Main News

 

Asian Stocks Decline After Profits at AIG, Chuo Mitsui Slump

Bloomberg - 1 hour ago

By Patrick Rial Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks fell for the third time this week, led by financial companies after writedowns wiped out American International Group Inc.'s profit for a third quarter.

 

Fed-Hike Risks Fade Amid Recession Signs Oil and inflation fears slide as the economy slows, leaving the Fed on hold.http://online.barrons.com/article/SB121790685707612727.html?mod=djemBF

 

Blackstone Thinks Subprime Is Near a Bottom
New York Times Blogs - New York,NY,USA
Few in the markets or the economy today have not felt a sting from the subprime mortgage meltdown, from homeowners to giant investment banks. ...

 

Pimco's Gross: recession will prevent Fed rate hike
Reuters - USA
"These concerns (among analysts) about the Fed raising interest rates are almost comical," said Bill Gross, chief investment officer of Pimco or Pacific ...
See all stories on this topic

 

Judge does not accept ex-hedge fund manager's plea
USA Today Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:55 PM PDT
Former hedge fund manager Samuel Israel, who faked his own death to avoid going to prison, agreed Wednesday to plead guilty to jumping bail, but a judge would not accept his admission.

 

What Impact Will New Government And Market Measures Have On U.S. RMBS?<http://now.eloqua.com/e/er.aspx?s=795&lid=6172&elq=8911D9FF4B1B4886B7DC4678C798EBD2>

 

Passive LDI gives fake security - Pimco
http://www.ipe.com/news/Passive_LDI_gives_fake_security_Pimco_28763.php

 

 

Tuckerbrook and Hardt plan listed hedge fund incubator
Financial News - London,England,UK
Two New York hedge fund managers are planning to carry out an initial public offering of a fund that will incubate hedge funds and finance their management ...

 

Even Hedge Funds Are Hurting
BusinessWeek - USA
by Ben Levisohn The idea for "Even Hedge Funds Are Hurting" came from Stamatios Kanellakis. A marketing, customer loyalty, and innovation analyst living in ...

 

Hedge Funds Hire while Financial Sector Fires
By: Jacob Bunge, Financial Correspondent
Posted: 08/06/2008 3:24:13 PM ET
http://www.hedgeworld.com/news/read_news.cgi?section=what&story=what16051.html

 

Analysis: Speculators held nearly half of oil futures
U.S. regulators took a revised look at oil-futures contracts and discovered that speculators controlled nearly half of the action on the Nymex market last month. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission reclassified as speculative some trading positions that were reported as commercial-hedging positions. A CFTC spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the move. FinancialWeek/Reuters (05 Aug.)

 

Can the Hedges Save the Economy? (No, seriously….)
Business Week online - Wednesday August 06, 08:16 BST

 

Venezuela: Cracks Showing in Chavez's Control
August 6, 2008 1253 GMT
Venezuela’s Supreme Court has voted to ban nearly 300 candidates from running in November’s regional and local elections, citing corruption allegations. The decision is only the latest indication that President Hugo Chavez is worried about threats to his control of the country.
http://www.stratfor.com/podcast/venezuela_cracks_showing_chavezs_control

 

Solzhenitsyn and the Struggle for Russia's Soul
August 5, 2008 1648 GMT
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the man who in many ways laid the intellectual foundations for the fall of Soviet communism, died this week.
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/solzhenitsyn_and_struggle_russias_soul

 

U.S.: Naval Dominance and the Importance of Oceans
August 5, 2008 2210 GMT
Control of the world's oceans is a cornerstone of U.S. geopolitical security, and keeps any potential adversary half a world away. (With Stratfor map)
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/u_s_naval_dominance_and_importance_oceans

 

GLG Partners, the London-based hedge fund manager, has reported a 54.8% drop in net revenues for the second quarter of ...
eFinancial News Wed, 06 Aug 2008 6:17 AM PDT
GLG Partners, the London-based hedge fund manager, has reported a 54.8% drop in net revenues for the second quarter of this year, according to its second quarter results, its last with prominent fund manager Greg Coffey on board.

 

Hedge Funds, GSO Are Silver Linings for Blackstone in Q2
By: Emma Trincal, Senior Financial Correspondent
Posted: 08/06/2008 5:59:33 PM ET
http://www.hedgeworld.com/news/read_news.cgi?section=dail&story=dail15182.html

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Yield Curve Corner

 

Bernanke wins a bit of time
Asia Times Online - Kowloon,Hong Kong
By Julian Delasantellis In the now almost two-and-a-half year tenure of US Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke there have been few events to which ...

