Search This Blog

21 Sept 2009

CME Partners With Hedge Funds in Restructuring Clearing Services

CME Group is restructuring its credit default swap (CDS) with hedge fund Citadel Investment Group as a strategic program targeted at providing clearing-only services for the nearly $27 trillion CDS market.

Key features developed as part of the joint effort with Citadel, which was known as CMDX, will be carried forward in the clearing-only service, including state-of-the-art trade booking and legacy trade migration facilities.

"We remain committed to bringing stability and transparency to the CDS market, while further enhancing confidence in the financial marketplace," said Terry Duffy, Executive Chairman, CME Group. "Over the past several months, we have been working closely with all market participants. Both buy-side and sell-side participants have expressed an interest in continuing to execute their CDS transactions the same as they do today, but with the added benefit of central counterparty clearing."

Citadel remains a founding member of the newly restructured CDS initiative. The other buy-side founding members are: AllianceBernstein, BlackRock, BlueMountain Capital Management, the D. E. Shaw group and PIMCO. A number of leading sell-side participants are in the process of becoming founding members. CME Group plans to announce the launch of the clearing initiative's pilot program in the weeks ahead. CME's clearing solution builds on the existing over-the-counter (OTC) market.

10-Year Mark for Mooring's Flagship Hedge Fund

The second quarter of 2009 marked the 10th year of operation for Washington, DC-based hedge fund, Mooring Capital Fund, which delivered a quarterly compounded return of 12.40% per year.

“Our flagship Mooring Capital Fund has provided a consistent record of performance to investors since inception 10 years ago." John Jacquemin, founder and President of Mooring Financial Corporation, commented,"We are very pleased with the fund’s sound long-term performance, demonstrated by a total return of 242.51 percent over the last decade.”

For the same period, the S&P 500 posted an annual compounded return of -1.70% and the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index reported a quarterly compounded annual return of 6.89 %.

Mooring Capital Fund acquires and manages distressed, sub-performing and performing commercial loans. The portfolio is diversified by both asset type and geography. Mooring Capital Fund also takes long and short equity positions in the financial and real estate markets for up to 20% of its assets. As of June 30, 2009 Mooring Capital Fund had over $62 million in total gross assets.