Hedge Fund Operational Due Diligence - Book Review

Informative book by Jason Scharfman on, well, pretty much everything you need to run a hedge fund, from risk management to disaster recovery, all need-to-know material for both investors and hedge fund analysts.

Included are examples of past hedge fund management mistakes, showing exactly where the managers went wrong, and how to avoid downfalls such as the ‘but everyone is doing it’ excuse, among others.

Technical though understandable, Scharfman also expains the reliance on technology that is becoming ever more apparent in hedge funds, the dangers of phantomware, and questions that should be asked before commiting to any new technology.

I liked this book for the simple reason that it explains just about everything, almost like a handbook, the index makes an excellent resource.

Since writing the book he has left his position at Morgan Stanley and now runs an operational due diligence consulting firm called Corgentum Consulting. Corgentum works with hedge funds and investors to diagnose and mitigate operational risk at hedge funds and improve upon the of the operational due diligence process.

Available at Amazon

Gates Donates Despite Economic Distress

In a letter scheduled to be released today, January 26th, Bill Gates is offering insight to the world both about the current financial crisis as well as what his foundation has been able to do despite it.

Matthew Bishop, New York Bureau Chief and American Business Editor for The Economist conducted the interview, where Gates said his foundation’s assets may be shrinking, but it is increasing its giving in 2009, from $3.3 billion last year to $3.8 billion—the biggest ever annual budget for a charitable foundation.

Much of this will go towards finding ways to reduce deaths from the 20 diseases that kill the most people in poor countries, according to the Economist. Gates has high hopes that the number of children who die each year can be cut by half, to 5m, within 20 years, just as it was cut by half in the past half-century. Polio will soon be eradicated, he believes, and deaths from malaria can fall by half by 2015.

In a year of economic distress and record losses, optimism and generosity are still central to Gates, he says in the interview. With projected increases in giving in 2009, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will continue to focus on healthcare issues around the world as well as education reforms.

Similarly, he says he is optimistic that Barack Obama’s administration will make progress on school reform, pointing to the extra spending on schools contained in Mr Obama’s economic stimulus package and the fact that the new education secretary, Arne Duncan, welcomed Gates-funded charter schools in Chicago.

EUEC Workshop fo Carbon Hedge Funds

Two prominent carbon and CDM Experts, Peter C. Fusaro, Dr. Prabhu Dayal are presenting the 'EUEC 2009' in Phoenix, Arizona, the Carbon Trading course includes practical case studies for the design and development of CDM Projects and Certified Emission Reductions (CERs).

Aletrnative investment strategist, Global Change Associates, says the workshop will provide insights on the state of carbon trading markets and finance in the US and Europe and what some of the investment opportunities are in this emerging asset class for investors.

Case studies of renewable energy projects being developed by C TRADE in the Philippines will be used to illustrate the certification process for CERs, where methane gas emissions are avoided and electric power generated using waste methane bio-digester gas recovered from animal manure.

Fusaro is a Global Change Associates carbon expert and best selling author of "What Went Wrong at Enron", Dayal is President of C TRADE and Chair for EUEC.

Veteran of U.S. Secret Service Heads Up AlphaMetrix’s Financial Investigations Group

To root out fraud and to give investors increased confidence that their assets are being managed with institutions of integrity and honesty, AlphaMetrix formally introduced AlphaMetrix Financial Investigations, LLC, run by David Fisher, a 24-year veteran of the US Secret Service.

AlphaMetrix is a research and investment platform for managed futures and other liquid alpha strategies with approximately $1.7 billion on the platform.

“Under David's leadership, the alternative investment company seeks to set a new standard for the due diligence on financial institutions,” the company said in a letter received by HedgeCo, “first focusing on those on the AlphaMetrix platform, and later as a third-party provider of due diligence services.”

