Features

Bruce Lipnick, chief executive officer of Asset Alliance, a global alternative investment firm specializing in acquiring, seeding and growing hedge funds, talks to FINalternatives about the state of the hedge fund industry today and tells us how managers need to adapt in order to succeed tomorrow.

In January, most market indices took a beating, and hedge funds were no exception.

Contributor James Bibbings investigates whether a new proposed rule by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission would mean the end of retail forex transactions as we know them.

By Chris Carey -- Federal authorities are investigating the activities of two executives at Vicis Capital LLC, a New York hedge fund operator that began last year with nearly $5 billion under management.

Vicis is the biggest investor in a pair of small public companies that have been implicated in an insurance fraud scheme. The FBI and a grand jury have been examining what role, if any, representatives of the hedge fund played in that scheme.  

Israel is now home to its first global hedge fund, thanks to a pair of immigrants from the world’s great hedge fund centers.

Ezra Gardner and Etan Silver founded Omnium Capital Management in Tel Aviv about three months ago. While the fund, which has no relation to the similiarly-named Citadel Investment Group hedge fund administration business, is technically the third hedge fund in Israel, it is the first that does not focus on local investors.

By James Bibbings -- For the past several years’ social media sources such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube have been the centers of attention for marketers the world over.  Beyond the so called “big three” social media players, similar more user specific sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and other industry blog networks have also emerged as useful tools for promoting a business or brand. 

The past 18 months has been tumultuous for the prime brokerage industry. On Sept. 15, 2008, the day Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, hedge funds woke up to the fact that their assets could actually be frozen if a large bank failed. The practice of using multiple prime brokers and having several custody relationships took on new urgency. Hedge funds began to reevaluate their existing prime brokerage relationships en masse. 

By Saul Singer -- Over the last decade the global diamond industry has been focused on reinforcing the message that diamonds are the leading emotional and aspirational gift item in the mind of consumers across the globe. Millions of dollars in marketing expenditure is allocated on an annual basis to produce seductive and effective marketing campaigns which are of particular prevalence at this time of the year in the lead-up to the Holiday Season.

By Rickard Lundquist, Portfolio Specialist, SEB Private Banking -- Hedge funds continued to rise sharply in value during the third quarter of 2009, but early in the fourth quarter they showed a small decline in overall returns, according to the HFRX Global Hedge Index. In contrast, the Credit Suisse/ Tremont Index rose marginally (see table below).

By Jeff Malec -- November was a good month for many multi-market managers who reaped the benefits of volatility and trendy market conditions across many commodity markets.