SIV To Pay Creditors In Full

Justice Etherton has ruled that structured investment vehicle (SIV), Whistlejacket, must pay off creditors that were due to be paid on the day it declared insolvency.

A statement on the ruling was issued, detailing how different holders of debt issued by Whistlejacket would be paid. The court ruled that holders of Whistlejacket U.S. medium-term notes, due to be redeemed on February 15 on the same date as the insolvency notice, should be paid the amount due in full.

The obligation to repay them "occurred prior to the occurrence of the Insolvency Redemption Event and therefore did not fall to be redeemed on the Insolvency Redemption Date," the statement said.

The decision may have some impact on how creditors of other troubled vehicles, such as Cheyne Finance, set up by hedge fund Cheyne Capital Management, and Rhinebridge Plc, set up by German bank IKB will be paid.

Deloitte & Touche was appointed as receiver of Whistlejacket on February 12 after a drop in the value of the SIVs assets led its sponsor, Standard Chartered, to shelve a plan to rescue it by providing liquidity. The SIV was declared insolvent on February 15.

Hedge Funds Rebound In Febuary

The Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index (GGHFI), which currently includes 1091 hedge funds, returned 2.21% in February, rebounding from January’s poor returns.

The S&P 500 and MSCI World Equity posted negative returns, while the FTSE 100 gained. All hedge fund strategy groups ended the month with gains.

"February’s rebound in the midst of market uncertainty continues to highlight the diversification benefits of hedge funds," notes Margaret Gilbert, Greenwich Managing Director.

Directional Trading Group’s return was the strongest, driven largely by futures managers who capitalized on volatile commodities markets. Long-Short Equity Group strategies also benefited from choppy equity markets and for the second month in a row, dedicated short sellers were the top performers in this group.

Greenwich Alternative Investments currently manages one of the world’s largest hedge fund databases.

Hedge Fund Manager Under Record Attack For Discrimination

Gill Switalski, a city lawyer and head of legal affairs at F&C Asset Management is talking to lawyers about a record compensation payout of £13.4 million ($27 million).

The mother of 2 special needs children had to leave her career after being subjected to 18 months of sexual discrimination and harassment, according to an employment tribunal.

Switalski was previously named as one of the legal world’s "Hot 100" and must be paid compensation over her claims that she was undermined, undervalued, bullied and marginalised by the company, the tribunal said. Switalski sold her family’s £3.4million ($6.8 million) home to help pay for her legal battle against the hedge fund manager.

Switalski complained she was overlooked for management positions and sidelined in favour of her deputy on a project to buy a hedge fund. At the same time a male employee at the firm who also had children with special needs was allowed to take time off and work from home, her lawyers said.

After Switalski’s mother died suddenly she was sent an email demanding her mother’s death certificate for the firm’s travel insurance claim, the tribunal in central London was told.

A severe illness and 3 surgeries later, Switalski went on sick leave and never returned to the company, lodging formal complaints about bullying, harassment, intimidation, sex discrimination and victimisation.

Her lawyers have put the cost of her psychiatric damage and loss of earnings, pension and career prospects at £13.4 million ($27 million), which would be the biggest sex discrimination payout in Britain.

F&C, which currently manages £102 billion ($205.8 billion), has lodged an appeal denying Switalski’s claims.

Investcorp Wins Awards For Best Hedge Fund Manager

Investcorp was declared the Best Institutional Hedge Fund Manager at the second Hedge Funds World Awards, also winning the Special Merit Award.

The awards, sponsored by Man Investments, are designed to recognise and celebrate companies and individuals who have demonstrated an unparalleled ability to succeed, continually set standards of excellence, and who will be the future stars of the industry.

CEO of Man Investments Middle East Ltd Antoine Massad said, “All the winners and nominees deserve hearty congratulations, for their achievements over the past year.”

The other winners being; Best Fund of Fund Provider - Harris Alternatives; Most Innovative Project - Frontier Capital Management; Best Newcomer - EFG Hermes; Best Hedge Fund Administrator - Apex Fund Services; Best New Fund – Rasmala and Best Retail Product Provider - Dawnay Day Milroy.

The awards event also raised funds for PlaNet Finance, an international non-profit organisation dedicated to alleviating world poverty through the promotion of microfinance initiatives around the world.

