Features

By Deirdre Brennan

Calling all start-up hedge fund managers: If you are willing to bet on yourself, there may be someone willing to bet on you. Lewis Chester, CEO of global investment management firm Pentagon Capital, provides loans to small hedge funds in order to help them reach the critical mass needed to attract institutional investors.

“We provide leverage when a bank or a prime broker won’t,” said Chester, who began his career as a lawyer at Linklaters before earning an MBA at Harvard Business School and joining Pentagon, which was founded 20 years ago by his father.

By Kate McGregor

Whenever the discussion of alternative energy comes up, inevitably, so does the name Robert Wilder. Wilder, founder and ceo of Wildershares, is the mastermind behind two clean energy indices, the WilderHill Clean Energy Index (ECO) and the WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index (NEX). But Wilder has some good news and some bad news for hedge fund managers eager to take advantage of the sector's growth.

By Mark Smith, Guest Columnist 

Last Friday, a U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the need for hedge funds to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

By Deirdre Brennan 

Some public leaders and financial industry experts are pushing to have the definition of an “accredited investor” changed by raising the minimum income and net-worth requirements. The move would make it more difficult for the mass-affluent to invest in hedge funds, which proponents of the rule change believe will provide greater investor protection. Others question whether the rule really protects investors at all. 

By Deirdre Brennan 

Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin has state pension fund managers and advisors scratching their heads over comments he made last week in which he blasted hedge funds and their use in pension funds. Galvin said that he feels the $40 billion Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management board has invested too much in hedge funds, which he views as high-risk investments.   

MassPRIM, which is chaired by Massachusetts Treasury Secretary Tim Cahill, currently invests 5% of its portfolio in six fund-of-hedge funds and plans to double the amount invested in the vehicles to $4 billion by year-end.   

"I think [Galvin] is looking at it from an individual investor's point of view," said Cahill, who is a strong supporter of the plan having exposure to hedge funds. He added, "He is looking at the blowups."   

By Deirdre Brennan 

Albania is a long way from California, but the journey that Victor Dosti has taken to get to where he is now—a successful portfolio manager for a $40 million hedge fund in Los Angeles—has been far longer and more complex than the 6,000 miles that separate the struggling European nation and the thriving U.S. state.

By Sidney Wigfall, Esq., Guest Columnist

As seasoned Securities and Exchange Commission practitioners are well aware, SEC prospective guidance is rare, especially in areas considered virgin territory for the regulatory agency, like hedge funds.

By Deirdre Brennan 

Investors looking to place their money in socially responsible investment (SRI) vehicles have traditionally gone the mutual fund route, but now investors have more choices, specifically, SRI hedge funds. “There does seem to be increasing demand,” said Matthew Patsky, partner and portfolio manager at Winslow Management Company, one of a handful of investment firms offering an SRI hedge fund product.

By Deirdre Brennan 

While many Wall Street executives dream of making millions and retiring at an early age, Sash A. Spencer, a spry 75, isn’t slowing down anytime soon. In fact, his leveraged buyout firm, Holding Capital Group, is gearing up to launch a series of hedge funds, and Spencer is leading the charge. In the coming moths, Holding Capital is launching a hedge fund in partnership with a venture capital firm; ramping up marketing efforts to bring U.S. investors into an existing Hong Kong hedge fund; and launching a long/short Russia-focused fund.

By Deirdre Brennan 

First there were hedge funds, then there were funds-of-hedge funds, and now, fund-of-fund-of-hedge funds have entered the alternatives space. While less than a dozen or so firms globally offer this type of product, most of them domiciled in Europe, one firm here in the U.S. has created a footprint in the industry with this unusual type of investment vehicle.