Fisher has a strong domestic and international investigative background in financial fraud, background investigations, security planning and electronic crimes. In addition to responsibilities associated with the Secret Service’s well-known role protecting the President, Vice President and visiting Heads of State, Fisher also brings extensive experience from the agency’s core investigative mission into financial institution fraud, computer and telecommunications fraud, false identification documents, access device fraud, advance fee fraud, electronic funds transfers and money laundering.

“AlphaMetrix has always been known for our deep trading manager research capabilities, and the new Financial Investigations group takes that to an even higher level, with comprehensive background checks and reviews of operational risk,” said Aleks Kins, CEO of AlphaMetrix.

“This type of due diligence work takes a consummate professional, so we are particularly excited to have someone of David Fisher’s caliber on board to build AlphaMetrix Financial Investigations into a thriving organization,” he added.

Novices Given $1 Million to Start a Hedge Fund on TV

Avanta is making its UK television debut with Million Dollar Traders on BBC2. Aired for 3 weeks in January, the series will play out at Avanta's Austin Friars business centre in London.

The program gives eight ordinary people a million dollars and two weeks of intensive training to help prepare them to launch their own hedge fund and try to make their fortune in the stocks and shares market.

The traders set up camp in one of the buildings grade A office suites, buying and selling in the stock market in an attempt to make their millions.

Avanta was formed in 2004 by David Alberto, previously with Regus and former Managing Director at MWB Business Exchange. The company offers unbranded office space with advanced and competitively priced technology. In the UK it currently manages over 670,000 sq ft of office space in prime locations in London, the Thames Valley, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh. Avanta’s first international business centre in New Delhi, India opened in September 2008 and a further two centres are now open in Mumbai.

Fidelity Launches Indian Fund of Hedge Funds

Fidelity International is launching the Fidelity Wealth Builder Fund through it's Indian asset management arm, the new fund is an open ended fund of funds scheme offering asset allocation options with three plans.

The investment objective of the fund is to seek to generate reasonable returns based on the plan selected with minimum and maximum asset allocation between debt and equity. The fund manager will use a two-tier investment approach – asset allocation and fund selection – to invest in Fidelity’s funds. The NFO will be open from January 14 to February 5, 2009. The Fund will open for ongoing purchases and redemptions from March 2, 2009

“Asset allocation decisions can drive as much as 91.5% of investment returns variability, as studies have shown." Ashu Suyash, Managing Director and Country Head - India, Fidelity International, said, "In the current market conditions of heightened volatility, a fund like the Fidelity Wealth Builder Fund provides investors a convenient route to benefit from disciplined asset allocation. We are in an environment where attractive returns are likely in the bond market and there is potential for bear-market rallies in equities on the back of increasingly attractive valuations.”

Ms. Suyash added, “To encourage investors who have turned risk averse, the Fidelity Wealth Builder Fund is a fund with no entry load. Whether investors invest through their advisers or directly, they will not be charged an entry load. Moreover, the Fund also offers investors free switch-in and switch-out facility between the Plans, if, over time, investors’ outlook for debt and equity changes.”

The Fund will offer Growth and Dividend options. A dividend is proposed to be declared, subject to availability of distributable surplus, on a Quarterly basis under Plan A and Plan B. Under Plan C, the dividend may be declared by the Trustee, at its discretion, from time to time subject to the availability of distributable surplus.

The minimum initial investment is Rs.5000.($100K )Investors can invest in the Fidelity Wealth Builder Fund even through the SIP route with a minimum amount of Rs. 500 per installment with the total of all installments not being less than Rs.5000. In addition, the systematic transfer and systematic withdrawal plans are also available.

FIL Fund Management Private Limited is the Indian arm of Fidelity International, one of the world's leading global investment management companies with operations in 23 countries and more than $197.9 billion in assets under management.

Morningstar Reviews 2008's Losses and Gains

In their summary of hedge fund performance for the fourth quarter and full year of 2008 as well as asset flows through November, Morningstar reported that 2008's low returns wiped out the last two years gains.

Investors lost their appetite for hedge funds in 2008, Morningstar says, as the vehicles intended to deliver absolute returns were forced to resort to relative claims of success.

