Main News

 

BOSTON (HedgeWorld.com)—Stock exchanges continue to lose U.S. equity market business to rapidly growing dark liquidity pools and electronic communication networks, according to a recent report from Aite Group LLC, which examines market fragmentation and intensified competition between trading venues in the United States over the past two years. ......

 

Volatility traders thrive amid swinging mood -- [at FT Investor]

By Anuj Gangahar and David Oakley MarketWatch
9/13/2007 1:35:40 PM

 

Bank of England to bail out Northern Rock -- [at FT.com]
By Peter Thal Larsen and Chris Giles FT.com
9/13/2007 7:30:31 PM

 

Credit squeeze curbs Capgemini -- [at FT.com]
By Pan Kwan Yuk in Paris and Philip Stafford in London FT.com
9/14/2007 1:01:07 PM

 

U.S. Economic Forecast: Another Panic Of '07?
We had thought that except for the housing market, the problems would have little effect on the economy. However, the drop in employment in August and the downward revisions to the previous two months of job data---together with the earlier downward revision to recent GDP--suggest less momentum than we had thought. Consequently, the danger of recession is more severe than we had thought. On the positive side, this makes a Federal Reserve rate cut nearly certain at the Sept. 18, meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee.
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Issues Of Subordination for Hedge Fund Debt
Hedge funds' debt obligations represent some distinct issues that are not present for other types of corporate debt. Because hedge funds typically do not have permanent capital, the position of debt in the capital structure is unclear. In principal, it should be senior to equity in liquidation. In reality, if equity holders can redeem ahead of the maturity date of the debt, the debt effectively can become equity. We evaluate the degree of permanence of the capital, as well as the effect of any covenants, to determine the degree of subordination inherent in the debt.
To learn more, click or copy and paste the URL below:
http://standardandpoors.rsys1.net/servlet/cc5?kHiQWYYRQTVsLgHxhilpuHQJhuV2VU

 

The Kyoto Protocol’s international carbon-trading market is set for expansion, with the introduction of a worldwide transaction log by the end of the year. The International Transaction Log (ITL) will link the carbon registries for each Kyoto nation through an online network. The ITL will link into the existing EU Emissions Trading Scheme’s (ETS's) transaction log in November, connecting the EU market to the rest of the Kyoto accord countries. “The functioning of the ITL would give an enormous boost in confidence to the carbon market,” said Sara Stahl, head of business development and marketing in London at the Amsterdam-based European Climate Exchange. “At the moment you can only trade CERs on a forward basis. When the ITL is operational, a spot market will develop as well,” says Stahl. 
Carbon-trading l og ready by November

 

Reinsurer Swiss Re has structured a weather derivatives deal to help lessen the effects of drought on African farmers for the Millennium Promise Alliance (MPA), a charity that aims to end extreme poverty worldwide by 2025. The products are structured as one- and two-month put options on an index of green vegetation coverage in the areas, assessed using a combination of weather and satellite data. Swiss Re said about 150,000 people in total would benefit from the coverage purchased by the MPA. The three trades comprise $2 million in notional value, at roughly $650,000 each.
Weather derivatives help fulfil Millennium Promise

 

Funds of Funds Managers Hope To Avoid Liquidity Mismatch
Financial News (US) Online - Friday September 14, 09:11 BST

 

Stress Testing for Risk Control Under Basel II Authors Chorafas, Dimitris N.; Date December 2006 Category Financial Crises,Financial Crises

Improving VaR and Skewness of Mean-Variance Portfolios Authors Cox, Samuel H.; Zuluaga, Luis; Date May 2007 Category Portfolio Optimization
Click above to see all GloriaMundi resources from these categories

Hit by a rock
The credit crisis hits the high street
Full article

 

Still hanging on
How far, and how fast, will the dollar fall?
Full article

 

Merrill Says Fair Value Adjustments Made for Subprime (Update2). By Erik Schatzker. Enlarge Image/Details. Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Merrill Lynch & Co., ...
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adbZFZEOtDuw&refer=home - 6 hours ago - Similar pages - Note this

 

US – The Pennsylvania State Empoyees’ Retirement System (SERS) delivered an investment return of 11.4% in the first six months of 2007, and 22.2% over the 12 month period ended 30 June.

