Hedge Funds & Alternative Investments Handbook

Research and Markets has announced the addition of “The Hedge Funds & Alternative Investments Handbook 2008” to their offering.

The 2008 edition of this guide to the world of alternative investments comes as the playing field becomes more exciting due to new concepts, regulation and increasingly global reach of hedge funds. The handbook brings together an internationally acclaimed editorial board of experts in the field of alternative investments.

Including topical debate, discussion and the latest research on the issues of the moment within the hedge funds and alternative investments world. Leading players from exchanges, funds, law firms and investment banks present exclusive insights into offshore developments, the key regions, regulation and the role of education and ethics in this rapidly changing and evolving scene.

Articles in this year’s Hedge Funds and Alternative Investments Handbook explore;

alternative beta replication
precious metals
the role of branding
self regulation
global activism
ethics and regional perspectives.

HedgeCo Networks Offers Clients of NorthPoint Trading Suite of HedgeCo Web Services

HedgeCo LLC, a premier hedge fund database, consulting and services company, announced today a strategic relationship with NorthPoint Trading Partners, LLC. This relationship will offer clients of NorthPoint a chance to enhance their Internet presence through the use of the HedgeCo Websites Platform.

"Through our partnerships, HedgeCo is striving to enhance the offerings of our partners, as well as draw on expertise of our partners to take the HedgeCo Networks products to a new level." said Evan Rapoport, Chief Executive Officer of HedgeCo, LLC. "By having the ability to offer our products to their clients, our partners will find that their offerings and position in the market will strengthen substantially."

The announcement once again shows how HedgeCo Networks continues to distinguish its company from other service providers by offering high-tech, cost-effective services and analytic tools.

Products being offered through this agreement include the HedgeCo Hedge Fund Website platform, the Hedge Fund Calculator analytics tool, and the opportunity to integrate with HedgeCo.Net, the premier hedge fund Internet portal.

“NorthPoint Trading is committed to being able to provide every possible advantage and resource to help our clients grow their business. We are excited to be able to offer the expertise and experience of the Hedgeco Websites team to our clients.” said Michael DeJarnette, Co-Founder and President of NorthPoint Trading Partners, LLC, a broker/dealer focused on providing Prime Brokerage to small to mid-sized hedge funds.

HedgeCo Networks is actively seeking partners in various verticals to develop and deploy future products.

HedgeCo, LLC manages HedgeCo.Net the premier Hedge Fund Database and Information Portal. HedgeCo offers a wide variety of services, including website design, consultation, and third party marketing.

The HedgeCo Websites team has worked with the Hedge Fund industry for 3 years. Drawing on the experience used in creating and managing HedgeCo.Net over 150 websites for Hedge Fund firms in USA, Europe and Australia.

NorthPoint Trading Partners, LLC is a
premier institutional brokerage and fund services company, dedicated to providing prime brokerage services to small and medium sized hedge funds. Through a fully disclosed clearing relationship with Goldman Sachs Execution and Clearing, L.P. (GSEC), clients receive the benefits of boutique firm service and pricing, combined with GSEC's professional clearing and prime brokerage services, integrated portfolio and trading functionality, suite of pre- and post-trade analytics, and direct access
to the Goldman Sachs & Co.'s securities lending group.

Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P. is not affiliated with NorthPoint Trading Partners, LLC or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates.

Report Examines Developments in the Spanish Fund Supermarket

Research and Markets has announced the addition of "Fund supermarkets in Spain 2007" to their offering. The report examines developments in the Spanish fund supermarket sector and assesses the distribution channels that are in operation. The report analyzes both the current and possible future trends of the industry.

Spanish legislation has recently made provisions for two new fund classes available to retail investors, exchange traded funds and funds of hedge funds, allowing fund supermarkets to offer a comprehensive range of investment funds. Covering both domestic and international markets as they exercise considerable control over the fortunes of fund managers through their short-lists of recommended funds.

Year-on-year growth in assets under management fell from 11.94% in 2005 to 1.31% in 2006. This sharp decline in growth is partly attributed to a growing preference for bank deposits (among conservative investors) triggered largely by the introduction of a new tax regime, and increasing demand for foreign funds (among more sophisticated investors).