"In 2008, hedge fund managers generally failed to deliver," said Morningstar Hedge Fund Analyst Nadia Papagiannis. "The average hedge fund may have lost less than the stock market, thanks in part to large cash allocations, but this level of performance was not why investors agreed to pay 2% management fees and 20% performance fees."

Hedge fund inflows peaked in June 2007 and bottomed in October 2008, when more than $21 billion left the industry. In November 2008, another $19.4 billion flowed out of hedge funds, setting the year-to-date outflows at more than $44 billion.

The number of funds dropping out of Morningstar`s database increased more than 150% in 2008 from 2007—1,158 single-manager funds and 490 funds of funds were removed in 2008 compared to 434 single-manager funds and 208 funds of funds in 2007. (Funds are removed from Morningstar’s database if the fund liquidates, if the manager wishes to stop reporting returns, or if funds fail to report returns for six months.)

Emerging market equities proved to be the worst strategy in 2008, along with convertible arbitrage funds, which took a big hit in 2008.

The best-performing strategy this year was global trend following, a systematic strategy that tracks price trends in liquid derivatives such as futures, options, and currency forwards.

Morningstar has approximately 8,400 hedge funds and funds of hedge funds in its database.

GLG Partners Adds Pendragon Hedge Fund Managers

Global alternative asset manager, GLG Partners LP, is teaming up with two of the founding partners of London hedge fund Pendragon Capital, Kaveh Sheibani and Julian Harvey Wood, to focus on event driven strategies.

In addition, GLG Partners LP will become the investment manager of the funds and accounts managed by Pendragon Capital. Before founding and managing Pendragon Capital with Gordon Lawson, Kaveh and Julian had worked together managing European proprietary trading in equities at Salomon Brothers (subsequently Citigroup).

"Kaveh and Julian are both highly experienced, event driven professionals and we expect that this team will greatly enhance and expand GLG's own event driven franchise," Emmanuel Roman, Co-CEO of GLG commented.

As of September 30, 2008, GLG managed net AUM of over $17 billion.

Independent Hedge Fund Management Key to Investor Trust

The recent wave of scandal related to hedge funds and funds of funds has made investors think twice about investing in self-administrated funds, see 'Andrew Schneider on Nadel Funds'.

Dermot Butler, Chairman of alternative fund administrator, Custom House Group, said, “In today’s new investment environment, more than ever hedge funds and funds-of-funds must have independent outside administrators as a foundation to help rebuild investor confidence and attract new investment capital.”

Fund administrators, such as the $35 billion Custom House Group, provide a range of services to funds and fund-of-funds including (but not limited to), fund accounting, portfolio valuation, NAV calculation and shareholder services as well as anti-money laundering services and reconciliation services and record-keeping functions.

“In anything less than an independent fund administration relationship, there is at the very least a perception that a conflict of interest may exist that could prevent objective verification of a fund’s investment activities and even the existence of underlying assets in a given fund, let alone an objective and accurate valuation of the fund's assets,” Butler said. “This perceived conflict may occur when an outside administrator is affiliated with a financial institution, with an investment manager, or when the administrator is associated with a hedge fund itself.”

“As stand-alone companies, independent administrators have no affiliations to any outside financial entities, et ergo, no such conflicts exist,” he concluded.

Excerpts and Commentary on Ben McGrath’s "The Dystopians" – Jan 26th, New Yorker

"Bad times are boom times for some."

The article starts off with US resident Dmitry Orlov, from Leningrad, who has been living on a semi-self-sustainable boat in a form 'bourgeois survivalism' for 2 ½ years, riding a bicycle and skipping the TV.

After the downfall of the Soviet Union he learned a lesson for future reference: “When faced with a collapsing economy, one should stop thinking of wealth in terms of money.”

In his 2008 book, “Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects,” Orlov identifies the ingredients of what he calls “superpower collapse soup” — a severe shortfall in the production of crude oil, a worsening foreign-trade deficit, an oversized military budget, and crippling foreign debt.

