Archive: 01/08/2008
Main
News
Japan
Ghosts of Bubbles Past Haunt US in 2008
Bloomberg - USA
Ben Bernanke hasn't deviated from that strategy since succeeding Greenspan in
February 2006. At its core is a Bank of Japan-like belief that low short- term ...
Financial
News: Goldman Sachs Leads Hedge Fund Stragglers
Source: CNNMoney.com
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s (GS) flagship Global Alpha fund recorded the biggest
loss of almost any hedge fund last year as the industry struggled to match the
double-digit returns of 2006. More... <http://www.hedgefund-index.com/newstoday.asp>
the
man who could predict the future
U.S.
Weekly Financial Notes: And A Gloomy New Year
The December jump in the unemployment rate was a major surprise, hitting 5%, up
from 4.7% in November and 4.4% a year ago. The 18,000 rise in payroll
employment, although much less than expected, was somewhat ameliorated by the
fact that November was revised upward and the decline was very concentrated in
construction. But taken as a whole, the report adds to worries that the economy
will fall into recession in early 2008.
To learn more, click or copy and paste the URL below:
(subscription required)
http://standardandpoors.rsys1.net/servlet/cc5?kHiQASTBQUVsLgHxhilpuHQJhuV2VTU
Fitch
Affirms 26 Classes from 3 Fortuna Managed Synthetic CDO ...
InfoBolsa - Spain
04/01/2008 22:40:00 Business Wire Fitch Ratings has affirmed 26 classes of
notes issued by Fortuna Managed Synthetic CDO. Fourteen classes of notes were
...
Volatility
rise hits hedge funds
A sharp increase in volatility last year made it difficult for hedge funds that
trade market movements to make money.
http://mail2.efnmail.co.uk/r/331351/MTk4MTI1OjE2MDY2/
Leverage
levels unsustainable
For years before the credit crisis erupted in August, financial market
regulators and commentators from all quarters had warned of the worrying
build-up of excess leverage in the financial system and the consequences that
would follow when the bull run came to an end.
http://mail2.efnmail.co.uk/r/331366/MTk4MTI1OjE2MDY2/
Liquidity
comes back from the sub-prime brink
Financial markets have rung in the new year with alarm bells: stocks have
skidded and the gold price has soared. Risk is back. We've never found such
pessimism among investors. Is sitting on cash king again?
http://mail2.efnmail.co.uk/r/331354/MTk4MTI1OjE2MDY2/’
Update
On Selected EMEA Insolvency Regimes
In this deteriorating credit environment, creditors inevitably will become much
more focused on their prospects for recovery in the event of default. We have
an ongoing review program to assess insolvency regimes in the main countries,
such as South Africa, Russia, Finland, and France, to help us understand likely
creditor behavior and potential outcomes when companies get into difficulty, as
well as allowing us to track legislative change and precedents when they are
created.
To learn more, click or copy and paste the URL below:
(subscription required)
http://standardandpoors.rsys1.net/servlet/cc5?kHiQASTBQUVsLgHxhilpuHQJhuV2VTB
Get
tough on 130/30 <http://e.ccialerts.com/a/hBHgkZqAMtqiZAMuTGFAWyfiThq/in16>
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - A new research paper suggests institutional investors should
put 130/30 strategies to a more stringent test.The paper recommends investors
stop using static benchmarks such as...
Reversing
dollar puts emphasis on hedging <http://e.ccialerts.com/a/hBHgkZqAMtqiZAMuTGFAWyfiThq/in17>
U.S. pension funds, which have been focusing on currency as a new source of
alpha, could find a growing appetite this year for active hedging programs as
well, especially if the long-suffering dollar ...
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Investor
Jim Rogers sees worst recession in 'a while' ... Add famed investor Jim
Rogers to the list of people who think the economy is heading down the ... |
People
in the hedge fund industry have distinct perspectives on a wide variety of industry-related
topics. Here is a selection, classified by subject. ......
ATLANTA
(HedgeWorld.com)—A subsidiary of SunTrust Banks Inc. on Thursday [Jan. 3]
acquired a minority interest in Alpha Equity Management LLC, a Hartford, Conn.
......
Albourne
Partners' Simon Ruddick discusses self-regulation proposals on CNBC
Monday January 07, 06:53 GMT
New
Mortgage System to Tackle Subprime Real Estate Crisis in 30 Days
Reuters - USA
QUANTIFIABLE COMPS Quantifies the estimated $400 billion in outstanding
subprime mortgage holdings as being only 20 percent more than what these 2
million ...
