Hedge Funds Crush Mutual FundsInteresting fact for anyone out there working in the hedge fund industry or tracking its growth. In 2007 hedge funds have gained over $279 billion in assets while mutual funds have only gained $79 billion. "The hedge fund industry's 3.5% return in October was the highest in the past seven years," says Sol Waksman, chief executive officer of BarclayHedge Ltd. "Nevertheless, recent market turmoil has made investors a bit more cautious about investing in hedge funds."- RichardPermanent Link:Hedge Funds Crush Mutual FundsRelated Terms: Hedge Fund assets, Hedge Fund Industry Growth, BarclayHedge LTD., Hedge ... (more)

Hedge Fund Regulation VideoBelow Houman Shadab of George Mason University analyzes the markets and hedge fund regulation.Alternative Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVBTJzeY-GA- RichardPermanent Link: Hedge Fund Regulations VideoRelated Terms: Hedge Fund Regulation, Hedge Funds Regulation, Hedge Fund Regulations, The Regulation of Hedge Funds, Alternative Investment Regulations ... (more)

100 Hedge Funds To WatchSomebody recently posted this great resource within the hedge fund message board connected to this blog. This PDF document covers the hedge fund name, strategy, location, assets under management, and why it is an important hedge fund to watch. The hedge funds in this list are mostly located in Greenwich Connecticut, New York, and London.Direct Link: 100 Hedge Funds to Watch orhttp://media.ft.com/cms/02fd5a42-f338-11db-9845-000b5df10621.pdfIf you are looking for details on an individual fund hedge funds covered in this list are:Angelo GordonAQR Capital ManagementAppaloosa ManagementAtticus CapitalAvenue CapitalBessent CapitalBlackstone (Kailix Advisors)Blue Ridge CapitalBlue MountainBP Capital ManagementBridgewaterBulldog InvestorsCantillon< ... (more)

Family Office InterviewFamily offices often serve high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals that approach the same level of investment sophistication of the largest endowment and pension funds. A large percentage of multifamily offices use hedge funds and on a whole they have been increasing their allocations to hedge funds and other alternative investments such as private equity.Below is a link to an interview done by Karen Jones of CityWealth with Alex Scott and Marcus Gregson who run Sand Aire in London. Sand Aire is one of the top five multifamily offices in London.Family Office Management ... (more)

Free Hedge Fund BookI have written a e-book on hedge funds from my Richard Wilson Hedge Fund Blog content. Right click on the link below to download the PDF document to your computer.Download Your Free Hedge Fund Bookor visit http://www.hedgefundregulation.com/hedge-fund-book.pdfThis Hedge Fund E-Book is simply a compilation of my 170 blog entries on hedge funds made over the past couple of quarters. No work has been done to organize or edit this book at this point in time, but in the future I’ll try to construct rough chapters such as Hedge Fund Strategies, Hedge Fund Due Diligence, Hedge Fund ... (more)

Hedge Funds in Japan (Report) If anyone is looking to market a hedge fund or open a hedge fund in Japan I found a report on the current state of that market. The report was created by the Financial Services Agency of Japan and it was based off of a survey of 1,252 financial institutions in Japan. Here are some interesting stats pulled from the report:There was a 22% increase in hedge fund investments between 2005 and 2006 Investors were largely diversified with 26% by insurance companies, 15% by trust banks, 24% by major banks, 15% by regional banks and ... (more)

Hedge Fund RedemptionsAfter investing in hedge funds some accredited investors have a much harder time getting their money out of a hedge fund then into them. While this is often preventable it is usually the result of:Preset lockup periods where investors must keep their money in the fund for a minimum of 6 months to 3 years depending on the fund mandate but negotiableThe liquidity of the asset classes the hedge fund deals with. Some hedge funds work in such illiquid markets that they will have redemption clauses in their contracts that allow them to wait 3-12 months for more ... (more)

Total Hedge Fund Assets Near $3 TrillionHedge Funds closed the third quarter with over $2.7 Trillion in total assets under managment. In 2007 alone hedge fund assets have risen $337B so far with one quarter left to go. It is possible that the industry could gain in excess of $500B for the year. $50B of this year's $337B came from emerging market hedge funds growth with most of those assets being allocated to Chinese and Brazilian hedge fund managers. Other current year trends have been the increasing difficult time that small emerging hedge fund managers have had raising assets, and ... (more)