Hedge Funds Decline in January 2008

The Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index (GGHFI), fell -2.44% in January amid severe declines in global equity markets such as the S&P 500, MSCI World Equity, and FTSE 100 indices.

Meanwhile, 79% of hedge funds outperformed the S&P 500, with 33% ending the month in positive territory.

Margaret Gilbert, Managing Director of GGHFI said, "Despite January being hedge funds’ weakest month since July 2002, hedge funds fell far less than equities..... This ‘downside protection’ is particularly apparent over the last twelve months with hedge funds returning +7.14%, outperforming the S&P 500 by +9.45% during this period."

For January, all four hedge fund strategy groups outperformed the S&P 500, according to the report. Directional Trading ended up +0.81%, while dedicated Short Sellers were the stellar performers, up +6.99%. January’s Index currently includes 1,011 constituent funds.

Greenwich Alternative Investments, LLC manages one of the world's largest hedge fund databases and is a provider of hedge fund indices, asset management services and research to institutional investors worldwide.

Hedge Funds World Conference

The 2008 ninth annual Hedge Funds World Middle East Conference is to be held at the Madinat Jumeirah Hotel from 3-6 March 2008.

A highlight will be the Second Annual Hedge Funds World Middle East Awards Ceremony on 4 March, presented by Man Investments and Terrapinn. The awards recognise excellence and innovation in the Middle East hedge fund industry and promote the asset class in the region. Finalists for the awards are listed below.

Man Investments, one of the world's leading providers of alternative investments, is once again a principal sponsor of the event. The company, which has prospered in the Middle East for more than 20 years, has strongly supported the Hedge Funds World Middle East Conference since the first such event in 1999.

A special highlight at the conference will be the welcome address by Nasser Al Shaali, CEO of the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority. The DIFC has established itself as the first international financial centre of the region and the fastest growing in the world. Today it is home to more than 500 companies including many of the world's leading financial firms.

Keynote speakers include industry leaders such as: Sindo Oliveros, director of Pension Plan and Endowments, the World Bank Pension Fund; Ronald A. Rolighed, Managing Director, Harris Alternatives LLC; Ikho Suh, Head of Investment Strategy, Korea Investment Corporation; Christopher Durand, Head of Alternative Investments, Abu Dhabi Investment Company; Dr Mehraj Mattoo, Global Head of Commerzbank Alternative Investment Strategies; Ann Thivierge, MD and Head of Active International Allocation Strategy, Morgan Stanley; and Dr Susgil Wadhwani, CBE, CEO, Wadhwani Asset Management.

Antoine Massad, Chief Executive of Man Investments Middle East Limited who is once again chairing the event said, 'The hedge fund industry has made big advances in the region in recent years, offering investors wider choices and a range of new opportunities.. At this event, we will again recognise this progress and promote it through the Hedge Funds World Middle East Awards.'

Hedge Fund Launches By QIM

US based Quantitative Investment Management(QIM), has launched two new hedge funds, the Quantitative Tactical Fund and the Quantitative Fund. Director of Marketing, John McAllister said of the launches, "The multi-strat gives us an ability to provide a fund of funds using three products that we expect to have very low correlations to each other, and it is expected to have the best Sharpe ratio of all the products."

One of the hedge funds launched is a diversified equities hedge fund, currently trading only U.S. names. With $126.8 million in assets under management, the Tactical Fund trades the 1,500 most liquid U.S. names, with plans to expand into Europe and Japan this year.

The smaller of the two funds, the Quantitative Fund, is a multi-strategy fund of funds with $1 million currently in assets under management. It currently invests solely in the 1X versions of other QIM funds, including the Global, Tactical and the Ultra funds. Allocations made to the fund in 2008 will receive a 10% fee discount for the life of the investment.

With $2.8 billion in assets under management, QIM is a global investment firm specializing in alternative investment strategies for institutional and private investors. QIM employs a proprietary quantitative approach to trading financial and commodity futures through its flagship offering, the QIM Global Program.

