Home Page About Us Issues back Issues Subscribe to HFJ Contact Us
image for lead article

Glenwood

The story of Glenwood is really the story of how a pioneer in Chicago’s nascent fund of hedge funds sector turned his start-up into an institutional-grade fund of funds, a firm that is now an integral part of one of the largest hedge fund groups on the planet. Frank Meyer, the pioneer in question, is certainly highly spoken of around the alternative investment community in Chicago. > read more

Commentary

Après moi le déluge?

Over a 36 hour period starting at six o’clock on the morning of Friday 14th March I was invited twice to appear on television, and asked to write no less than five articles for different publications. As readers will be well aware, this had nothing to do with me having suddenly developed a winning nature and film star good looks (I had these already, of course) but with the fate of Bear Stearns following rapidly upon the sudden demise of Carlyle Capital Corporation.
> read more

Manager Writes

Carbon Nation

he green house gas markets are an emerging and rapidly growing asset class. Although these markets are only recently emerging, they are developing rapidly and global interest is increasing daily. As we enter Kyoto Protocol’s first official commitment period, there are still a handful of uncertainties surrounding these emerging markets: Has the EU adjusted their allocation models appropriately to avoid another April 2006? Then, the price of emissions plummeted nearly 65%, as a response to the announcement that the EU had over allocated allowances, creating an oversupplied market.
> read more

Research

Institutional Assets

Of the 6,000 reported funds of hedge funds globally, between two thirds and half that figure appear to correspond to share classes and clones, leaving around 2500 genuine funds of hedge funds. Overall, estimates suggest that about $800bn to $1,000bn of hedge fund assets are managed through funds of hedge funds.
> read more

Profiles

Morley Fund Management: Shahid Ikram

The arc of Shahid Ikram’s career reflects the increasing sophistication of managing fixed income in an institutional context. He started as one of a team of four managing fixed income at Commercial Union (CU) in 1990. Today the Head of Sovereign & G7 funds at Morley, Aviva’s UK-based asset management business, is part of a cadre of 56 fixed income research and portfolio management professionals. Ikram himself has stayed put, but the firm has grown around him through takeover and merger (eg. General Accident, Provident Mutual and Norwich Union) such that parent company Aviva is the largest UK insurer and the fifth largest insurance group in the world.
> read more

Opinion

Structured Products

Up to last year, most people regarded valuation as a necessary but unexciting aspect of running an investment operation. Spotting future price changes was the skill to which traders aspired, not the humbler job of correctly measuring today’s price.
> read more

Technical

Gibraltar

The hedge fund industry in Gibraltar has grown in leaps and bounds over the last couple of years. Gibraltar, which is part of the EU, has staked its claim as an efficient hedge fund centre that is open for business. It operates within a regulated fund regime that is in tune with the requirements of the modern hedge fund industry and is not only attractive as a domicile and servicing centre for alternative funds but could also lead to hedge fund managers choosing Gibraltar as a base for their operations.
> read more

Commentary

RMF Investment Letter

A difficult start to the year for all asset classes continued into February. Global equity markets were negative with the MSCI World LC Index down -1.9%. However, performance was mixed with Asia ex Japan up most, while the US was the worst region as US stocks fell for the fourth straight month. Europe and Japan were flat to negative.
> read more

Opinion

Short Selling

This elusive group of ‘short’ investors have taken the blame for many of the crashes of the last 400 years; from the East India Company of 1609, the Great Wall Crash of 1929, Black Monday in 1987 and the bursting of the dot-com bubble in the early-2000s. Short sellers have been labelled as “stock-bashing rumour mongers” (Albert et al, 1997) and the “assassins of Corporate America” (Business Week, 1996).
> read more