 

Around 200 hedge funds focused on India: Commerzbank
Source: Moneycontrol.com
Mehraj Mattoo, Hedge Fund Manager, Commerzbank said that the hedge fund industry is broadly looking positive going forward. He added that he doesn't see significant redemptions across all hedge funds and one should expect some flight to quality to more quality hedge funds. More... <http://www.hedgefund-index.com/newstoday.asp>

 

Contagion In Emerging Markets: When Wall Street is a Carrier
by Guillermo A. Calvo
The paper examines the case in which the capital market is populated by informed and uninformed investors. The uninformed try to extract information from informed investors' trades. This opens up the possibility that if informed investors are forced to sell emerging market securities to meet margin calls, for example, this action may be misread by the uninformed investors as signaling low returns in emerging markets... More... <http://www.hedgefund-index.com/s_emerging.asp>

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Yield Curve Corner

 

US – The Pennsylvania State Empoyees’ Retirement System (SERS) delivered an investment return of 11.4% in the first six months of 2007, and 22.2% over the 12 month period ended 30 June.

 

Messy work Canada's central banker
Lessons from Canada suggest it is important to buy time ... more

 

Bernanke, Paulson to testify on mortgages Sept 20 at House ...
CNNMoney.com - USA
13, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Housing and Urban ...
See all stories on this topic

 

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Natural Disaster Corner

 

Climate Prediction  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/predictions.php

World Meterological Organization http://severe.worldweather.org/

Tornadoes: http://www.disastercenter.com/tornado.htm

Great Sat Pictures of events: http://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Current/TRCingrid257_G12.jpg

 

New Sumatra quakes rock Indonesia
September 14, 2007 04:44 AM ET
PADANG BAKUNG, Indonesia (Reuters) - Frightened residents on
Indonesia's Sumatra island huddled in tents outside their
damaged homes on Friday, traumatized by the latest of more than
40 aftershocks since a huge earthquake struck two days ago.
http://links.reuters.com/r/5Y3GW/QGA5K/O4INZ/5A4LB/YM8VT/GX/t?a1=nl_usmorningdigest

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Iranian Situation

 

The headline is: A glimpse of Iran you don't see

Click this link:
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=b3d2f05e-df3f-4757-ad2f-bbf56a88cf87&f=00&fg=

 

Abducted Belgian released in Iran
AFP via Yahoo! News Fri, 14 Sep 2007 6:57 AM PDT
Iran said on Friday that Belgian citizen Stefaan Boeve has been released after being held by bandits for more than a month and that he will soon be handed over to the Belgian authorities.

 

Iran leader: Bush will be tried
AP via Yahoo! News Fri, 14 Sep 2007 7:49 AM PDT
President Bush and other American officials will one day face trial just like deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for "the catastrophes they caused in Iraq," Iran's supreme leader said Friday.

 

Iran: A Free Trade Agreement in the Gulf?
http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=295280

 

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Opalesque’s Corner

 