Hedge Fund Awareness

A white paper released today by SEI, titled "Five Critical Challenges for Hedge Funds Taking Aim at the Institutional Market", details the growing institutional acceptance of hedge fund investing.

Forty-seven percent of the institutions surveyed said they already invest in hedge funds. Within that group, 73% of pension plans and 55% of institutions overall said they had increased hedge fund allocations over the last several years. Portfolio allocations to hedge funds averaged 30% for endowments, 13% for pension funds, and 24% for institutions.

The paper is based partly on a survey of more than 100 institutional investors by SEI and the research firm of Infovest21.

Hedge fund assets under management have been growing at a compound annual rate of 26% since 1990, reports the SEI analysis, with much of that growth coming from the institutional market. "To maintain that growth trajectory, the hedge fund industry will need to branch out from its traditional high-net-worth, foundation, and endowment clientele to serve the broader institutional market," said Paul Schaeffer, Managing Director of Strategy and Innovation for SEI’s Investment Manager Services division. "But to compete for those assets, the industry must recognise that large institutions have a distinct set of demands concerning issues such as the quality of infrastructure, transparency, and risk."

At the same time, institutions expressed continued concerns with hedge fund investing. “Headline risk” was named by 37% of survey respondents as their biggest worry, followed by lack of transparency (19%) and poor performance (15%). Institutions also remain cautious in selecting hedge funds, the survey found, devoting an average of seven months to due diligence and 12 additional weeks to approval.

In the paper, SEI identifies five challenges hedge funds should address in order to attract more institutional assets:

1) Demonstrate institutional-quality infrastructure and operations. Infrastructure was ranked the number-one criterion in hedge fund selection, with 46% of those surveyed naming it most important. Of those who responded this way, 54% said it was because “better managed firms produce better returns.” The quality of fund administration was a prime concern. Of those respondents most concerned with infrastructure, two-thirds said it is unacceptable for funds to handle their own administration internally, and half demand a “big-name” administrator; 81% said they take steps to verify that hedge fund investments are valued independently.

2) Meet investor demands for reporting and transparency. The lack of transparency was the second most commonly cited worry with hedge fund investing, with 19% of institutions ranking it number one. This concern was greatest at the strategy level, with 85% of respondents saying they would not invest in a strategy they do not fully understand. More than half said they seek portfolio transparency at the industry or sector level, and one-third were most concerned with transparency of the investment process. Only 11% said they seek transparency of specific investment positions.

3) Build stable management teams with a full range of skill sets. Interviewees ranked “people at the firm” as the third most important factor in hedge fund selection, surpassed only by “firm infrastructure” and “performance.” Other survey responses revealed that investor concerns with hedge funds’ organisational stability and staffing are not confined to those making investment decisions, but cut across all key management and support positions.

4) Shift focus from performance to investment disciplines. Institutions are as concerned with investment process and risk profile as they are with the level of absolute returns, the survey revealed. Interviewees ranked “consistent, stable returns,” “uncorrelated returns,” and “high risk-adjusted returns” as more important objectives than “high absolute returns.” Seventy-two percent of interviewees said the investment strategy, rather than performance, is their starting point for hedge fund selection.

5) Keep abreast of public policy and regulatory trends. Citing ongoing deliberations over hedge-fund-related regulation, tax policies, and accounting rules and investor concerns with “headline risk,” the paper urges the industry to “commit whatever resources are needed to ensure that hedge fund managers meet the highest possible standards for their overall compliance and general business practices.”
“The overriding message is that institutions clearly prefer to do business with institutional-style organisations,” concluded Schaeffer. “For hedge funds, the challenge will be to fit the profile of an institutional-quality fund while preserving the performance attributes that attracted major investors in the first place.”

IFC Seminar

The Islamic Financial Services Board, the World Bank Group Corporate Governance Department, and the IFC Global Corporate Governance Forum are organising a joint seminar on corporate governance issues in Islamic finance. The two-day seminar will be hosted in Manama by the Central Bank of Bahrain on March 11 to 12, 2008.

The Seminar aims to increase awareness of corporate governance issues in Islamic finance, including banking, insurance, and capital markets (particularly collective investment schemes), among financial regulators and market participants. It will be structured around the corporate governance standards that were developed by the Islamic Financial Services Board, with insights from regulatory officials, corporate governance specialists from international multilateral agencies, and industry practitioners.

