Main News

 

 

Carrington asks for $200m to replace loans
Financial Times Sun, 23 Mar 2008 3:11 PM PDT
Carrington Capital Management, a $1bn hedge fund specialising in mortgages, is trying to persuade its investors to lend it up to $200m to replace bank loans, in the latest sign of concern about banks pulling credit lines to hedge funds.

 

Monsoon Capital hit hard by Indian stock market slump
Market Watch Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:25 AM PDT
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Monsoon Capital LLC, a $1.2 billion hedge fund firm run by Gautam Prakash, has been hit hard by a slump in Indian stocks this year as overseas investors pull back from emerging markets in the wake of trouble in the U.S.

 

Banks prepare for legal action against hedge funds
Sunday Business Post - Dublin,Ireland
Irish banks are lining up with regulators in Britain and Ireland, to pursue legal action against hedge funds suspected of spreading misleading information ...
See all stories on this topic

 

Public Firms Dragged Down By Bear
Contagion from Bear Stearns and MF Global has spread to other publicly held brokers.Read more

 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (HedgeWorld.com)—The California Public Employees' Retirement System said this week that it would support an effort calling on the nation's three leading rating agencies—Fitch, Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's—to reform their methods for rating bonds issued by local governments and municipalities. ......

 

Borrowers to pull $21 billion from auction-rate market
Municipal borrowers are planning to pull billions of dollars worth of bonds from the auction-rate market in the next several weeks, data from Bloomberg shows. This week, almost 70% of the auctions failed to attract enough buyers, sending interest rates soaring as high as 14%. The average rate for long-term bonds reached 6.41% on March 12, according to SIFMA. Bloomberg (21 Mar.)

 

Silent Fortress
Forbes Fri, 21 Mar 2008 3:01 AM PDT
Hedge-fund firm moves up earnings announcement but won't say why.

 

You know the finance bomb is ticking but how big will the ...
Independent - London,England,UK
The growth of the hedge fund market means prime brokerage, once the poor relation of the trading floor, has become a moneyspinner for banks. ...
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Sovereign fund majors strike US pact on code of conduct
US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson and officials from Abu Dhabi and Singapore on Thursday agreed to basic principles for sovereign wealth funds and the countries in which the big government-run investment pools invest.  (The Wall Street Journal)
http://mail2.efnmail.co.uk/r/349531/MTk4MTI1OjE2Nzcy/

 

Making Sense of a Scared New World
New York Times - United States
But it’s also true that without the hedge fund heavies of great wealth and great gossip beating them to the ground, Bear would surely have “shlepped it ...
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Blackstone Seeds Two More Hedge Funds
FINalternatives - New York,NY,USA
The Blackstone Group is beefing up its year-old fund of hedge funds vehicle that invests exclusively in managers that it has seeded. ...
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By SHANNON D. HARRINGTON, PIERRE PAULDEN

CIT Group Inc., trying to quell concerns about a cash shortage at the biggest independent US commercial lender, may raise as much as $7 billion from asset sales and said it has enough money to last through 2008. CIT, which quit subprime mortgage...full story

 

Goldman Sachs Group And Lehman Brothers Ratings Affirmed; Industry Outlook Revised To Neg
We revised our outlooks on The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (AA-/Negative/A-1+) and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (A+/Negative/A-1) to negative. The favorable effect of the Federal Reserve's unprecedented support for the U.S. broker-dealers mitigates liquidity concerns by instilling confidence in the capital markets. Nevertheless, we believe that negative rating outlooks are broadly appropriate for the independent securities firms, reflecting the potential for a more substantial decline in profitability from capital market activities.
To learn more, click or copy and paste the URL below:
(subscription required)
http://standardandpoors.rsys1.net/servlet/cc5?kHiQABATQUVsLgHxhilpuHQJhuV2VR

 

Ratings Lowered On 39 U.S. Subprime RMBS Classes Issued In 2006; 37 Subprime Ratings Affirmed
We lowered our ratings on 39 classes from 17 residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) transactions backed by U.S. subprime mortgage loan collateral issued in 2006. At the same time, we removed 36 of the lowered ratings from CreditWatch with negative implications. In addition, we affirmed our ratings on 37 classes from 17 RMBS transactions backed by U.S. subprime loans and removed them from CreditWatch negative.
To learn more, click or copy and paste the URL below:
http://standardandpoors.rsys1.net/servlet/cc5?kHiQABATQUVsLgHxhilpuHQJhuV2VC

 

Geopolitical Diary: The Start of Cold War II?
March 21, 2008 0202 GMT
A sequence of events in Eurasia highlights escalating U.S.-Russian tensions. We are witnessing the stirrings of a new Cold War.
http://www.stratfor.com/geopolitical_diary/geopolitical_diary_act_one_cold_war_ii

 

Stratfor's War: Five Years Later
March 18, 2008 1855 GMT
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/stratfors_war_five_years_later

 

Keeping Tabs
Wall Street and Technology Fri, 21 Mar 2008 9:28 PM PDT
Citi hired Brian Leach as chief risk officer (CRO). He also will serve as acting CRO for the firm's institutional clients group. Prior to joining Citi, Leach was the CRO and co-COO of hedge fund Old Lane, which he cofounded.