“We don’t have a long wait before sail-based transport is the only option,” he said, anticipating dire environmental conditions. Should the need to raise chickens arise, Orlov and his wife will "set sail and relocate to a more rural base of operations," where the boat, Hogfish, which has a flat bottom, can double as a trailer home.

In 2006, Orlov published an online manifesto, “The New Age of Sail,” where he writes that sailing has the additional benefit of providing “isometric exercise similar to a Pilates workout,” because of the constant jostling of the sea. “People who live aboard are rarely overweight.”

In a blog that he maintains, Club Orlov, he categorises his readers into three basic cultural categories;

1. “back-to-the-land types,” united in their opposition to industrial agriculture;

2. “peak oilers,” who worry about the shock effects on energy markets of reaching the maximum global crude-extraction rate; and all-around Cassandras, and

3. “people who sometimes derisively are called doomers.” (The doomers are currently enjoying a little less derision, which is a mixed blessing, because it is axiomatic among true believers that mainstream respect means that it is too late for anything to be done.)

Orlov has recently acquired a fourth audience, composed of financial professionals, who have been, as he said, “bolstering my gut feeling that the United States is bankrupt.” A number of them have placed orders for multiple copies of his book, and he took some pleasure in imagining them passing it on to their friends and families this past holiday season as a grim kind of stocking stuffer.

Also mentioned is Jim Sinclair and his website: jsmineset.com, on which he posts daily blitzes of commentary with headers like “What Happens in Iceland Doesn’t Always Stay in Iceland.”

Ben McGrath meets James Howard Kunstler, author of “The Geography of Nowhere,” and “World Made by Hand,” which is set in a small town north of Albany, where the residents have no oil, no coffee, no spices, no mail delivery, and only sporadic electricity, but marijuana cultivation is booming and they’re growing “buds the size of plums.”

Also recommended for dystopians are Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” and Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s best-selling book “The Black Swan,” about the inevitability of unforeseeable events.

“I’d say an emergency meeting of the G7 is pretty much the front entrance,” Kunstler said. “Although who would have thought Iceland would be the first to go?...... Capitalism and human ingenuity persist; it’s only the economic incentives that change."

Kunstler likes to say that the United States has “a railroad system that the Bulgarians would be ashamed of,” and told a joke involving orders from the Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, to his underlings, to “buy the Dow,” in order to stave off consumer panic.

Three days after the Presidential election, in Montpelier, Vermont, at a convention of nearly two hundred “neo-Luddites, anarchists, socialists, freegans, steampunks, homeschoolers, folksingers, knitters and yak farmers”, Knustler called himself “an emissary from a place you may someday regard as foreign: New York State. . . . For the moment, we remain sister and brother states in a nation that is enduring a convulsion.”

He declared that the airline industry as we know it will not exist within forty-eight months, or by the end of President Obama’s first term.

These were people whose solution to the imminent death of the American dream was secession: a Vermont Independence Convention, sponsored by the Second Vermont Republic, a “nonviolent citizens’ network and think tank opposed to the tyranny of Corporate America and the U.S. Government.”

Also speaking were Chellis Glendinning, the author of “My Name Is Chellis and I’m in Recovery from Western Civilization,” and Lynette Clark, the chair of the Alaskan Independence Party,

The speeches were accompanied by comic and musical interludes from the Bread & Puppet Theatre, whose members wore bear costumes and danced around with plungers, and by the singing of the Vermont secession anthem: “It’s Vermonters to the lifeboats, this is a sinkin’ ship....”

Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net

Along these lines I would also recommend reading: "Game Over" how to prosper in a shattered economy – by Stephen Leeb.

Obama's Stimulus Package - New Yorker Review

I received an advance copy of an article from the financial pages of next weeks New Yorker, "A Smarter Stimulus", where James Surowiecki describes the pros and cons of Obama's plan to include more than a hundred billion dollars in individual tax rebates in his stimulus package.

