Features

If having a diversified portfolio and product line are the ingredients for a successful hedge fund, then New York-based Stillwater Capital Partners is cooking. Stillwater sports an asset-backed lending hedge fund, an asset-backed fund of funds, and a multi-strategy fund of funds. All three vehicles posted double-digit returns last year, 11.10%, 11.81% and 15.02% respectively (net of fees), with low volatility. The firm also manages a private equity real estate fund.

A charter member of President George W. Bush’s “axis of evil,” Iran has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons, most notably its nuclear program and the increasingly anti-American rhetoric of its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But there is more to Iran than split atoms and ayatollahs.

Housing will likely have a hard landing this year and consumer spending will also hit a rough patch, according to a recent survey of 106 distressed debt prop traders and hedge fund managers, conducted by distressed and high-yield data provider Debtwire. As new debt issuance dries up in 2007, hedge funds that participate in the space will find a tougher fund raising environment. And as competition heats up for lesser deals, hedge funds will make riskier bets resulting in attrition for some of the 1,000 funds this year.

by Hung Tran 

The geopolitical and financial world has undergone major changes in the last decade, and investors have been put to the test with the threat of terrorism, the bursting of the tech and housing bubbles, and the proliferation of hedge funds.

By Hung Tran

Hedge fund managers who got hammered by the Japanese and South Korean equities markets or the currency and distressed debt markets this year should look ahead to better days in 2007, according to Virginia Parker, founder of Stamford-based Parker Global Strategies. 

By Hung Tran 

Back in 1997, the secondary market was less viable than it is today, with few firms engaged in it in an “unorganized manner,” recalls John Wolak executive director at Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners. Today, the market is experiencing strong growth with more buyers, sellers and intermediaries.

“Virtually any deal today greater than $25 million in size is being sold through an auction process, which is quite competitive and priced at premiums at asset value,” said Wolak, speaking at a recent conference in New York sponsored by IncreMental Advantage.

By Deirdre Brennan 

Asset managers have dozens of options when it comes to choosing a database provider, but when it comes to platforms that aggregate information from multiple sources, there are still only two kids on the block.

PerTrac, the 800-pound gorilla of the fund data aggregation industry, has more or less enjoyed a monopoly on the marketplace for the past decade. However, a small firm led by a big personality has recently begun to make its move.

Hedge fund firm T&T Capital Management has overhauled its three-year-old Sweet Spot Fund, a volatility arbitrage vehicle, and is now gearing up its marketing effort with the aim of attracting institutional investors.

Teymuraz Eliazov, the fund’s portfolio manager, explains that following three years of high returns that failed to attract many new investors, he decided that in order to attract institutions, he would have to lower the fund’s volatility and raise its capacity.

Boston-based Civic Capital Group is among a growing number of investment firms that aim to create positive change in society, while at the same time generating high returns for investors. Three years ago, the firm launched the Civic Capital Group Fund I, a conservative long/short hedge fund that invests in companies that actively address social and environmental problems.

By Deirdre Brennan

After an ugly 2005, hedge fund experts declared convertible arbitrage all but dead, saying that the field was too crowded and opportunities were far and few between. While October returns for the asset class were weak (up 0.76%, according to the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes), convertible arbitrage managers posted the best results for the third quarter, 3.27%, and the strategy is up 9.51% year-to-date, making it second-highest performer in the Dow Jones indices.