 

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Yield Curve Corner

 

Sizing up Bernanke and the Fed
Boston Globe - United States
Q. Compare the styles of Greenspan and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke. A. One of the important differences is Bernanke, until recently, tried to allow a ...
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Los Angeles Times - Friday March 21, 09:37 GMT

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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:

 

Quake hits northwestern Iran
AFP via Yahoo! News Sun, 23 Mar 2008 7:30 AM PDT
An earthquake rocked northwestern Iran on Sunday, state television reported, adding there was no early information on casualties or damage.

 

Next big quake could be worse than 1906
San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA
The next major earthquake on the Hayward Fault - inevitable anytime now, experts say - will be the Bay Area's own Hurricane Katrina, affecting more than 5 ...
See all stories on this topic

 

Named: 25 environmental threats of
the future
NewScientist.com news service Mar. 20, 2008
*************************
The top environmental concerns of
the future include toxic
nanomaterials, manmade viruses, and
biomimetic robots, according to
researchers at a workshop run by
University of Cambridge zoologist
William Sutherland. Other risks
include the acidification of the
ocean, increased demand for the
biomass needed to make biofuel,
experiments involving...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=8230&m=29780_________________________________________________________________________

Iranian Situation and Other Man Made Disasters

 

Iran rejects Sarkozy's claim on missile threats
Reuters via Yahoo! India News Sun, 23 Mar 2008 3:33 AM PDT
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran on Sunday rejected French President Nicolas Sarkozy's comments on the necessity to build a strong deterrent against new security threats posed by nuclear-armed Islamic states, a news agency reported.

 

 

US sanctions British, Armenian firms for Iran exports
AFP via Yahoo! News Fri, 21 Mar 2008 9:02 AM PDT
The United States slapped sanctions on British and Armenian firms Friday for unauthorized re-exports of aircraft to Iran, officials said.

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Opalesque’s Corner

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Misc. Items of Interest

 

Fears Mount for Pope's Safety After Threats by Bin Laden
BY CHRISTOPHER FAHERTY - Staff Reporter of the Sun
Osama bin Laden's first public message this year, in which he accused Pope Benedict XVI of complicity in a "new Crusade" against Islam, is raising fears here over security measures for the papal visit next month and the possibility of a terrorist...

 

Why We Borrow Until It Hurts
Leveraging Lets Us Gain in the Short Term -- and That's When We Stop Thinking
(By Michael S. Rosenwald, The Washington Post)

 

Fund out to strike chord on vintage guitars
Financial Times Fri, 21 Mar 2008 1:24 PM PDT
Baffled by the complexity of modern financial instruments? Don’t fret: real instruments are going financial, as a hedge fund sets out to raise €70m (£54.5m) to invest in vintage guitars.

 

HOW YOUNG CONSUMERS COULD SHAPE VIETNAM'S BANKS
The generation gap in attitudes toward banking is wider in Vietnam than
in any other Asian country in a McKinsey study--good news for any bank
that can tap into this youthful enthusiasm.
http://e.mckinseyquarterly.com/W0RT01CD1C50832CE4E19357B46AD0

 

CDP Forms Partnership With Merrill
Source: Global Money Management
The Carbon Disclosure Project, a collaboration of 385 institutional investors with assets under management of $57 trillion, has formed a three-year partnership with Merrill Lynch & Co.

 

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Funnies, Facts, Quotes, etc….

 

anathema uh-NATH-uh-muh, noun:

1. A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, and accompanied by excommunication. Hence: Denunciation of anything as accursed.
2. An imprecation; a curse; a malediction.
3. Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority.
4. Any person or thing that is intensely disliked.

 

remunerate ih-MYOO-nuh-rate, transitive verb:

1. To pay an equivalent to for any service, loss, or expense; to recompense.
2. To compensate for; to make payment for.

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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)

HFRX Indices https://www.hedgefundresearch.com/hfrx_reg/index.php?fuse=login&1170880431

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Regulatory Info

 

 

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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.