In 2005, PlaNet Finance launched an initiative to promote micro-lending in the Middle East and North Africa and today it has offices in UAE, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine.

The winners were announced at a gala dinner for 400 guests at the Madinat Jumeirah hotel in Dubai which took place in concert with the Hedge Funds World Middle East Conference 2008, the largest event of its kind in the region.

Client of Hedge Fund Company To Lead Sales Efforts

A client of Cutler Capital Management liked the investment style of the hedge fund company so much, he came out of retirement to join the investment advisory firm as Director of Business Development.

Allan M. Kline recently retired from his position as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Skyworks Solutions, but the opportunity to work with Cutler Capital motivated him to return to work.

Cutler Capital's hedge funds follow a growth and income strategy, investing in convertible securities, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and dividend-paying stocks. Kline has first-hand knowledge of convertible securities, having used them to raise capital successfully while at Skyworks.

"The key to success is to believe in what you're selling," Kline said. "As a long-time client, I believe in Cutler Capital and its investment style, so I welcomed the opportunity to join the company."

"It is a great validation of our investment style to have a financial professional of Allan's caliber join Cutler Capital Management," said President David Grenier. "His addition is both a first-hand endorsement of what we're doing and a tremendous opportunity that we believe will lead to significant growth for us."

Cutler, which has total assets exceeding $245 million, currently manages two hedge funds, the Cutler Investment Fund, LP and the Cutler Income and Growth Fund I, LP, as well as individual portfolios.

Lipper's First Hedge Fund Awards

Lipper's first Hedge Fund Award winners were announced yesterday, over 3,600 funds were eligible for the eighteen awards across the European and Offshore fund domiciles.

A total of fifteen portfolio managers were rewarded, with Thalia SA, Gems Management and UG Investment Advisers each winning in two categories. The calculation period for the awards extended over twelve consecutive months ending 31 December 2007.

"Lipper Hedge Fund Awards, based on our quantitative fund rating methodology, recognise the combined return and risk achievements of hedge fund managers," Dr Gabriel Burstein, Lipper's Global Head of Research, said, "Congratulations to Lipper's award winners in what was a very difficult year across all markets. Despite this fact, hedge fund assets under management continued to grow significantly last year".

A second Lipper Hedge Fund Award event will recognise the leading hedge funds domiciled in North America and take place in New York on 9th April. In line with Lipper's existing mutual fund award methodology, the winning hedge funds were those with the highest Effective Return value within each eligible Lipper Global Classification for hedge fund strategies.

Lipper is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reuters. Covering over 172,000 share classes and over 95,000 funds in 53 registered for sale (RFS) universes. For a list of the winners, see; www.lipperweb.com

Millennium Buys Ex-JPMorgan Hedge Fund

Hedge fund manager Millennium Capital Management announced the acquisition of Castlegrove Capital, a London based multi-strategy hedge fund active in global equity markets.

Castlegrove was set up by three ex-managing directors of JPMorgan's Global Equity derivatives group. The terms were not disclosed, but some of Castlegrove’s portfolio managers and support personnel will join Catapult Capital Partners, the London-based affiliate of parent Millennium Group, according to a news release.

"With this acquisition, we obtain a broader base in Europe and continue to participate actively in the consolidation of the hedge fund industry." Israel Englander, Chairman of Millennium, said. "We believe that we offer an attractive platform to talented portfolio managers who want to be freed of the administrative, legal, compliance and fund-raising burdens that attend the business of managing a hedge fund."

With $13 billion in assets under management, Millennium Capital Management is based in New York with affiliated offices in London, Beijing, Paris, Luxembourg, Singapore, Dallas, Texas and Greenwich, Connecticut.

Introduction to Carbon Markets and Emissions Trading

NYMEX Global Change Associates and the Environmental Markets Association is sponsoring a 5.5 hour class on carbon and emissions trading on April 1, in New York City at the New York Mercantile Exchange, 12:30 pm to 6:00 pm.

The half day seminar on US carbon markets will be taught by Peter Fusaro, Thaddeus Huetteman and Gary Payne. This training will be followed by an emissions trading electronic simulation and then mock trading on the NYMEX trading floor. The afternoon ends with a cocktail party.

