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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 the alternative investments world.

Last week, we heard of fund and platform launches from Permal Investment Management Services, SteelTeam, KMK, Compass, Minuteman, Valens Capital and Laurus, Galena, ARCH Financial, Informed Portfolio Management, La Fayette, Russell Investments, Finvest A.M., Arcoda, Swiss-Asia, and CopperTree. Nick Roditi set up Belvedere Investment Partners, an asset manager in London that will focus on Asian investments.

Gartmore stopped its L/S hedge fund launch over the shorting ban and YouGov abandoned its hedge fund plans due to lack of funds.

Threadneedle was said to plan new hedge fund despite collapse of its long/short credit fund; Absolute Capital decided to close two of its hedge funds; Highland Capital also shut two of its funds, and rumors said Tontine Partners was under liquidation. Many funds announced negative results, notably Citadel 's which fell 30%. Watson Wyatt reported that top fund managers had posted the slowest asset growth in five years.

Morningstar Hedge Fund Index dropped 7.87% in September, -13.17% in 3Q, the RBC Hedge 250 Index went down 7.67% (est.), -13.17% YTD, the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index was down 6.55%, -9.87%YTD, the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index collapsed 5.42%, -10.11% YTD, the Scotia Capital Canadian Hedge Fund Index -11.17%, and all Canadian Hedge Watch indices were negative.

While some said that the number of hedge funds could halve in 2009, TABB Group reported that H2-2008 would see 700 to 1,000 funds (15% of the industry) closing, and Morgan Stanley’s CEO John Mack claimed that 30% of hedge funds might disappear. Time Magazine reported that hedge funds had already lost nearly $300bln YTD.

General panic se......................

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