedge funds driving those gains. However, there was still plenty of selling to go around, as Bank of America Merrill Lynch reports that its clients were

Activist News - Elliott pushes for shake-up at Colombia’s Avianca airline, Elliott’s Paul Singer buys more of GE’s 3-D printer target... [more]Elliott pushes for shake-up at Colombia’s Avianca airline From FT.com: Elliott Management, the US hedge fund, is leveraging its position as lender to Avianca’s majority shareholder to force Colombia’s flagship airline into a sale or strategic partnership. The New York-based activist fund

News Briefs - Lehman Brothers to pay another $3.8 billion to creditors, BNY Mellon's Pershing survey finds baby boomers biggest users of ETFs... [more]Lehman Brothers to pay another $3.8 billion to creditors The team winding down Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said Thursday it would be paying out $3.8 billion to creditors next week, more than eight years after the investment bank’s collapse triggered the financial crisis. The distributi

…And Finally - How an English farmer made sure his sheep stand out from the crowd... [more]From NBC News/WHTR.com A farmer in northwest England has gone to extreme lengths to make sure his sheep will stand out from the crowd. He turned his entire flock orange. Pip's farm has 800 sheep in total, and they've been turning heads already, with tourists even coming to get a look at the un