Highlights from HFR Global Hedge Fund Industry Report 1Q 2012 Total capital invested in the global hedge fund industry increased to $2.13 trillion, surpassing the previous record of $2.04 trillion set at mid-year 2011. Investor preferences for fixed income-based Relative Value and less correlated Macro strategies, which have been favoured for over two years, accelerated […] Read more »
Managing An Existing Macro Position – Aussie Dollar Example from Bridgewater As Would Be Managed by Caxton Associates
Having been asked what would a trader or macro manager do now on the Aussie Dollar position mentioned in a couple of articles (here and here) here is a response. Below in graphic one is the original set-up graphic annotated to show the current A$/US$ rate. Graphic One – A$ v US$ over the six […] Read more »
Chart of the Day is the Technical Position of the Aussie Dollar
A recent article here cited a short in the Australian Dollar as a position held by Bridgewater Associates at the turn of the year. Often global macro investors like both a fundamental case and a technical case for their positions – the bias one way or the other is a style point for differentiating between […] Read more »
Oaktree Capital Sets Out To Seize Control in Europe
Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management There are a number of managers of distressed assets who are able to take a medium-to-long-term macro view about the viability of the opportunity set in front of them. Successful distressed investing is a cyclical phenomenon, such that there are better times than others to apply fresh capital to […] Read more »
Bridgewater Associates and the Aussie Dollar
Introduction by Simon Kerr Over the last decade Bridgewater Associates has managed an unusual feat – adding a lot of value to its investors at the same time as adding a lot of assets under management. In doing so it has hit some notable milestones in the last year – it is now by some […] Read more »
Hedge Fund Risk Management is “A Work in Progress”
By Simon Kerr For a long period I was unable to carry on reading SEI’s fifth annual global survey of institutional hedge fund investors beyond this summary point: “RISK MANAGEMENT IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. Only one in five of those we polled agreed that “most hedge funds do a good job of risk management.” […] Read more »
Hedge Funds to Step Up In LBO Market in Europe
Just like the private equity business, Leveraged Buy Out (LBO) activity is usually subject to a cycle related to that of the stock market with a lag. On top of that in Europe there used to be laid a secular growth in LBO volume, and a long-term trend towards a wider variety of buy-out financing […] Read more »
Millennium Capital Leads the Large US Managers in Europe
One of the consequences of the Credit Crunch of 2008/9 was a scaling back by hedge fund managers – they cut their gross, they restricted redemptions, and, in managing their companies through a traumatic period for the industry, the larger managers often reduced headcount or closed their offices in Asia and London. When there were […] Read more »
The Big Hedge Fund Stories from 2011
Although individual news items can have can have historical significance (such as story 1 below) the effort here is more to point to the themes and trends at work in the hedge fund industry last year. Here are my top stories for 2011: Bruce Kovner 1. Big Name Retirements – two of the best known […] Read more »
Translations of a Due Diligence Meeting for a Hedge Fund
A well prepared due diligence meeting has a subtext. The following translations will help hedge fund managers understand from where their interrogators (and potential investors) are coming. Do you have any plans to add any employees? (Do you plan to re-model your house in the near future or are you going to back the growth […] Read more »