H.E. Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, and Professor Rifaat Ahmed Abdel Karim, Secretary General of the Islamic Financial Services Board, will deliver the opening and welcoming remarks.

Peter Dey, Chairman of the Forum's Private Sector Advisory Group, will deliver a keynote address on the Cross-Sectoral Approach toward Good Governance. Dey served as chairman of the Toronto Stock Exchange Committee on Corporate Governance in Canada, which released a report entitled Where Were the Directors? (also known as the Dey Report) in December 1994. He will be joined by 21 other speakers.

The seminar's main objectives are to:

Highlight corporate governance issues specific to institutions that offer Islamic financial services and to help regulators and market participants improve their understanding of these, especially as the Islamic financial services industry continues to grow rapidly within the global financial system.

Provide stakeholders an opportunity to exchange views and experience about good governance frameworks and best practices.

Generate discussion and policy recommendations about strengthening and improving the corporate governance of institutions that offer Islamic financial services, in accordance with internationally accepted standards.

Those interested in attending the seminar can download the registration form from www.ifsb.org.

Noci Pictures Offers 100% Deductions For Alternative Investors

Noci Pictures Entertainment, A Chicago film finance and production company is offering an innovative way for high net worth investors, hedge funds and private equity groups to receive 100% deductions for film investments as well as state income tax credits.

Yuri Rutman’s Noci Pictures Entertainment is shooting a slate of films in Illinois using a hybrid of tax, finance, risk minimization and exit strategies that offer dollar for dollar Federal Tax Deductions and state income tax credits.

"I don’t know of any other alternative investment that can offer tax incentives, multiple exit strategies, as well as giving back to the local economy, while being involved with the moviemaking process, Rutman states, "that would add to the long
line of recent films either shot in Illinois or about to be shot, including “The Dark Knight”, the upcoming John Dillinger film with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, as well as a lot of other Hollywood films."

The American Jobs Creation Act Of 2004, the 2004 enactment of Section 181 of the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the "Code") marked an unprecedented change in U.S. policy toward the phenomenon known as "Runaway Production".

Runaway Production refers to a film or television production that leaves one state or country to be filmed in another purely for economic reasons. This movement occurs
because producers tend to film in the location where they can minimize production costs through tax incentives, cheaper labor.

An individual or company who makes an investment into Section 181 qualified productions can take a 100% deduction of their investment against their passive
income in the year their investment was made.

But since Section 181 also allows for all other recourse debt costs which are usually associated with film finance, a $10 million dollar film, where only $3.5 million is equity, an investor can deduct $3.5 million dollars against the $10 million, especially if the latter is mezzanine or gap finance. Plus, an additional 20% in Illinois tax credits can be generated.

Regarding Section 181 as an alternative investment for hedge funds that want to offset their tax liabilities, Rutman adds "That I am redefining film finance that is more serving to the community, local economies, and people who need jobs. Plus, I have so many risk minimization strategies in place and several exit scenarios, there are a lot of hedge and private equity funds who are now starting to feel a bit shafted with their film fund deals simple because they did not do their homework."

Special Situations Mergers & Acquisitions Launch

In response to client needs and evolving capital markets conditions, Duff & Phelps Corporation announced the formation of a Special Situations Mergers & Acquisitions practice.

This group formalizes Duff & Phelps' long-standing expertise advising middle market companies, lenders, and private equity sponsors on transactions occurring in challenging operating and financial environments.

According to Dow Jones, private equity fundraising designated specifically for distressed investments topped $48 billion in 2007, a 300% increase in funds raised over the previous year.

"Hedge funds, sponsors and institutions are amassing large pools of capital for distressed investing, and they are scouring the market for investment opportunities," said Russell Belinsky, Senior Managing Director of Restructuring and co-founder of Chanin Capital Partners, which was acquired by Duff & Phelps in November 2006.

"Meanwhile, the credit crunch is putting a strain on companies and their ability to borrow. As a result, some of these companies will look to sell underperforming operations or assets to raise capital. This puts our Special Situations M&A practice in an ideal position to leverage our relationships and find natural buyers for these assets."