According to the Environmental Markets Association, it is highly likely that within two years the US Federal Government will mandate economy wide greenhouse gas emissions reductions that will focus on reducing the US carbon footprint of over 6 billion tons. This new financial market will accelerate the rapid deployment of cleantech investment and requires understanding of how the cap and trade program will impact Fortune 1000 companies as well as create new investment opportunities.

The seminar is intended for busy people who in one afternoon can learn what carbon trading and finance, the state of the markets, and what are the investment opportunities.

This 4 hour class incorporates the following elements:

What are Environmental Financial Markets?
What are "Cap and Trade" programs and how did they emerge in the U.S.
What is Carbon Trading and Finance?
What risks and opportunities arise for companies under trading programs?
What lessons can be drawn from existing U.S. trading programs for carbon?
What will the California market look like?
What will impact the Northeast's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiatives?
What is Congress now considering on climate change?
What is the EU Emissions Trading Scheme?
What alternative instruments are available in pre-compliance to lay-off risk?

Examples:

International offsets; What is the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol

Voluntary programs;

What is the role of the Chicago Climate Exhange
Derivatives (Either exchange traded or over the counter)

What technology solutions are available? Other physical compliance options?

How does the cost of compliance influence carbon prices?

Practical aspects of Emissions trading Emissions Trading Simulation (EMA Trading Group Exercise)

Hedging positions using Exchange Traded Options (NYMEX Floor Exercise)

The Environmental Markets Association (EMA) is the premiere trade association for environmental industry professionals who are active or interested in the market-based solutions to combat pollution and create a sustainable environment.

Christian Hedge Fund Founder Arrested For Fraud

Hedge fund founder, Steve K. Wilson, was arrested last week on charges related to fraudulent hedge funds operating under the names; Christians in Crisis Investment Fund, Shake the Nations and Opus Capital Holdings. He is being held without bail.

According to FBI allegations, Wilson solicited individuals to invest in what he described as a high risk hedge fund which, based on the investment agreement, promised investors a 2% monthly return (24% annual return) on their investment. The agreement also gave the investors the ability to withdraw earnings, or after one year, the investor could ask for the return of their principal.

Investigators determined that Wilson maintained two financial accounts associated with Christians in Crisis (CIC). Investor contributions were deposited into a Washington Mutual (WaMu) account in the name of CIC Investment Fund. A portion of the money was then transferred into an Ameritrade brokerage account in the name of CIC International. An analysis of these two accounts demonstrates that the CIC Investment Fund operated as a Ponzi scheme.

During the period of March 2006 through July 2007, approximately $9 million was deposited into the WaMu account. Wilson withdrew at least $1.1 million for personal expenses such as a 2007 Porsche Cayman and a 2006 Sea Ray yacht.

He disbursed approximately $2.06 million to investors as capital appreciation or earnings. These payments were not the result of earnings and appear to be lulling the investors into a false sense of security. The money came from new investors.

Authorities say Wilson, a.k.a. Stefan Andre Wilson, changed his name to hide a fraud conviction and bankruptcy filing, and convinced some of his investors to refinance their homes in order to invest in his fund.

Hedge Fund Aramid Launches Into TV and Digital Entertainment

Hedge fund Aramid Entertainment is looking to raise a further $200 million to fund their diversification into television and other digital financing projects.

Simon Fawcett, chief executive of Aramid Capital Partners, said, "We have proved our ability to generate uncorrelated returns through the application of an asset-backed lending strategy to entertainment and digital content finance,... we are confident that the Aramid Entertainment Fund will continue to offer investors the opportunity to access genuine alpha returns outside the traditional markets in a low beta sector."

Aramid, a hedge fund specializing in the provision of mainly motion picture entertainment finance, has already invested $210 million and earned in excess of 20% in 2007. It provided financing to 20 independent film projects, invested in two studio finance deals in the United States, as well as in a live national U.S. theater portfolio.

The fund has sought steady risk-adjusted and non-correlating returns through providing financing solutions for producers, including tax credits and bridge and mezzanine financing to underwrite short- and medium-term liquidity on a low to medium risk level to producers and distributors of film, television and other entertainment.