The Benefits of Hedge Fund InvestingThere are many benefits of investing in hedge funds. Most of these are not readily explained with news articles that you might read in the Wall Street Journal or Investors Business Daily. Below is a white paper updated in 2006 that discusses the benefits of investing in hedge fund portfolios.Hedge Fund Investing Benefits White Paper- RichardPermanent Link: Benefits of Hedge Fund InvestingRelated Terms: Hedge Fund Investing, Investing in Hedge Funds, Hedge Fund Benefits, Hedge Fund of Fund Investing, Hedge Fund Investing Description < ... (more)

Litigation Funding Hedge Fund StrategyThe latest hedge fund strategy to emerge internationally is litigation funding. This is where a hedge fund dedicates a portfolio or section of a portfolio towards funding litigation that the manager believe highly favors the party they are supporting. With third party litigation funding, the investors cover a portion or all of the costs of litigation in exchange for a share of awards by the court. Funds employing this strategy retain legal experts and refer to niche experts on each case before weighing in on the change of possible victory. MKM ... (more)

Hedge Fund Networking GroupThe Hedge Funds Group has been launched in conjunction with Linkedin.com. This group was formed in an effort to further connect hedge fund professionals to share business leads, provide consulting services, network, and share online resources related to the hedge fund industry.Initially attracting mainly technology/IT professionals the site now boasts over 100,000 CEOs as members along with tens of thousands of investment and hedge fund professionals. Linkedin.com has over 5 million members and is growing quicker than Myspace and FaceBook. Below are some stats on the growth of Linkedin.com compared to ... (more)

Large Accredited Investors Large accredited investors are people with at least $2.5 million in investments (excluding homes) or $400,000 in annual income ($600,000 when combined with a spouse). This is a new category of qualified buyers of financial products that is meant to protect smaller investors which the SEC see as less able to absorb some of the risks of certain investments.- RichardPermanent Link:Large Accredited InvestorsRelated Posts:Related Terms: large accredited investors, large accredited investor, accredited investor, accredited investors, accredited investors definition ... (more)

Hedge Fund Investment Strategies VideoIf you can't view this video please follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6m4_UyfLDs- RichardPermanent Link: Hedge Fund Investment StrategiesRelated Posts:Related Terms: Hedge Fund Investment, Hedge Fund Strategy, Hedge Fund Strategies, Hedge Fund Strategy Definition, Hedge Fund Investments Strategy ... (more)

Using Hedge Funds in Financial Planning If you are a financial advisor and would like to begin using hedge funds within your financial planning practice the steps below might help you navigate this process. Note: While this article was written for financial advisors, others might also find some useful tips and resources here. Speak with your broker-dealer as applicable about available hedge funds through their organization and what the process would be to invest in a hedge fund ... (more)

Hedge Funds The Root of All Financial Evil?This is what could sometimes be construed by reading through various news publications reporting the fraudulent acts and losses that are well documented among the almost 10,000 hedge funds in existence today. Recently though hedge fund professionals and those outside the industry have been trying to correct this image.The head of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said that, "hedge funds were not the catalysts or drivers of this summer’s events.” Additionally the deputy governor of the Bank of England stated that “hedge funds have not been blown away by the first ... (more)

Multi Strategy Hedge FundsMulti strategy hedge funds use several strategies within the same pool of assets. They might seek returns from running money focused on shorting equities, investing in global real estate projects, and seeking momentum focused event driven strategies. I haven't seen this type of fund very often as only the largest funds will have the resources to effectively employ the strategy. Many people wanting hedge fund exposure to this type of strategy differientation will buy a hedge fund of fund product.Here is a Comparison Between Hedge Fund of Funds and Multi-Strategy Hedge Funds.- RichardPermanent Link: ... (more)