Although his promised tax cuts are a surefire political winner, he has also earned criticism from both ends of the political spectrum, Surowiecki writes, "Skeptics on both sides worry that most people will save the rebate rather than spend it."

In the past, as in 2001, less than half of the tax rebate was estimated to have been spent, the article says. And while the results of last year’s rebate seem to have been somewhat more encouraging, much of it still went unspent.

Surowiecki also explains how people will either on spend or save depending on where the money comes from, "Casino winnings are more likely to be spent than, say, money from an inheritance." he says, "A key factor is whether people think of a windfall as wealth or as income. If they think of it as wealth, they’re more likely to save it, and if they think of it as income they’re more likely to spend it."

The article concludes: "On its own, Obama’s rebate plan isn’t going to resurrect the economy. But it’s a policy that works with people as they are, rather than as we imagine they should be. And that’s a stimulus in itself."

Available from January 26th, "A Smarter Stimulus" by James Surowiecki, New Yorker.

Third Party Administrators to Improve Hedge Fund Transparency

In an example of how hedge funds and CTAs are turning to third-party administrators with an eye on offering their investors improved transparency, hedge fund and FoHF provider Spectrum Global Fund Administration has teamed up with with AlphaMetrix LLC, a managed futures investment platform.

AlphaMetrix says it chose Spectrum for their "ability to easily provide estimated daily NAVs and to facilitate semi-monthly liquidity, critical differentiators at a time of heightened investor sensitivity regarding alternative investments." The platform will provide investors with access, research and real-time performance reporting to managed futures funds and commodity trading advisors (CTAs).

“The AlphaMetrix value proposition is built on what we call ‘TLC,’ which stands for transparency, liquidity and custody,” said Aleks Kins, founder and CEO of AlphaMetrix. “In partnering with Spectrum, we have selected the only fund administrator that can produce the estimated daily NAV reporting our clients demand, and handle the increased complexity associated with more frequent liquidity.”

Currently, client assets allocated over the AlphaMetrix Platform total approximately $1.7 billion, which includes both direct investments and managed account tracking.

Hedge Fund Manager SVM Launches Long/Short Fund

Privately-owned investment management company, SVM Asset Management, is seeking approval from the Financial Services Authority for the launch of the long/short SVM UK Absolute Alpha Fund, which has a similar investment approach to their SVM Saltire fund, which returned +19.7% in 2008.

The fund, if approved, will have the flexibility to move from a net long to a net short position differentiating it from other absolute return funds, the company says. Managed by Colin McLean, returns will be driven by stock selection and the net position of the fund will be determined by whether the manager has more long or short stock ideas at the time.

"In 2008 just 31 of the stocks in the FTSE All Share ended the year higher, and 580 were down. It is therefore not surprising that few long only managers were able to profit," McLean says, "Without question this year will be challenging for the economy. However, at a company level there will be winners and losers and fundamental stock picking skills will be required to identify them."

The focus will be on generating positive returns over the long term rather than positive performance each month, as such SVM believes the appropriate time frame for investing in the new fund is at least three years.

Based in Edinburgh, SVM focuses principally on global fund of funds, UK and European equities.

HK Fund to team up with Paulson Hedge Fund in Offshore Launch

One of Hong Kong’s largest independent financial institutions, Sun Hung Kai Financial, is teaming up with hedge fund Paulson & Co, launching a distressed asset investment fund, according to a Reuters report.

John Paulson will act as the new $100 million offshore fund's investment manager. The fund will only be open to professional investors and will feed into Paulson’s existing “recovery fund”, which invests in distressed financial assets, according to the report.

With approximately $29 billion in assets under management Paulson hedge fund has offices in New York, London and Hong Kong. Sun Hung Kai has over HK$50 billion ($6.45 billion) in assets under management, together, the funds plan to invest globally, but are focused mainly on the United States.

Rizal Wijono, Managing Director at SHK Fund Management Limited, the Sun Hung Kai's asset management business said, “There is a lot of turmoil in the U.S., which is Paulson’s home market. They’ve been looking at a approximately 100 financial institutions who they think are going to be the survivors and the failures,” he said, “To date, they’re looking into Asia, but they haven’t identified potential positions yet. If you’re looking for maximum appreciation, the obvious place is the developed world.”