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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/DSTmiddleeast219_MO.jpg

 

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Iranian Situation and Other Man Made Disasters

 

 

 

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Opalesque’s Corner

 

- Opalesque Exclusive:  New York experts discuss tax and legal issues at Opalesque Hedge Fund Workshops: Trader versus Investor Status, Structuring the fund and the managing entity, Structuring the fund and the managing entity
- Fund Launches: GAM launches environmental fund of hedge funds, Schroders launches Agricultural Land Fund after first agriculture fund closes at $6bln, Ashton in talks with dealer groups and platforms to launch two flagship funds into retail market
- Opalesque Exclusive: Canada`s new funds part 8 - Creststreet`s energy fund returns almost 15% in June (52.05% YTD) by being long on exploration and oil-sand, short on large caps and crude
- Performance: John W Henry and Co to report losses in July from commodities, Global Islamic FoFs ranked number one by Zawya, +5.72% YTD, Even hedge funds are hurting (and even the S&P 500 index is outperforming most hedge funds)
- Footsie bounces back as Man Group falls on fund woes, Och-Ziff is `treading water`, analyst expects performance fees drop by 30%
- Indices: CASAM - CTAs up, hedge funds down
- IPOs: New hedge fund seed co Tuckerbrook A.I. plans IPO, seeking to raise $300m, IPO Survey is far more optimistic than 2007, regulatory environment for US IPOs important factors
- Greenwich report: US asset managers increasingly go global in their allocations
- Mario Gabelli`s GAMCO forms new SPAC focus includes entertainment, media and telecom
- M&A: Jefferies Putnam Lovell report: Financial institutions will shed asset management operations, Fund administrators Fulcrum Group and Butterfield Fund Services to merge into $100bln entity
- Hedge funds switch to synthetic prime brokerage for Alpha
- Legal: Samuel Israel to appear in court for fail to surrender charge, Smith Gambrell entangled in IMA hedge fund scandal for alleged legal missteps
- Fannie and Freddie Update: At Freddie Mac, Chief discarded warning signs, Morgan Stanley to advise Treasury on Fannie and Freddie
- Credit Crunch Update: Goldman profit estimate cut by Merrill analyst Moszkowski on potential hurt in commodities and hedge fund businesses, Lehman may sell entire investment management unit including private equity and hedge fund stakes, Wachovia shares up; analysts confident in new CEO, Ambac settles a CDO exposure with Citi for $850m, New row over £3bln Northern Rock debt swap, Banks attempt to turn lead into gold: RMBS reworked into new structures
- Regulatory: Update: Citi faces potential fine on ARS activity
- Now Wall Street wants to run pension funds, too
- People:  Former Gartmore Chief Glyn Jones to chair Hermes, BlackRock structured group`s head D`Vari to start advisory firm NewOak Capital, focus on mortgage bonds and others, CQS appoints Martin Harris as Head of Distribution and Service, Former Bear CEO Schwartz expected to depart with Metrick, mulling offers, D. E. Shaw hires new CFO, Citadel hires nine for principal investment in Asia, Europe, Citigroup adds Asia staff to win hedge work, HSBC has hired Raj Sinha to be Head of Equity Research, Saudi Arabia
- U.S. rates: Inflation fears persist as Fed holds rates, Pimco`s Gross: Fed can`t raise rates due to economy, Bond kings on Fed rate decision (video)
- Asia: HFR`s Heinz sees Asian hedge funds moving out of commodity markets: (Video), Blackstone Group opening Beijing rep office, Record profit for StanChart amid Asia caution
- Commodities: Commodities` drop hurts stocks that came late to the party, Oil slides below $120 as selling pressure mounts, Oil fever breaking? (video), Energy stocks and oil-exporting E.M.s are casualties of fall in oil prices, Deutsche calls the top of the commodity cycle
- Environmental Investing: Europe leads on carbon emissions, but success depends on China, India and the US catching up, China ups targeted nuclear power share from 4% to 5% for 2020, China sets up first environmental exchange
- Exchanges: HK suspended morning trading on cyclone warning, China likely to launch steel product futures trading after Olympics, Tokyo Stock Exchange apologizes for system malfunction and docks executive pay for remuneration, Bubble has burst on exchanges, 50% fall since December peak, D Borse running trials for `dark pool`
- Tech Update: Barclay contact database debuts on PerTrac CMS, data on over 20,000 hedge funds, Interactive Data adds 3pm ET interest rate swap valuation service, Harbour Capital becomes first in Europe to offer Sophis Technology, Gravitas adapts its risk assessment services to President`s Working Group parameters
- News Briefs: TriAlpha makes Global Property Strategy Fund available on Transact, Auto industry default risk soars to 95% on GM, Ford, Airlines wait to see how far fuel drops against peak hedges, CDS loss mars Swiss Re performance, Inter-dealers benefits from volatile markets, BNP Paribas becomes France`s healthiest bank, How to set up a hedge fund
- And Finally.: Some people steal money. Some people steal booze. This man stole the shirt from a McDonald`s employee working the drive-through
- Logon: http://www.opalesque.com/index.php?act=archive

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Misc. Items of Interest

 

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Funnies, Facts, Quotes, etc….

 

spoony SPOO-nee, adjective:

1. Foolish; silly; excessively sentimental.
2. Foolishly or sentimentally in love.

 

Tuesday , 05 Aug 2008
Did she also steal the thunder from the stock price performance of 252 listed gold, platinum and silver stocks?

 

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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.