Some of the projects Aramid is involved in are: "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" based on the memoir of a struggling British writer trying to fit in at Vanity Fair magazine in New York. The film, which stars Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst and Jeff Bridges, is due for release in October. Other films to which Aramid has given financial backing include "Good," "The Secret of Moonacre," "Choke" and "Black Water Transit."

The Aramid Entertainment Fund is an open-ended investment company incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Aramid Capital charges a 2% annual management fee to institutional investors and a 3% fee to high-net-worth investors. The performance fee for institutions is 20% and either 25% or 30% for private investors. The fund administrator is Maples Finance and the minimum investment is $50,000.

Hedge Fund Road Show Launch

Oxford Funding Corporation announced that the company launched the road show this week for its hedge fund, the Oxford Opportunistic Mortgage Fund.

The hedge fund’s strategy is to hold, modify if necessary, and liquidate the mortgage assets at significant gains. The hedge fund and its investors will participate in the yields generated during the holding period, and from gains on the sale/liquidation of the mortgage assets.

Robert Dunn and Ron Redd, President and CEO of Oxford Funding, will begin the road show this week in New York. “We are making money for our current investors,” noted CEO, Ron Redd. “We expect investors to continue to seek the type of returns we have proven to our current investors,” he added. “Our strategy protects investors from the down market. We are the right answer at the right time,” he concluded.

The hedge fund has already received its first group of investors and has purchased its first mortgage loan portfolio at a steep discount to current appraised value.

“Our fund is the way for investors to protect themselves from the news we hear every day in this industry. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae reported a total of $6.2 billion in losses for the fourth quarter of 2007 and predict multibillion-dollar losses for 2008. Even companies like American International Group and Ambac Financial Group who insure mortgage debt are getting hit hard,” concluded Mr. Redd.

Oxford Funding Corporation is a publicly traded asset resolution company specializing in the purchase and management of bulk mortgage loan portfolios. Senior management at Oxford has facilitated rehabilitated loan sales in excess of One Billion Dollars, traded billions of dollars of financial assets as principal and agent, and has established relationships with hundreds of financial institutions and loan investors nationwide.

Offering sets new standard in hedge fund management

Hedge fund affiliate, Citadel Solutions, today announced a partnership with Bloomberg to provide hedge fund administrative services through the Bloomberg terminals used by traders.

With more than $30 billion in assets under administration, Citadel said the package will diversify their revenue. Citadel described the product as a "hedge fund in a box."

John Buckley, President of Citadel Solutions, said, "We've greatly simplified the set-up of managing a hedge fund, allowing our clients to focus on what they do best, trading, and not focus on administration."

Launched in 2007, Citadel Solutions is an affiliate of Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel Investment Group, they provide technology-driven fund administration and
reporting services to hedge funds.

Financialization of America

DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- It seems hard to believe, but the finance, insurance and real estate sector (FIRE, for short) now constitutes about 20 percent of our nation's gross domestic product, while manufacturing contributes less than 13 percent. By comparison, in 1950, manufacturing was 29.3 percent of GDP and financial services contributed 10.9 percent.

In other words, more money is made today by shifting money around than in making things. And the FIRE sector no longer represents a group of institutions designed to raise capital for investment in productive activities; it is wealth generated from activities that contribute little to the actual economy.

Conservative writer Kevin Phillips calls it "financialization," or the process by which the FIRE sector assumes the dominant economic, cultural and political role in a national economy.

For example, energy prices. Last summer, commodities traders bid up the price of oil to $78 per barrel last summer on fears of more unrest in the Middle East after the Israel/Hezbollah dustup and another season of severe hurricanes. Neither thing happened, and oil prices slid down to about $50 per barrel by the end of 2006. Fear-based speculation drove up oil prices, and reality drove them back down.

If you invested in oil futures and got out at the top of the market, you made money. But what did it contribute to the larger economy? The rest of us paid more than we needed to for most of 2006 for heating oil, propane and gasoline, based on a possibility that some disruption of petroleum supplies might happen. That's what you get when the financial sector is totally divorced from reality.

Now, oil prices have crept back up to that level this summer, without an suitable alibi such as a hurricane or a war to justify $78 a barrel oil. Who is profiting and does this profit provide an good for the economy at large?