Bankrupt Tulsa Execs Receive Over $3 Milllion in Bonuses

A pair of SemGroup LP executives are the only two administrators named to receive bonuses from both the bankrupt Tulsa company and its publicly held and struggling subsidiary, SemGroup Energy Partners LP, tulsaworld.com first reported Thursday.

Pete Schwiering and Jerry Parsons were named among 10 SemGroup LP leaders slated to receive up to $3.8 million in combined incentives if the Tulsa-based company meets or exceeds certain criteria, according to bankruptcy court records in Delaware. The incentives are designed to keep employees on board while SemGroup LP sells off assets or emerges from Chapter 11 protection.

Schwiering and Parsons both could gain up to $468,750 in additional pay under the SemGroup LP incentive plan. Schwiering heads up SemCrude oil operations, while Parsons leads the company's SemMaterials asphalt unit.

Last month, SemGroup Energy Partners' compensation committee approved bonus pay for five executives, including CEO Kevin Foxx, Schwiering and Parsons, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Parsons' bonus pay for his SGLP asphalt work totaled $215,000, while Schwiering received an additional $120,000 for leading the public company's crude oil operations, according to reports.

The parent SemGroup filed for bankruptcy protection July 22 after admitting its traders lost $2.4 billion in failed oil futures transactions. The company also owes $2.5 billion to banks and other lenders and up to $1 billion to oil and gas producers who sold their product on credit, according to reports.

Hedge funds Manchester Securities and Alerian Capital Management gained SGLP board control when the parent company defaulted on a $150 million loan, and the public firm tried to find other, third-party customers for its storage and pipeline services.

SemGroup Energy Partners is not a debtor in the bankruptcy case, but it suffers from its own credit default and cash-flow challenges, records show. Schwiering has worked for SemGroup since 2000, the year that it was founded. Parsons joined SemGroup in 2006. Neither SemGroup LP or SGLP spokesmen could be reached for comment.

December Investor Survey finds Managment fees too High

When surveyed about what they think about fee levels and value for money offered by investment managers, investors believe that managment fees are too high.

Two surveys were conducted by bfinance in December, questioning institutional investors and asset managers from Europe, North America, and the Gulf Region.

"The results indicate that pension funds believe investment management fees are too high and need to come down, and a majority of managers seem to agree." David Vafai, CEO of bfinance commented.

With regards to hedge fund and fund of hedge fund fee levels, pension funds generally feel that all fees need to be reduced. 77% of respondents state their first priority is for lower base fees, followed by 52% who indicate their desire for performance fees to be reduced and for there to be an increase in hurdle rates. Also, 65% of investors say that these performance fees should be calculated over a four or five year period.

"Clearly, investors are still willing to pay performance fees to reward long-term skill but are no longer willing to pay active fees for beta or for 'luck'", commented Olivier Cassin, Managing Director, Research and Development for bfinance.

Hedge fund managers agree that fees would likely go down and indicate they expect the median level for base fees for FoHFs to decline 9% to 95bps and for the median level of performance fees for hedge funds to decline 25% to 13%.

Vafai concluded, "Although the study indicates disenchantment with the industry in general, and disenchantment with Fund of Hedge Funds and GTAA managers comes out particularly clearly, the study also rather paradoxically suggests that allocations to FoHFs, as well GTAA, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Equity FoFs are set to increase in the future. This confirms the results of our recent study on the impact of the crisis on pension fund asset allocation"

Alternative Investment Specialist Joins Canadian Hedge Fund Manager

Todd Groome is joining Diversified Global Asset Management (DGAM) as a Managing Director, effective February 1, 2009. Responsible for business development, Groome will also advise the investment team on macro investment themes and the global economic and policy environment.

