•  
• Tweet
•  
•  
•         Track Keywords
•  
• 

By Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London: A roundup of last week’s hedge fund launches, closures, index performance, trends, regulatory, legal and financial events pertaining the alternative investments world.

We heard of new launches from Mark McGoldrick, GAM, Vaquero Global Partners, Gabelli, Lehman Brothers, Borton, Platypus, LightBox, Systematic Absolute Return, Gartmore, LRG, ABR, Fortis, Stone Lion, Atyant, Absolute Return Partners, Cedarcroft, and Brotman.

There were a couple of closure threats coming from Packer`s Ellerston GEMS and RAB. And past closures by Fortis and Thales Fund Management were finally revealed.

The indices HFR, Greenwich, Eurekahedge, Hennessee, Dow Jones and RBC posted negative performances for August, but the Newedge Volatility Trading Index (up 7.3% YTD) showed that volatility hedge funds had been outperforming the industry.

It was found that the largest hedge fund managers controlled assets near $1.7tln, but that 35% of the firms had lost assets in H1-2008. Renaissance Technologies` assets, for example, shrunk by 14.71% in that period. The IMF warned that tight credit, falling stocks were a lethal mix for hedge funds, which stood to lose more than $100bln. And TrimTABS / Barclayhedge announced that investors had put $10.4bln into hedge funds in July, less than the $16.1bln put in June.

The press reported the following trends: more redemptions from cash-needing investors, stock market fearing another hedge fund collapse, funds such as CQS profiting from banks` recovery, managers such as Jim Chanos seeing financial stocks past worst, convertible bonds trading at all-time low, FoHFs found to be highly correlated to traditional markets, HFs such as Harbinger and Highbridge moving into cash and reducing leverage, and fees being cut to keep investors.

The M&A scene was busy last week. Fairfield Greenwich Group merged ......................

To view our full article Click here