Fewer
Hedge Fund Closures In 2010? <http://seekingalpha.com/article/58930-fewer-hedge-fund-closures-in-2010?source=i_email>
by
Christopher Holt <http://seekingalpha.com/author/christopher-holt?source=i_email>
the
man who could predict the future
New York-based Pluris Valuation Advisors has published a guide to valuation for
hedge fund managers and others financial pros. Authored by Pluris President
Espen Robak, the volume titled FAS 157 Handbook aims to explain new fair-value
standards by focusing on issues such as: Illiquidity-prompted potential
markdowns in asset value; problems with the mark-to-model valuation standards;
reasons why auditors hesitate to sign off on fair-value measurements; and why
the new standards make it difficult to attain the highest level of compliance.
In explaining why he wrote the book, The 75-page booklet is available free at
http://www.plurisvaluation.com/pressroom/FAS157Handbook.pdf
Market
Risk
Market risk is the risk that the value of an investment will decrease due to
moves in market factors.
Volatility frequently refers to the standard deviation of the change in value
of a financial instrument with a specific time horizon. It is often used to
quantify the risk of the instrument over that time period. Volatility is
typically expressed in annualized terms, and it may either be an absolute
number ($5) or a fraction of the initial value (5%). More... <http://www.hedgefund-index.com/d_marketrisk.asp>
Tobias
Aide Aced Polygraph, Atty Sez
SWIP
forays into FoFs
http://www.ipe.com/news/SWIP_forays_into_FoFs_26633.php
The
US economy has been hanging on by a thread for well over a year now and the
decreasing value of the dollar hasn't been helping much.
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Yield
Curve Corner
Ben
Bernanke is performing brain surgery in oven mitts
BloggingStocks - USA
Where are those three people who still think that Ben Bernanke has any idea
what he's doing? I'd really like to talk to them. ...
Wall
Street Bargain Hunts
Forbes - NY,USA
(See: "Write-down Rumors Hit Credit Suisse") Many investors are
eagerly awaiting a Thursday speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
...
2008:
Is Bernanke The One?
Gold Seek - USA
As unprecedented home foreclosures and falling housing prices exact a toll on
the US economy, Greenspan’s successor, Bernanke, may be unable to
productively ...
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Natural
Disaster Corner
Climate
Prediction http://www.nws.noaa.gov/predictions.php
World
Meterological Organization http://severe.worldweather.org/
Tornadoes:
http://www.disastercenter.com/tornado.htm
Great
Sat Pictures of events: http://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Current/DSTmiddleeast007_MO.jpg
_________________________________________________________________________
Iranian
Situation and Other Man Made Disasters
Iran
plays down 'ordinary' incident with US ships
AFP via Yahoo! News Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:54 AM PST
Iran on Monday played down an incident between Iranian forces and US naval
ships in the Strait of Hormuz, describing the event as an "ordinary
occurrence" that ended without any disturbance.
IAEA's
ElBaradei to visit Iran this week
Reuters via Yahoo! News Mon, 07 Jan 2008 8:18 AM PST
International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei will pay a rare visit
to Iran this week to push it into speeding up steps to defuse an international
standoff over its nuclear program.
U.S.,
Iran: IRGC Boats And Navy Ships -- Update
January 7, 2008 1529 GMT
The Jan. 5 incident between three U.S. Navy ships and Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps...
http://www.stratfor.com/sitrep/u_s_iran_irgc_boats_and_navy_ships_update
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Opalesque’s
Corner
-
Opalesque Exclusive: Exploring the FoHFs universe (part 12) - The seven rules
of FoHFs investing
- Performance: -39% Goldman Sachs leads hedge fund stragglers, Efficient
Capital maintains momentum with strong outperformance of CTA peers, Down 6.6%:
Another tough year for Bill Miller, will bank stocks produce rebound?