An equally good question is the long-term viability of an economy based on shuffling around financial assets.

It's hard to say whether the sharp swings in the stock market over the past week has been just a minor correction in stock values or the start of what could be a bigger problem.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average went all the way up to 14,000 on July 19 based on the hope that the collapse of the subprime lending market would not have an effect on the larger economy and that higher energy prices would not have an effect on consumer spending.

The reality, however, is that as much as $2.5 trillion could be at risk in bad mortgages and the frenzy of mergers and leveraged buyouts of companies fueled by borrowed money.

According recent figures from Moody's, the bond rating firm, nearly 20 percent of all mortgage debt is at risk, or about $2.5 trillion of subprime mortgages. About $1.4 trillion is at high risk of default, as many as 2.5 million mortgages will default in the next two years and about 20 percent of subprime loans written in the last half of 2006 will default. Investor losses could run into hundreds of billions of dollars.

On July 26, a record 10.59 billion shares changed hands on the three major U.S, markets. Several big deals - from Chrysler to Tyco Electronics - have been postponed in the last couple of weeks because of rapidly tightening credit. There's an estimated backlog of more than $300 billion in unsold bonds and bank loans. That's almost as big as the backlog of unsold homes in the United States right now, as housing inventories in some part of the country are at levels not seen in decades.

The implosion of the subprime mortgage market, where people with little or no savings took huge mortgages with little or no money down, has been well documented. While it was inevitable that money lent to people without the means to pay it back would lead to a massive number of defaults and foreclosures, the investors who fueled this market never seemed to think that all those risky loans might go bad at all once.

It's truly amazing to see how deeply Wall Street has been involved in what's known as collateralized debt obligations (CDO), or the bundling of mortgages, home equity loans, car loans and credit card debt by hedge funds.

A major Wall Street investment house, Bear Stearns, saw about $10 billion of value disappear from two of its CDO hedge funds last month, and the market barely blinked an eye. But once other investment houses came to the realization that they are holding hundreds of billions of dollars of bad loans that they are now unable to sell to other investors, they started to realize that you can only ignore reality for so long before it comes back to bite you - hard.

Mortgage lenders stopped caring if borrowers were qualified. Bankers stopped caring if borrowers couldn't repay loans. And all these bad loans got repackaged and resold to other investors - all gussied up so that you'd never know that you were buying into funds based on assets that didn't exist.

This has been the state of our financial markets over the past few years. Greed has seemingly blinded people to fundamental economic principles, and the transfer of more of this nation's wealth into the hands of fewer and fewer people is celebrated as capitalism's highest achievement.

The total net worth of American households climbed to $54.1 trillion last year, or more than $3 trillion higher than it was in 2005, and tax revenues managed to increase despite lower rates on wealthy Americans. Meanwhile, over the past five years, inflation-adjusted weekly wages for workers have been up about 0.5 percent per year.

Unfortunately, the people who have profited from wrecking the American economy will walk away with bulging pockets and seemingly clear consciences. The rest of us will be stuck with cleaning up when every comes tumbling down.

Randolph T. Holhut has been a journalist in New England for more than 25 years. He edited "The George Seldes Reader" (Barricade Books). He can be reached at randyholhut@yahoo.com.

On Native Ground
THE FINANCIALIZATION OF AMERICA
by Randolph T. Holhut
American Reporter Correspondent
Dummerston, Vt.

Individual Outperforms Hedge Funds at Competition

Haochen Hu, a seasoned investor from Hong Kong, won this year's World TopInvestor competition with gains of almost 785% over 12 months.

He outperformed the world's leading hedge funds with gains of almost 785% over the competition period. The competition is a live, real money, capital markets trading competition lasting for a full year. The prize for the top investor is the management of a fund with an investment value of $250,000 sponsored by Saxo Bank, a global leader in online trading and investment services.

The winner of the 2007-08 competition was Haochen Hu, who led a strong field including Guo Hanqui with a net gain of 630%, Julian Szkirpan from the United States with 555% as well as Hungarian investors György Doleschall with a 315% gain and Tamás Czajner with 135%.