The announcement of a Special Situations M&A practice formalizes an existing service offering of Duff & Phelps. The specific services offered include merger and acquisition advisory services in situations where the target company or its owner is significantly underperforming or experiencing financial distress, including out-of court divestitures and Chapter 11 Section 363 asset sales, and private capital raising for refinancing or recapitalization in times of financial distress.

PIPEs & Opportunities For Hedge Fund Managers

On Febuary 15th, 2008, a reduction in the Rule 144 holding period for restricted shares of public companies will take effect. The holding period, which is being shortened from one year to six months, will result in billions of shares from thousands of companies becoming eligible for public resale on that day.

A new report by Restricted Stock Partners examines 300 transactions and 258 issuers, showing 66% of the issuers highlighted as having greater than three months of their average daily trading volume eligible for sale on Febuary 15th.

The report is based on research on companies that issued unregistered securities in connection with Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) deals during the affected period. Hedge funds are the primary investors in the affected shares (many of which are from PIPEs).

37% of affected issuers will have greater than one year of their average daily volume eligible for sale and one-third of affected issuers in the Report will have greater than 25% of their market capitalization eligible for sale on the same day.

“Hundreds of companies may see share amounts equal to 100 or more times their average daily trading volume available for sale on Feb. 15,” according to Barry E. Silbert, founder and CEO of Restricted Stock Partners. “While it is difficult to predict what impact this will have on share prices, investors will certainly want to be familiar with the companies that may be affected.”

The RSTN has already attracted more than 400 members, including global financial institutions, hedge funds, mutual funds and other institutional investors, who collectively manage over $200 billion in assets.

2007's Most Generous Givers Generate Huge Numbers

BusinessWeek's annual ranking of 'Most Generous Givers' lists some of 2007's deepest pockets, although many of the donations also bought the renaming of the recipients projects.

Sixteen of the 50 philanthropists gave more than $100 million, while nine donated $200 million or more. The largest donation coming from Jon Huntsman, who gave over $700 million to the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Utah.

David Koch, a newcomer, donated $100 million for a cancer research center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lorry Lokey gave a $74.5 million donation to the University of Oregon, bringing his total to $132 million so far.

George Soros, Bill and Melinda Gates, Michael and Susan Dell, were also high on the list of generous givers. T. Denny Sanford gave $400 million in a pledge to Sioux Valley Hospitals & Health System in South Dakota, renamed Sanford Health.

Robert Day gave $200 million to the Robert Day Scholars Program and Sandy and Joan Weill donated more than $300 million to Cornell University and its Weill Medical College, which focuses on stem cell research.

RCB Launches Indian Office For High Net Worth Individuals

RBC announced that it has entered the Indian market by opening its first office in the financial hub of Bandra Kurla, Mumbai, in order to provide wealth management services to high net worth individuals and provide capital market services including global debt funding to Indian banks, corporations and financial institutions.

"The strong growth of the Indian economy presents huge opportunities," said Gordon M. Nixon, RBC president and chief executive officer. "RBC is committed to expanding outside North America into areas where we can show competitive strength and India is a natural choice for our strategy in Asia. India is showing an increasing demand for areas in which RBC has competitive strengths, infrastructure and project finance, energy, metals and mining, structured products, currency and bond trading, and wealth management services."

Akhauri Sinha, country head, RBC India, will lead RBC's overall operations in India, while Dipendarra J. Singh will lead RBC's wealth management business with a focus on high net worth individuals, and Vikas Jambotkar will focus on providing RBC services to Indian financial institutions, as well as capital markets services to corporations.

With people from India comprising the second highest Asian immigrant population in Canada after China, RBC is now well positioned to help them invest back into India's buoyant economy. "Indo-Canadians have made and continue to make a huge contribution to the fabric of Canadian life. Their presence and cosmopolitan imprint on our cities, especially Toronto and Vancouver, have been profound. They form an important, indeed critical, link between India and Canada," continued Mr. Nixon.