"I am extremely pleased to join DGAM, a firm that is known for its expertise in hedge fund investing, its focus on business and operational integrity, and its leading edge thinking in a variety of investment areas, including in particular DGAM's strong commitment to building strategic relationships with its clients." Todd Groome said." Groome will be based out of DGAM's Toronto office.

With a wealth of experience in capital markets in both the public and private sectors, previously positioned as Managing Director and Head of the Financial Institutions Groups of Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse in London, managing the European High Yield origination business for a period of time.

He also worked with Merrill Lynch and was a consultant to Hovde Capital Advisors, a hedge fund and merchant banking operation in Washington, focusing on financial institutions.

In December, 2008, Groome was named non-Executive Chairman of the Alternative Investment Management Association ("AIMA"), with effect from January 1, 2009.

George Main, CEO of DGAM, commented further, saying "I am delighted that Todd Groome will be joining the firm. Todd's deep experience, insights and stature in the global financial community will be invaluable assets as we take DGAM into our next growth phase."

Hedge Fund Editor to Join NetSalonFX as Adviser

Chris Gillick, currently an associate editor with Trader Monthly and Dealmaker magazines, has agreed to join NetSalonFX as an adviser, principal/branch manager, and regulatory liaison, having just completed his NASD Series 30 exam.

As an editor for Trader Monthly and Dealmaker, he has covered the hedge fund industry, brokerages, private equity and investment banking. In 2008, he helped produce several widely followed industry lists such as the Trader Monthly 100, the Trader Monthly Top 30 Under 30, the Dealmaker Top 40 Under 40, and Dealmaker's Party Crashers, featuring the top women in private equity.

"I am happy to have Chris aboard," Says Lance A. Perry, CEO of NetSalonFX and its parent company, NetSalon Software Development Inc, "He brings great credibility as a financial professional with deep knowledge of the foreign exchange market, and as a journalist covering so many sectors of the financial world. He's going to be a great asset to our clients."

"I'm very much looking forward to working with the NetSalonFX team," says Gillick. "I'm excited to get my into the trading world while still pursuing my passion of journalism."

NetSalonFX's clients are all accredited investors, whom Gillick is accustomed to conversing with regularly in his coverage of the world of high finance. "I have had the privilege of meeting people in every corner of the world of finance, including introducing brokers in the foreign exchange market. Unfortunately not all IBs have the best intentions when selling their products. However, NetSalonFX has done a great job of screening out unqualified investors and building a community of traders who understand fully the great risks, and rewards, of the foreign exchange market."

Eze's Virtual Hotel Suites

Hedge fund manager, Eze Castle Integration has introduced a web version of its "hedge fund hotel" for small hedge funds with fewer than 10 people.

The company introduced the fully managed physical suite in November 2007 and the Eze says that the new offering has many of the same options now, over the Internet, using Citrix servers and thin clients. Users pay a monthly subscription fee for this hosted platform using their own desktops and basic networking.

"We act as a cloud," says Bob Guilbert, managing director. "As we add more applications to our back end data center, we'll enable clients to get things like CRM services, accounting services and anything else that might be necessary to run a back office operation. The benefit of this solution is they don't have to build out an IT infrastructure, they don't have to build out a data center. That makes it very easy for them to become operational."

Directory of Commodity Exchange Traded Funds Launched by Energy Hedge Fund Center

The Energy Hedge Fund Center, an online community focused on energy and environmental alternative investments, has launched a Directory of Commodity-focused Exchange Traded Funds that will appeal to ordinary investors. The Directory lists Exchange Traded Funds, Exchange Traded Notes and Exchange Traded Commodities in Excel format.

"Over the last several years there has also been an explosion of Exchange Traded instruments accessible by ordinary investors that are designed to provide exposure to commodities," reports Dr. Gary M. Vasey, Co-Principal of EHFC. "This directory is designed as a single source for investors interested in these vehicles."

"The financial crisis has driven more business to exchanges and ETFs. We expect more growth in this sector next year," said Peter Fusaro, Co-Principal, Energy Hedge Fund Center.