Features

David BaranDavid Baran is co-founder of Tokyo and Singapore-based Symphony Financial Partners, an investment manager that specializes in event driven hedge funds and has over $200 million in AUM. Baran spoke with FINalternatives’ Senior Reporter Mary Campbell recently on a wide range of issues, from what to look for in a Japanese company to how to avoid investing in the next Sino-Forest, and many topics in between.

Direxion president and CIO Dan O’Neill says portfolio diversification is about asset classes, but it’s also about strategies. To O’Neill’s way of thinking, Direxion has been in the alternative asset business for years, and now the firm is poised to launch additional “alternative” investments—both mutual funds and ETFs.

What is the Foreign Corrupt Practices act and why should you be concerned about it?  Matthew Reinhard of the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Miller & Chevalier, says FCPA penalties have increased “exponentially” over the past decade and could pose a significant economic risk to investment managers.

Mark MartyrossianMark Martyrossian is a founding partner of Tiburon Partners and responsible, along with Mark Fleming, for managing the firm’s Tiburon Taipan and Taurus funds. Martyrossian is focused on—and bullish about—Asia and spoke recently to FINalternatives Senior Reporter Mary Campbell to explain why.

Established in 1986 to encourage the development of natural resources in the U.S., master limited partnerships have only “started to grow up and be a legitimate asset class” very recently, according to Brian Watson, head of research at the Dallas-based investment manager SteelPath. SteelPath specializes in MLPs—which are structured as limited partnerships but trade on public exchanges and must earn 90% of their returns from real estate, natural resources or commodities.

In an era of non-stop news, even hedge fund managers, who once shunned reporters’ phone calls, are now being forced to interact with the media. However, confusion remains over just what a fund manager can and should reveal to a reporter. FINalternatives recently spoke with Mitch Ackles, who serves as global director and spokesman for The Hedge Fund Association, about the benefits of building a relationship with the media, and what a hedge fund manager should and should not discuss.

Deepak Gurnani, head of hedge funds for global asset management firm Investcorp, says he expects "further pain and deteriorating economic fundamentals over the next 12 months, stemming mostly from Europe’s flawed austerity plan and the failure of its leaders to address the regional sovereign debt crisis." On a brighter note, he says there should be plenty of opportunities for hedge funds to put investors' money to work.

Nobody can say for sure what lies ahead, but FINalternatives Senior Reporter Mary Campbell asked some industry experts to give us their best guess as to what 2012 will bring for markets generally—and hedge funds in particular. Here’s what they had to say (Part II of III).

Nobody can say for sure what lies ahead, but FINalternatives Senior Reporter Mary Campbell asked some industry experts to give us their best guess as to what 2012 will bring for markets generally—and hedge funds in particular. Here’s what they had to say (Part I of III)...

Mutual funds employing hedge fund strategies are growing both in popularity and number. When the Hatteras Funds, a $2.1 billion alternative investments firm founded in 2003, decided to go into that business, it bought a mutual fund of hedge fund strategies that's actually a year older than the firm itself.