RCB (The Royal Bank of Canada) serves more than 15 million personal, business, public sector and institutional clients throughout offices in Canada, the U.S. and 36 other countries.

Russia's Hedge Funds Show Stong Growth & Potential

Russia’s strong economic growth, rapidly expanding domestic market and increasing financial market liquidity has been fuel for rapidly expanding hedge funds and specialist investors in Russia and the former Soviet Union (FSU).

One such company is the Pharos Financial Group, which now runs three hedge funds, the Pharos Russia Fund, the Pharos Small Cap Fund, and the one-of-a-kind Pharos Gas Investment Fund.

Pharos has been Moscow based since 1997, making it one of one of the oldest Russian hedge funds, positioning it well for the new Russian market of 2008. The team has over 90 years of combined Russian and Western market experience. Their hedge fund strategy is long biased with shorting capability and has been stress tested with a track record featuring high returns with lower volatility.

Prior to founding Pharos Financial Group in 1997, CEO Peter Halloran was the principal contributor toward building the CS First Boston equity and fixed income brokerage businesses in Russia and the CIS.

He has been working with the development of the Russian capital markets since their inception in 1994, bringing more than $8 billion to the markets through debt, equity and private placements. Halloran has also acted as adviser to Soros Fund Management(the largest investor in Russia to date).

John J. Papesh, marketing director for Pharo said, "Since the Western public perception is different than the reality of the Russian market, I think it would be great to set the record straight when comparing Russia to that of Brazil, India and China, especially at a time when Russia is in favor to other EMs."

The Pharos Russia Fund has been in existence since 1997, offers daily liquidity and is a multi-sector Russia and FSU fund. It has a diverse portfolio of liquid equities, and can short and use derivatives. The fund is up 20% over the past 12 months.

The Pharos Gas Investment Fund is designed to take advantage of the transformation of the gas sector in Russia and Eurasia. As the only hedge fund focused on this sector, it invests in listed equity and offers monthly liquidity. The fund is up 21% over the past 12 months.

The Pharos Small Cap Fund invests in undervalued second and third tier companies and offers monthly liquidity. The fund is up 14% over the past 12 months. Two Pharos Funds have ranked in the Top 15 hedge funds globally by Bloomberg and in the Top 10 by Eurohedge.

Hedge Fund Finance Chief Sentenced To 20 Years

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon said of Daniel Marino, the former finance chief of the bankrupt hedge-fund firm Bayou Group LLC, "You are as much a career criminal as any mobster or any drug kingpin." The Judge then sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

His prison time will be followed by three years of supervised release. Restitution will be determined at a later date, but the judge said it likely will be in the amount of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Hedge fund founder Samuel Israel III and finance chief Daniel Marino pleaded guilty in 2005 to using fake results and a phony auditing firm. Investors lost approximately $400 million according to court papers, but the government put the loss at over $450 million.

The co-founder James G. Marquez was also implicated in the conspiracy and was sentenced to 51 months in prison. Israel is awaiting sentencing.

"I am truly sorry," Marino said.

SEC Comissioner Says Hedge Funds May Help Solve Market Turmoil

SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins recommended that European and US regulators should learn from each other’s approach to regulating hedge funds, particularly as the hedge fund industry became more international. Atkins said he also expects hedge funds to help solve the market turmoil surrounding sub-prime US mortgage loans.

The Comissioner resisted the agency’s efforts to become involved with hedge funds since he joined the SEC as a commissioner in 2002, the Republican has also questioned the agency’s practice of not allowing hedge funds to market themselves to the general public.

"Most importantly, we must remember that hedge funds are likely to be an important part of the solution to the sub-prime crisis," he told French business school Edhec that, as far as he was able to see, hedge funds could not be blamed for the sub-prime problems.

"Hedge funds and other shareholder activists may have created a negative impression by pursuing their own self-serving agenda at times. This problem may be exacerbated by 'empty voting' and similar practices that are based on decoupling voting rights from economic interests. This is why good disclosure is so important in this area." Atkins also warned that, while shareholder activists can play a valuable role in corporate governance, they will be acting in their own interests and these will not necessarily be the same as the interests of their fellow shareholders.