"Losing money is bad, but it is much worse when you don't know why you lost. I have traded online for eight years and you must study and be familiar with the product you want to invest in. My strategy was simple. I focused on currency trading and used the higher leverage when I felt the chance was there," commented Hu.

Next year's World TopInvestor Competition is open to all entrants willing to open an account with any Broker sponsor. Among this year's sponsors of the World TopInvestor competition were several leading online investment banks and brokers from all over the world including: Saxo Bank, Commodity Broking Services, BenchMark Finance, Cambiste, Finexo, Buda-Cash Brókerház, TMS Brokers, Banco Best, Poteza BPD, Dif Broker and RCG FX Trader.

AdultVest Launches Alternative Investment Series Of Meetings

Alternative investment firm AdultVest has scheduled an ongoing series of monthly meetings to bring investors together with adult businesses that represent alternative investment opportunities.

On the last Wednesday of each month, AdultVest executives will listen to presentations from adult business owners, and the following day the most well-prepared companies with the best opportunities will be presented in person to investors at the investor meeting.

According to AdultVest CEO Francis Koenig, he and his team will meet tommorow, at the first of these monthly meetings, with about 20 adult companies to assess the viability of the investment opportunities presented to them. The following day, 10-15 vetted investors will attend.

"The meetings are geared to bring investors and companies together," he said. "During the meetings, deals will be passed around the table and we will all discuss the various levels of interest in the deals presented. In certain circumstances, if we feel they are ready, we will invite company CEOs to make their own presentations."

"We're specifically looking for Internet companies and gentlemen's clubs with minimum annual revenue exceeding $1 million. There really are no limitations as to deal size on the higher end of the spectrum."

AdultVest investor meeting attendees will include private equity, hedge fund, venture capital and angel investment fund managers, as well as individual investors, investment bankers, financial advisors, and the AdultVest investment committee in charge of managing the AdultVest Bacchus Investment Fund and Priapus Investment Fund.

According to AdultVest.com Marketplace Statistics recently added to the AdultVest website, 647 adult companies have submitted investment proposals to the company, with 3380 vetted investors in the pool of interested parties. There have also been 1833 due diligence requests made by potential investors.

Hedge Fund Opens Office In New York, New Launch

Canadian Hedge fund Lionhart Ltd. this month announced the launch of a new fund and the opening of an office in midtown Manhattan, New York. Present in the US since 2000, the addition of the New York office positions the hedge fund to develop the U.S. markets.

The launch of Talon, a private equity hybrid fund, is scheduled for March 2008. With a minimum investment of $1 million, the new hedge fund will be set up with $50 million from Lionhart and $50 million from existing and new investors from the US, Middle East and Europe.

Lionhart said, "Talon will be investing into early stage private financings and placements across a number of sectors including minerals, mining and natural resources, energy, alternative energies, mezzanine and bridge financing, IT and medical technology, property development and sub-sectors of these main areas. Investors will have the opportunity to invest in a blend of all the sectors or in an individual sector."

CEO Terrence Duffy, commenting on the move, said, "Information flow for traders and convenience for investors will improve with this move to Manhattan. This makes a lot of sense given the direction Lionhart is moving and the understandable interest in our fund offerings."

Lionhart is a multi-strategy arbitrage hedge fund with $800 million under management. Lionhart's New York office will open with 11 staff including trading, research, investor relations, and administrative functions. The Toronto-based hedge fund has offices in the world's top financial centers now including New York, Toronto, London and Singapore.

Study On Synthetic Hedge Fund Indices

Synthetic hedge fund indices (SHFIs), also known as 'hedge fund clones' were introduced in 2007, following years of academic research. SHFIs are dynamically managed portfolios of liquid assets (also called replicating factors, which usually exist in futures and exchange-traded funds) that aim at minimising the tracking error with a target non-investable hedge fund index.

Based on research by Innocap Investment Management's, there are four criteria which should be met by SHFIs; they should be representative of the investment universe, transparent, have consistent weighting, timely reporting, stable performance over time, and they should be investable.

SHFIs are to hedge funds what exhange traded funds (ETFs) are to mutual funds, a liquid, low-cost and transparent way to expose a portfolio to the asset class. SHFIs that target a good hedge fund index and use a sophisticated tracking model applied to a wide range of liquid and transparent financial instruments should exhibit an interesting risk-return profile, particularly for the liquidity risk conscious investors.

