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

Last week, we heard of fund launches from 3 Degrees (credit); Centaurus (merger arb); East Capital (special sits); Krom River (systematic); BlueMountain (corporate loan); Vega (global macro); Armajaro (E.M.); Bennelong (L/S equities); and Falcone (distressed).

Lansdowne Partners closed its two smallest hedge funds and Weavering Capital put its macro fixed income fund into administration over a derivatives position.

HFR reported that more than 775 funds had liquidated in Q4-2008, nearly 15% of funds closed in 2008 and new fund launch levels had been the lowest since 2000; Absolute Return said that American hedge fund closures totalled a record $84bln in 2008, and Madoff feeder funds accounted for 20% of that; Eurekahedge’s latest report showed that net asset flows amounted to -$20.3bn, and the industry now stands at $1.36trn.

Scotia Capital Canadian Hedge fund Index was up 1.04% in February, 4.17% YTD; HFRI’s mid-month update showed the weighted composite index was down 1.13%, -1.19% YTD; BarclayHedge: -1.44%, -1.56 YTD; Edhec indices` best performer was Short Selling (+3.54%, 6.5% YTD), and its worst was Long/Short Equity (-1.56%, -1.7% YTD); RBC Hedge 250 Index: -0.62% (1.27% in Jan-09); Barclay CTA Index: -0.18% (est.), -0.40% YTD; Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index: -1.2% (-1% in Jan).

Marshall Wace was said to be one of the latest hedge fund to start using the Ucits III model; a Credit Suisse/Tremont report said that hedge funds would decouple as equity markets continue to decline; U.S. hedge funds reportedly bought more stocks than sell for the first time since October. Predictions of a hedge fund industry being cut by half continued to abound.

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