- They`ve been through meltdowns before: Stodgy old billionaires ink deals with
cash
- New Launches: Horlick`s Bramdean to launch environmental fund, moves in with
Tchenguiz into Mayfair office, Californian equities shop launches first hedge
fund
- People: Rep. Richard Baker considers leaving Congress to become MFA president
and chief administrative officer, ACAM`s Danko departs, new CEO in place,
Marketing director Minard leaves Corbin Capital, Watson Wyatt head of
Asian fund manager research joins BEA Union Investments
- Private equity fundraising breaks $500bln mark for 2007, but
outlook for 2008 looks mixed for record 1,279 new funds on the road seeking an
aggregate $698bln
- Rise of indexing means active fund managers miss out billions in
potential fees
- `Fried emotions, paralysis`: Psychiatrists report surge in traders seeking
help to handle pressure, Withdrawal requests trigger deep fears
- Bridgewater`s Dalio says credit problems are flip side of U.S. balance of
payments problem, asks Fed to stop lowering rates against prevailing wisdom
- Banks may need to boost reserves against losses, Moody`s says, `Seems
everybody is raising a SPAC now`: Wall Street turns to blank-check IPOs as
growing source of fees, returns
- Art Investing: Why `Old Masters` serve as hedge
- Legal: Prosecutors interview investors, to meet Bear Stearns officials over
hedge funds, SEC files complaint, seeks freeze of Coadum/Exodus assets, Tobias
aide claims widow fatally drugged his pasta, Former Tobias assistant says he
passed polygraph test, Kidnap plotter Hsu to start sentence Monday, Make loss
of personal data an offence, UK MPs say
- Commodities: Most-active gold ETF boasts more volume than Google shares, Gazprom
plans Africa gas grab
- Technology: Did you already wikia yourself? Wikipedia founder launches search
engine to challenge Google
- Latin America: Survival before ideology: Chavez changes policies, cabinet
- Northern Rock: Goldman close to completing GBP15bln N. Rock financing, Rock
future to be settled within six weeks, RAB, SRM call on Northern Rock`s small
investors, UK Shareholders Association backs hedge funds` resolutions, British
financial regulator to get wider powers
- Norwegian ministry of finance ups alternatives threshold to 7% from 5% for
pensions
- Africa Investing: Polish author`s book does not find much to laugh about, AIM
listed firm, 25% owned by RAB Capital, found to have traded `blood diamonds`
under previous name, 20% p.a. next 5 yrs: The high growth potential of the
African banking sector
- Middle East Update: UAE bank launches Sharia-compliant private equity fund,
Nomura: Gulf equities attractive even after rally, Dubai government creates
global Islamic bank, UAE to generate 70% of GDP from non-oil sector by 2010,
Standard & Poor`s launches Gulf fund management ratings
- HK`s SHK Fund Management opens Singapore office
- Update: Korean hedge FoF sees more fund launches in Korea
- China`s wealth fund gets more than 100 applicants
- Activist News: TCI up 40%, China`s first activist investor case:
Unprecedented rebellion
- News Briefs: Italy: Hedge fund buys grain-handling facility from Cargill,
Average Brit out-earn Americans, first time since 19th century, Italy: Only
hedge funds with net-inflows in December, Tata in pole position for Jaguar and
Land Rover
- ...And finally: `I don`t want to be thinking at 105 why didn`t you do this
earlier`: 102-year-old, UK`s oldest emigrant, heads for New Zealand
- Logon: http://www.opalesque.com/main.php?act=archive
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Misc.
Items of Interest
_____________________________________________________________________
Funnies,
Facts, Quotes, etc….
scrabble
SKRAB-uhl, intransitive verb:
1.
To scrape or scratch with the hands or feet.
2. To struggle by or as if by scraping or scratching.
3. To proceed by clawing with the hands and feet; to scramble.
4. To make irregular, crooked, or unmeaning marks; to scribble; to scrawl.
5. To mark with irregular lines or letters; to scribble on or over.
6. To make or obtain by scraping together hastily.
7. The act or an instance of scrabbling.
8. A scribble.
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Conference,
Courses, Books, Papers
Great
Research Sites:
Merrill
Lynch research Link to full report including important disclosures see example
John
Mauldin’s Weekly Analysis
James
Altucher’s Website:
Other
useful sites:
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Index
Corner
The
CSFB/Tremont Hedge Fund Index www.hedgeindex.com.
The
Cogent Dynamic Averages http://www.cogenthedge.com/home/inv_strategy.asphttp://www.cogenthedge.com/home/inv_strategy.asp
The
Dow Jones Indices: http://www.djhedgefundindexes.com/index.cfm?event=viewPremiumContent
(free registration)
_________________________________________________________________________
Regulatory
Info
investor.info@sfc.hkhttp://www.sfc.hk/sfc/html/EN/inutilbar/contact/contact.htmlhttp://www.sfc.hk/sfc/html/EN/inutilbar/contact/contact.htmlhttp://www.sfc.hk/sfc/html/EN/inutilbar/contact/contact.html
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Disclaimer
The
information contained in this document does not constitute an offer or
solicitation to sell any security or other type of vehicles to or by anyone in
any jurisdictions, nor should it be regarded as a contractual document. Under
no circumstances should the information provided on this document be considered
as financial advice, or as a sufficient basis on which to make investment
decisions. The information contained herein has been gathered by Investor DNA,
LLC from sources deemed reliable as of the date of publication, but no warranty
of accuracy or completeness is given. Investor DNA, LLC is not responsible for
and provides no guarantee with respect to any of the information provided
herein or through the use of any hypertext link. Past results are no indication
of future performance. All information in this newsletter is for educational
and informational purposes and does not constitute investment, legal, tax or
accounting advice. All materials are the property of the respective publishers,
as referenced by header and appropriate hypertext links.
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