SHFIs currently constitute a small portion of all hedge fund assets under management because they have been introduced quite recently. Nevertheless, they now constitute a key element in the alternative assets offering of the biggest financial institutions.

Innocap Investment Management is a subsidiary of the National Bank of Canada [TSX: NA-T], it was created to supervise all of the bank's alternative investments activities in capital markets.

New York Hedge Fund Spends $27 Million On Alvarion

After buying a $27 million stake in Alvarion, New York-based hedge fund Renaissance Technologies Corporation has become a party at interest with 5.76% of the company.

With a market cap of $480 million, Israeli company Alvarion provides WiMAX broadband communications technology, they posted $236.6 million in revenue for 2007.

Alvarion said in a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that the transaction was made on November 8, 2007. Renaissance Technologies is now the largest shareholder in Alvarion, which until now did not have a shareholder owning more than 5%, the threshold of a party at interest under Israeli law.

Renaissance Technologies was founded in 1982 by cryptanalyst James Harris Simons and is now one of the world’s largest hedge funds. The hedge fund uses statistical and mathematical models to make its investments. It has more than $12 billion under management.

UAE and Qatar Hedge Fund Boom

According to research conducted by banking group Mirabaud, the Middle East is set to become increasingly active in the global hedge fund industry. The report also said that the UAE and Qatar could potentially be playing dominant roles in the region.

Mirabaud forecasts that hedge funds will become increasingly attractive to the region’s ever-more sophisticated regional investors, especially given the high levels of excess liquidity in the Middle East.

CEO Gilles Rollet said, "Globally, hedge fund centres have emerged from the most sophisticated financial centres, such as New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore. The relevant defining attribute of each of these locations is the maturity of their capital markets….The Dubai International Financial Centre has even taken the step, through its regulating body the Dubai Financial Services Authority, to create a Hedge Fund Code of Practice, giving legal weight to the effort to make Dubai a centre in the hedge fund industry."

Increased institutional investment in the regional capital markets, especially the UAE, is another sign of the maturity of markets here, Mirabaud’s research found. Globally, at a time when most traditional investments are generating low levels of returns, institutional investors are increasingly attracted to alternative asset classes such as hedge funds.

"A hedge fund-friendly environment can be seen to emerge from a region with high levels of excess liquidity and strong degrees of professionalism among regulators and service providers. The Middle East is well known for its access to enormous amounts of excess liquidity due to the high price of oil. In the UAE and Qatar, we are now seeing professionalism from both regulators and service providers grow steadily. Both countries have governments that are committed to forging legal structures that allow for increasing financial sophistication in their respective financial districts. If current trends continue, these two countries will undoubtedly emerge as hedge fund centres, and given enough time, will stand on par with Singapore, Hong Kong and even London and New York." Rollet added.

Mirabaud & Cie, was founded in Geneva in 1819. Originally a bank operating solely in Switzerland, Mirabaud has since developed its brand on three continents. The bank, which has nearly $22 billion in assets under management, has offices in Geneva, Zurich, Basel, Paris, Monaco, London, Montreal, Nassau, Hong Kong and now Dubai.

CAI's Two New Investment Strategies

Choice Alternative Investments, Ltd.(CAI) has introduced two new alternative investment strategies into the market.

The first being the Standard & Poor's DTI, which is a low volatility strategy that works particularly well with very large fixed income alternative investment strategies, according to Arne Langaskens, advisor at CAI, "Due to the success of the alternative investment strategies, CAI is also looking to expand its exposure in the alternative and hedge fund arena," he said.

The DTI plans to offer yield enhancement and diversification, it currently has over $725 million allocated to it at this point.

The other is CAI Aggressive Growth Strategy ("CAI AG") which is a high volatility aggressive growth relative strength equity strategy. CAI AG is suited more for investors seeking higher rates of return that can accept high volatility for this segment of their portfolio. A major Swiss Bank seeded the strategy and it now has over $15 million allocated to it.

CAI is an uniquely focused alternative asset manager delivering structure, risk control, seeking long-term performance stewarding global capital.