Indian Policymakers Looking At Hedge Funds To Neutralize Rupee Appreciation

India has been looking to hedge funds and loans since this year's decline began in industrial growth from 11% a year ago to 9.5% in the first half of 2007-08, coupled with a fall in the expansion of India's exports demanded the rationalisation of credit rates by the central banks.

The Federation of Indian Export Organisations president Ganesh Kumar Gupta requested India's policymakers to consider establishing a hedge fund to neutralize rupee appreciation along with an apportionment of low-cost dollar loans to exporters among small and medium enterprises.

"It seems that inflation has become the sole concern of the central bank," said V.N. Dhoot, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), reacting to the central bank's monetary policy review.

He also expressed concern for the small and medium scale sector, which in the absence of funding from equity markets and competition from cheaper imports was bearing the maximum brunt of a demand slowdown and cost of funds.

Northern Trust FoHF's To Recieve Daily, Instead of Monthly Data

Northern Trust has announced the setup of a worldwide partnership with financial applications company youDevise, it will offer funds of hedge funds daily portfolio management data. Typically, funds of hedge funds ("FoHF") can only get this type of information from their administrators on a monthly basis and without nearly as much detail.

"The combined Northern Trust-HIP solution represents a tremendous step forward in management information systems for the US$1.5 trillion global fund of hedge funds industry," said Wilson Leech, head of Northern Trust's Global Fund Services group. He noted this development comes at a particularly crucial time for the industry as it faces increasing demand from institutional investors for more transparency, governance, and detailed reporting.

The HIP will be fully integrated onto Northern Trust's single, global technology platform so that FoHF clients can obtain daily information about their hedge fund holdings, current value, performance, liquidity, hedging, and a detailed breakdown of assets and transactions. The information will be accessible through Passport, Northern Trust's interactive web portal, which provides clients with secure access to account information and portfolio reports.

"As a result of this integration, funds of hedge funds will no longer have to run shadow accounting and will have online access to data which will have been fully reconciled against, and integrated with, the official month-end NAV(i)," said Peter Cherecwich, head of Global Product and Strategy for Northern Trust's asset servicing business. "This supports Northern Trust's drive to offer comprehensive asset servicing capabilities to the global fund of hedge funds industry."

President Bush' Economic Stimulus Package

Stephen Horan, CFA, head of private wealth for CFA Institute, commented today on the economic stimulus package proposed by President Bush and the U.S. House of Representatives.

“What’s interesting about this proposal is the yet-to-be-determined impact it will have on the soft housing market and the durable goods sector,” said Horan. “The more than $200,000 increase in the jumbo mortgage limits is significant because it might provide some refinancing opportunities to homeowners who are finding it difficult to pay their existing mortgage. Banks, knowing that they can possibly repackage these jumbo loans and sell them back to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, might now be willing to refinance at lower rates.”

Horan added that “when it comes to the impact consumer spending will have on sector performance we may possibly see improvements in the consumer non-durable sectors, such as retail. However, time will tell how this plays out.”

Hedge Fund Report

There are more than 8,100 hedge funds globally managing over $1 trillion in assets today. Speculative energy trading has a strong future, but it will not be the traditional utilities and energy merchants that will create and maturate that market.

The report concludes that energy trading will now be dominated by more sophisticated and well-capitalized financial players such as hedge funds and investment banks, as well as by multinational energy companies with a global footprint. Evidence of the fund's influence on oil markets has been the 55% growth in open interest on Nymex crude, heating oil, and gasoline contracts over last year and the more volatile intraday trading moving during recent months. These market drivers are bringing greater financialization and maturation to the energy complex

Other Topics covered in this report include:

Basics of Hedge Funds
Performance and Management Fees
Hedge Funds & Energy Trading
Energy Trading Exchanges
Leading Energy-related Hedge Funds

This reports sells for $497 and can be ordered at http://energybusinessreports.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=1458&affillink=EPRW20080123

About the Publisher: "Energy Hedge Funds" is published by Energy Business Reports (www.EnergyBusinessReports.com), an energy industry think tank and leading source for energy industry information and research products. Details on all reports can be found at http://energybusinessreports.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=1458&affillink=EPRW20080123