Clayton CheekScottish investment management firm Martin Currie is well-known in the long-only space, but the firm has been managing hedge funds since 2000. As of the end of September, the firm had $19.1 billion in assets under management, with $1.3 billion of this dedicated to hedge funds. With 45 investment professionals and a staff of 250 based around the globe, Martin Currie calls itself a ‘big boutique’.

FINalternatives recently sat down to chat with Clayton Cheek, who joined the firm in September to expand Martin Currie’s hedge fund sales in the U.S. 

Publically-listed middle market investment bank FBR Capital Markets recently launched a prime brokerage unit. The 20-year-old firm hired a veteran team from Shoreline Trading Group to form the core of the new initiative. The team includes Michael Murray, Matthew Ventura, Paul Havens and Donald Marigliano.

FINalternatives recently sat down with Murray, managing director and head of prime brokerage services at FBR, to discuss the new unit and his views on the changing landscape of the prime brokerage industry.

By Damian Hampson – Cash needy investors have hit the hedge fund industry hard with many managers experiencing significant redemptions during the first half of 2009.  In exclusive interviews with Alternative Latin Investor, Brazilian fund managers have voiced their concerns about surviving the current worldwide economic downturn.  

Irene AldridgeBy Irene Aldridge -- High-frequency trading has been taking Wall Street by storm.  While no institution thoroughly tracks the performance of high-frequency funds, colloquial evidence suggests that the majority of high-frequency managers delivered positive returns in 2008, while 70% of low-frequency practitioners lost money, according to The New York Times.  

Alan DonenfeldSince its inception in 2005, New York City-based special situations hedge fund firm Paragon Capital has been generating average annual returns of 45%. Paragon employs a buy low, sell high investment strategy, enabling the firm to make opportunistic investments directly in public companies at a significant discount to their stock price while realizing on their investments in the short term.

We recently spoke with Paragon founder and portfolio manager Alan Donenfeld about his investment strategy and why his fund has performed so well despite the recent volatile marketplace.

The Obama administration’s proposal for a financial regulatory overhaul continues to send shockwaves through the financial services sector.  The hedge fund and alternative investment industry is likely to receive heightened government oversight under any reform efforts.  As this scenario unfolds, the usually low-profile hedge fund community has stepped up its presence in Washington with the goal of influencing new regulations. 

L. Burke FilesThe recent raft of Ponzi schemes may seem like a new sort of epidemic to the investors they victimize and the regulators they all too frequently skirt. To L. Burke Files, it’s just another day at the office.

As practice leader for due diligence and asset location investigations at New York-based investigative and protective services firm The Lubrinco Group, Files has seen frauds from the very small to the very large. And he has successfully steered clients away from such high-profile hedge fund frauds as those led by Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Stanford.

Hedge Fund Technology & TradingWhen it comes to analytic and workflow solutions for investment professionals, PerTrac is the undisputed 800-pound gorilla of the asset management industry. The firm boasts more than 2,000 clients in 50 countries, including institutional investors, family offices, private banks, service providers and money managers. 

By Hung Tran -- As assets under management dwindle and performance fees fall, hedge funds are increasingly looking for ways to cut costs. But choosing whether or not to outsource certain operations—especially those that have traditionally been done in-house, such as risk management—is a big decision. Managers must not only look at the potential cost savings, but must also consider the quality, reliability and security of their vendors. Despite the caveats, hedge funds are increasingly taking the leap.

Bernard MadoffBy Hung Tran & Jonathan Shazar -- Bernard Madoff has gone up the river, unlikely to ever return. But the specter of his $65 billion Ponzi scheme continues to hang over the alternative investments industry.

For many investors, especially those of the all-important institutional variety, the only way to combat Madoff’s dark cloud is to shine a bright light on what have long been the more secretive corners of the industry. One-page monthly statements from hedge fund and private equity managers are no longer enough; these clients are demanding transparency, due diligence and risk management previously anathema to many of the industry.