Event Driven Hedge Fund StrategyEvent-driven hedge fund managers invest their assets on a opportunistic basis where they see best fit. Sometimes they will be restricted to a set of certain events and their fund mandate allows them to use a wide range of assets or investment strategies to take advantage of those environments. Events can include some things that global macro funds might respond to but they can also include IPOs, mergers, write down announcements, or backdating scandal announcements. They try to ride the short term momentum either up or down created by events that are priced ... (more)

Global Macro Hedge Fund StrategyGlobal Macro is a highly volatile hedge fund strategy that attempts to profit from shifts in the market due to economic, political, or government related events. Many times these funds use leverage and produce returns that are not highly correlated with the public equity markets. Hedge fund managers use indexes, equities, etfs, bonds, and other asset types while using this strategy.Want some more meat on global macro hedge fund strategies? Here's a white paper on Global Macro Hedge Funds- RichardPermanent Link:Related Posts:Related Terms: Global Macro, Global Macro Hedge Fund, Macro Strategy, Global ... (more)

Family Office Hedge FundMany multifamily offices use hedge funds because their clients consist of high net worth or ultra high net worth individuals. There are over 800 family offices in the US and over 3,000 family offices globally. With such a high number of offices the types of hedge funds that family offices use varies from place to place. Some best practices on the types of funds family offices typically worth with though include using hedge fund managers that have:3+ years of a track recordDeeply experienced portfolio management team of at least 4 professionalsA competitively defendable and ... (more)

Family Office Wealth ManagementI just found a great article on multifamily office wealth management that i wanted to share. It is not new but it is a good discussion of multifamily office wealth management services.Family Office Wealth Managment- RichardPermanent Link: Family Office Wealth ManagementRelated Posts:Related Terms: family office wealth management, multifamily office family management, family office wealth managersPicture Source: Finnav ... (more)

Distressed Securities Hedge Fund Strategy ExplanationHedge funds that invest in distressed securities buy debt or equity positions into firms filing for reorganization or bankruptancy. Many of these types of funds due extensive fundamental research analyzing the book value, balance sheet, strategic partners, suppliers, and creditors of a company before investing their money. These types of funds usually have relatively low volatility but without exception require someone with deep bench strength and fundamental research experience.- RichardPermanent Link:Related Posts:Related Terms: distressed securities, hedge fund strategy, low volatility hedge fund & ... (more)

Alternative Investments Outperform ‘‘Over the past decade, the four primary alternative asset classes – real estate, infrastructure, private equity and hedge funds – delivered higher returns than the traditional offerings of stocks and bonds,” said chief economist and strategist for RREEF, Asieh Mansour.Mansour points to the swelling size of the alternative asset industry as direct result of steady returns during uncertain times in the public markets. His report states that more investments in areas that are not highly correlated with stocks and bonds will be made, especialy by pensions and endowments.I think that these types of reports are great to ... (more)

Hedge Fund Industry Basics Here are a few trends, facts, notes about hedge funds that I have picked up and some people might not know. Eventually I will combine several posts similar to this to create a 1 page hedge fund industry snapshot for professionals in the field, specifically for family offices and financial advisors who need to get up to speed on the latest developments.Not all hedge funds are risky relative to mutual fund, SMA, or ETF product alternativesThere are around 10,000 hedge funds in existence with 30 new ones created each quarterAround 80% of all hedge funds have ... (more)

Book Review: RainmakerI wrote this book, Rainmaker during my MBA program two years ago. It is a short text focussed on best practices of sales, business development and negotiation that I picked up while working, reading the Harvard Business Review, and speaking with experts in sales and business development. It contains over 100 lessons, models and best practices that can help you grow your business.As of this morning I have made this book available for free to those people reading my blog. I did this for two reasons. One, I have learned a lot about sales and business development since ... (more)

Online Hedge Fund CommunityI'm experimenting with an online community just for hedge fund professionals. It is a mix of what you find on Linkedin.com, the Albourne Village, and Facebook. Sub groups within the hedge fund community would talk about hedge fund sales and marketing, legal issues, hedge fund due diligence and general research, and job openings. The goal is to create a collaborative environment where professionals can share business leads, work on projects that require multi-disciplinary teams, and keep connected in a more meaningful way than a an email or two a year.I've setup this online hedge ... (more)