- Opalesque Exclusive: Why Forsyth failed, UK FSA suspends Forsysth license, funds `OK`, Industry observers surprised by forced speed of sale, open questions, Will Crosby close the deal?
- Quant hedge fund rebound not enough for some, Renaissance recovers, but other quants end August with big losses, Catch 22: To benefit from rebound it was critical that funds hadn`t de-leveraged too much,  Investors pull $1.5bn out of Goldman hedge fund, Where is the multi-strat in Global Alpha?, More rumors: Are the managers being pushed out?
- Pirate`s activist funds declined as much as 19.2% through July
- Big hedge winners see more market pain ahead, Lahde fund up 410% gross
- 74% of hedge funds see red in August, Barclay hedge fund index drops 1.41%,  RBC Hedge 250 investable index down -1.70%, Asia-focused hedge funds post worst showing since May 2006
- New Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index research signals rebound for statistical arbitrage strategies, Opportunities from distressed debt,  Commercial paper continues to show signs of recovery
- Natixis Global Asset Management acquire Andrew Lo`s AlphaSimplex, Octane Holdings buys South African hedge fund
- Hedge-fund numbers may decline, Commerzbank`s Mattoo says, Freeman: Hedge funds to bounce back from August debacle, but mutual funds will struggle
- New winning trades make millions for volatility traders,  Box spread: `Bin Laden` trades are usually cheap-funding strategy
- Interdealer brokers and large prime brokerages risk severe financing imbalances in repo market
- More changes to come at ratings agencies?
- Hedge fund woes spreading to art market?
- Identifying Peak Metals, Critical Metals and Strategic Metals, Part I: Gallium and Rhodium
- Pimco to launch $2 billion distressed debt fund, Vice fund outperforms again
- CalSTRS seeks currency managers, to build alpha-pool
- Wilshire launches fixed income predictor
- Greenspan says he `didn`t really get it` about sub-prime lending, opposes rushed rate cuts because of inflation fears
- Northern Rock first high profile British victim of credit crisis
- SEC charges hedge fund manager Berlacher, Lancaster funds in PIPE case, case exemplifies sophisticated PIPE fraud scheme
- Illinois Federal Court freezes assets of Lake Shore Asset Management, court finds Lake Shore Common Enterprise committed fraud
- Update: SemperMacro on its own after returns, assets fall
- Opalesque Exclusive:  Swiss asset management magazine crowns best domestic hedge funds
- Vision 2015 - Switzerland among the top three centres of
international finance worldwide
- SYZ & CO appoints Alan Mudie as CEO for its family of funds, OYSTER Funds
- Opalesque Exclusive: How Greenwoods Golden China Fund benefited from market rout, continues expansion, Swedish fund Whisper Hedge benefits from year-long defensive strategy
- Hedge fund investments rocket 400% in India
- Hedge fund managers in Asia don`t see fees coming down yet
- Macquarie flags record H1, profit, shares rise
- Activist News: Fortis offers concessions to aid ABN Amro bid
- News Briefs: CalPERS commits $546m to European Private Equity fund manager, New York Pension Fund requires more disclosure of referral fees, CalPERS commits $546m to European Private Equity fund manager, London hedge fund manager buys GBP13m estate,  Icap finally launches China JV
- ...And finally: Teen shoots himself `accidentally` in leg while standing in line at McDonald`s
- Logon: http://www.opalesque.com/main.php?act=archive

 

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Misc. Items of Interest

 

KAL's cartoon

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Funnies, Facts, Quotes, etc….

 

ignoble ig-NOH-bul, adjective:

1. Of low birth or family; not noble; not illustrious; plebeian; common; humble.
2. Not noble in quality, character, or purpose; characterized by baseness, lowness, or meanness.

 

1994:  Acting commissioner of baseball Bud Selig announced that the remainder of the 1994 major league baseball season, including the World Series, would be canceled. Players and owners had failed to reach a settlement of the players' strike begun in August.

1975:  Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint, was canonized by the Roman Catholic church.

1927:  Isadora Duncan, a pioneer of modern expressive dance, died in France in an automobile accident.

1901:  U.S. President William McKinley died eight days after being shot in Buffalo, New York.

1849:  Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, known chiefly for his development of the concept of the conditioned reflex, was born.

1829:  Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Edirne, concluding the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29.

1814:  Francis Scott Key was inspired to write "The Star-Spangled Banner" after Fort McHenry successfully withstood a British attack.

1752:  Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar; the date was moved ahead 11 days (the day after September 2 became September 14).

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Conference, Courses, Books, Papers

 

Great Research Sites:

 

Merrill Lynch research Link to full report including important disclosures see example

 

John Mauldin’s Weekly Analysis

 

James Altucher’s Website:

 

Other useful sites:

 

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Index Corner

 

The CSFB/Tremont Hedge Fund Index www.hedgeindex.com.

The Cogent Dynamic Averages http://www.cogenthedge.com/home/inv_strategy.asphttp://www.cogenthedge.com/home/inv_strategy.asp

The Dow Jones Indices: http://www.djhedgefundindexes.com/index.cfm?event=viewPremiumContent (free registration)

HFRX Indices https://www.hedgefundresearch.com/hfrx_reg/index.php?fuse=login&1170880431

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Regulatory Info

 

 

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Disclaimer

 

The information contained in this document does not constitute an offer or solicitation to sell any security or other type of vehicles to or by anyone in any jurisdictions, nor should it be regarded as a contractual document. Under no circumstances should the information provided on this document be considered as financial advice, or as a sufficient basis on which to make investment decisions. The information contained herein has been gathered by Investor DNA, LLC from sources deemed reliable as of the date of publication, but no warranty of accuracy or completeness is given. Investor DNA, LLC is not responsible for and provides no guarantee with respect to any of the information provided herein or through the use of any hypertext link. Past results are no indication of future performance. All information in this newsletter is for educational and informational purposes and does not constitute investment, legal, tax or accounting advice. All materials are the property of the respective publishers, as referenced by header and appropriate hypertext links.