Posts Tagged hedge fund
Hedge Funds May 2010
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Investing on June 30th, 2010
The latest hedge fund performance and investor allocation data for May 2010 show that last month indeed was a tough one for hedge funds. The Hedge Fund Aggregate Index was down but did not fall as hard as the S&P 500. Total hedge fund assets fell almost 3% in May.
The HFN Hedge Fund Aggregate Index was -2.86% in May 2010 and +0.89% year-to-date (YTD). The S&P 500 Total Return Index (S&P) was -7.99% in May and -1.51% YTD.
Total industry assets fell an estimated -2.82% to $2.234 trillion in May. Despite performance based asset reductions, net investor flows were positive for the fifth month in a row.
Performance accounted for $66.87 billion of the decrease and investor allocations accounted for a net inflow of $2.13 billion. Net inflows were the lowest since January and the second month in a row of slower rates of increase.
The core rate of growth (% asset change due to investor allocations/redemptions) was an increase of 0.09%, the second slowest rate of increase since HFN began tracking asset flow data in Q4 2003. Read the rest of this entry »
Whistle-Blowers Become Investment Option for Hedge Funds
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Fund Markets on May 21st, 2010
Hedge funds have found a new market to invest in: whistle-blowers.
Informants who turn in tax cheats have to wait years to get their share of any reward from the I.R.S.’s recently expanded whistle-blower program. So hedge funds, private equity groups and other big investors are offering an alternative. They are essentially agreeing to buy a percentage of those future payouts in exchange for a smaller amount upfront to the whistle-blowers.
The surging size of the potential awards is driving all the interest. Three years ago, the I.R.S. began offering bigger rewards — 15 percent to 30 percent of whatever money the government recovered — in a move that has turbocharged the agency’s whistle-blower program.
Where it once handled only a trickle of tips, often involving relatively small amounts of unpaid taxes, I.R.S. offices now receive a torrent of big money claims. Accountants and company employees have taken to trooping in bearing computer records and boxes of documents to back up their claims of underpayment by big companies.
In what is believed to be the first of these structured tax payouts, an I.R.S. informant who reported that an overseas multinational corporation had underpaid its taxes by billions of dollars received $4 million last month from a private equity firm. In exchange, the firm will receive a portion of the award the informant expects to collect eventually. Read the rest of this entry »
Winfrey Hires a Star Manager
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Budget on May 20th, 2010
Oprah Winfrey has made a fortune in television, magazines and movies. Now she has hired someone to manage it.
Ms. Winfrey, one of the most powerful brands in media, has begun setting up a so-called family office to handle her personal investments, according to people familiar with the situation. Her first hire: Peter Adamson, a well-regarded investor who currently serves as chief investment officer for Eli Broad, the Los Angeles billionaire and philanthropist.
The move comes as Ms. Winfrey begins a new chapter in her professional life. In January she plans to launch her own channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network, a joint venture between Ms. Winfrey’s Harpo Inc. and Discovery Communications Inc. that aims to reach 80 million homes in the U.S.
A spokeswoman for Ms. Winfrey confirmed the hire but declined to elaborate. Mr. Adamson didn’t return emails and telephone calls seeking comment.
Ms. Winfrey historically has been private about her financial affairs, but this is believed to be the first time she has established a full investment organization around her fortune.
Wealthy investors typically hire managers at banks and brokerage firms to handle their financial affairs. A family office is considered a step up from such an arrangement, with a team of advisers working exclusively, and directly, for the client. Read the rest of this entry »
Hedge funds, private equity expect tax hike
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Budget on May 19th, 2010
Private equity, real estate and hedge fund managers are increasingly resigned to a tax increase on their profits as U.S. lawmakers get set to vote next week on a long-delayed measure.
At issue is a change in the tax treatment of profits earned by partnership fund managers, known as “carried interest.” The measure would treat the profits as ordinary income subject to a 35 percent rate, more the double the 15 percent rate they are currently taxed at as capital gains.
The tax change, which lobbyists have managed to beat back for three years, has gained steam as lawmakers hunt for revenue to fund other popular tax breaks for business that have expired. Many lobbyists and former opponents now see passage of an increase as inevitable.
“Many people are resigned because it is round four,” said Francois Hechinger, a partner at BDO Seidman advising private equity and venture capital clients..
He added that they are still putting up a fight to try to soften the impact. “If it was really their choice they wouldn’t give up on it at all.”
The $20 billion or so of revenue that the tax change could raise over a decade would help pay for a politically popular group of tax breaks for individuals and business, including a corporate research and development tax credit. Read the rest of this entry »
Proposed Bank Regulations Would Limit Risk Taking
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Banks on February 4th, 2010
The President proposed new regulations for the banking industry this week, in an effort to curb risk taking as well as limiting the size of some of the nation’s largest banks. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker now one of Obama’s key economic advisers has been advocating stricter limits on the banking sector or some time.
The proposed regulations would eliminate proprietary trading at banks as well as the investment or running of equity and hedge funds. It would also seek to slow consolidation in the banking industry by putting new caps on market share of liabilities.
They want banks to be more like banks and limit the activities that put customer deposits at risk. It’s also clear the government wants to avoid the “too big” to fail scenario that the nation went through last year. Read the rest of this entry »
Hedge funds back into options to bet on dollar/yen
Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Currency on May 22nd, 2009
Hedge funds are dipping their toes back into the dollar/yen options market after months of absence, betting that eventual interest rate tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve will help the greenback gain against the yen.
Dollar/yen‘s implied volatility, a gauge of how much a currency pair is expected to move over a given period, has come down to levels not seen since before Lehman Brothers collapsed in mid-September, sending global markets into a tailspin.
The decline suggests market stress has eased substantially and investor confidence has risen after the battering dealt by the global financial crisis, but it also implies lessening demand for options to hedge against a further surge in the yen.
“It means investors bruised in the past months have regained enough energy to stretch their arms and legs around, and some are starting to bet for economic recovery for the coming years, thinking the worst of the financial crisis is over,” said a senior options trader at a Japanese bank. Read the rest of this entry »
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Consumer Spending in U.S. Rises More Than Forecast
30 August 2010
Monetary Policy Gets No Respect
19 July 2010
Stocks May Surprise By Year-End
5 July 2010
Is A Global Reserve Currency A Necessity?
28 June 2010
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