Now It’s All About ETFs (ResourceInvestor)
Exchange traded funds (ETFs) could soon replace traditional mutual funds as the primary investment vehicle for individuals because of the huge cost, tax, and liquidity advantages they offer. That’s the learned opinion of my friend, Tom Lyden, who runs a site dedicated to this versatile security. Tom’s site offers updates on new ETF launches, research tools, and a free newsletter presenting a half dozen investment ideas a day. He finds ETFs so attractive that he has converted his own management practice for high net worth individuals at www.globaltrend.com from one focused on mutual funds, to an ETF orientation.
SAC E-Mails Show Cohen Consulted on Dell Trade at Heart of Probe (SFGate)
Two days before Dell Inc.(NASDAQ:DELL) was set to report second-quarter 2008 earnings, Jon Horvath, a technology analyst at SAC Capital Advisors LP, e-mailed his boss Michael S. Steinberg and another portfolio manager to warn that the computer maker would miss earnings estimates. “I have a 2nd hand read from someone at the company,” Horvath began the Aug. 26 message, which provided details on gross margins, expenditures and revenue. “Please keep to yourself as obviously not well known.”
Aletheia hedge fund manager defrauded investors, SEC says (LATimes)
Federal regulators accused a Santa Monica hedge fund manager of defrauding investors by saddling them with losing securities trades while claiming winners for himself. The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Peter J. Eichler Jr., chief executive of Aletheia Research and Management Inc., made about $2 million by allocating a disproportionately large share of money-making trades to his personal brokerage accounts. He steered another $2 million in improper profits to favored employees and clients, the SEC alleged.
This year it was curtains for many hedge funds (eFinancialNews)
But scratch beneath the surface and you find that 2012 was characterised by mediocre performance, an increasing attrition rate and the growing sway of institutional clients, for whom lower volatility, de-correlation from equities and an institutional infrastructure are just as important as returns. Hedge fund liquidations rose to 211 in the third quarter, up from the 192 in the second quarter, bringing total liquidations to 825 in the trailing 12 months, slightly ahead of the 2011 total of 775. Several big names announced their retirement, including Greg Coffey, a former trader at GLG Partners and Moore Capital; Chris Rokos, the “R” in Brevan Howard; and Driss Ben-Brahim, a former Goldman Sachs partner and GLG trader.
Hedge funds down, not out in tricky US natgas market (Reuters)
David Coolidge may still be the king of U.S. natural gas hedge fund managers but his $2 billion Velite Capital has made less than half of last year’s money while one of his biggest rivals is headed for a loss in an unusually tricky year for traders. Andy Rowe, former trader at Citigroup’s Smith Barney, also has a much smaller profit to show for this year than in 2011 at SandRidge Capital, another gas-focused fund in Houston.
Book review: The Hedge Fund Mirage (SCMP)
You would think that a person who made a living allocating to hedge funds for more than a decade would take a kinder view of this sector. But Simon Lack, a money manager, earlier this year released a book with devastating conclusions about hedge funds. Lack’s book, The Hedge Fund Mirage , says that for the 13 years up to 2010, investors lost US$308 million through their hedge fund investments, when returns are calculated as gains in excess of Treasury bond yields. That compares starkly with the US$324 million in fees earned by hedge fund managers over the same period, according to Lack.
Weavering Capital founder charged with fraud (NEBusiness)
THE founder of a collapsed £370m hedge fund has been charged with a raft of fraud offences. Magnus Peterson, the founding director of Weavering Capital, was charged with two offences of false accounting, one offence of fraudulent trading, one offence of fraud by abuse of position and two offences of forgery. The alleged offences took place on various dates during 2003 to 2009, said the Serious Fraud Office. Weavering was primarily an investment adviser to a Cayman Islands incorporated hedge fund, Weavering Macro Fixed Income Fund.
