New York, NY (PRWEB) April 18, 2006

Hedge Connection Inc. (“Hedge Connection”), the first web-based investor introduction service, today announces that it has achieved an important milestone with the registration of its 100th hedge fund member.

Lisa Vioni, the founder and President of Hedge Connection said, “We are pleased to welcome our 100th hedge fund member to Hedge Connection. Hedge Connection is the only service available that provides hedge fund managers direct access to investors. Our 500+ investor members and 100 hedge fund members are using our platform to source ideas and build relationships. Hedge funds representing all strategies and sizes have joined recognizing the value of our service.”

Launched in October of 2005, Hedge Connection serves the needs of hedge funds looking to meet investors and qualified investors looking for hedge fund investments. Hedge Funds pay a low annual membership fee to join Hedge Connection while qualified investors join for free. An industry first, all investor members have agreed to be contacted by hedge funds that are members of Hedge Connection. Hedge Connection is not a broker dealer and does not charge incentive fees or back-end commissions on any money raised.

Commenting on the news, Brad Schwartz, COO of Vectors Research Management LLC, an early Hedge Connection member said, “We recognized early on the value of Hedge Connection. As a new Investment Advisor that specializes in mortgage and asset-backed securities, Hedge Connection was an efficient tool to help identify prospective investors interested in our strategy. Lisa’s background in institutional sales and hedge fund marketing is a definite positive as she understands the challenges of raising assets.”

About Hedge Connection:

Ms. Lisa Vioni, a Wall Street veteran and seasoned hedge fund marketer, founded Hedge Connection Inc. in 2005. The service is open to hedge funds and qualified investors. Hedge funds pay an annual membership fee to access detailed investor profiles while qualified investors join for free. Hedge Connection offers hedge funds the opportunity to post fund information on the platform for free and source the first three investor profiles for free. Further information can be found at www.hedgeconnection.com.

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Man Group Opens Fund to Singapore Retail Investors
Man Group , the world’s largest publicly traded hedge-fund manager, is for the first time marketing to individual investors in Singapore a fund that uses computer programs to identify trades in futures markets, Bloomberg News reported.
Read more on New York Times

Man Group Sells AHL Fund to Singapore Retail Investors for the First Time
Man Group Plc , the world’s largest publicly traded hedge-fund manager, is for the first time marketing to individual investors in Singapore a fund which uses computer programs to identify trades in futures markets.
Read more on Bloomberg

Call for control on hedge funds
PETALING JAYA: While hedge funds have their pros and cons, local fund managers want them to be regulated like other funds operating in the country to prevent them from destabilising the capital market and to ensure better investor protection.
Read more on The Star

India Hedge Funds Beat Sensex but Investors Beware Wall Street Journal (blog) India-focused hedge funds are among the better performing hedge fund groups so far in 2010 and have produced nearly double the returns … Indian Hedge Funds Outperform Indian Stock Index So Far This YearWall Street Journal Morningstar: Hedge Funds Up Marginally In AugustFINalternatives Morningstar preliminary hedge fund performance for August 2010HedgeCo.net (blog) HedgeWeek -Financial-Planning.com all 8 news articles »

Source: Hedge Fund – Google News

Investors Say Performance Rules in Grading U.S. Hedge Funds NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire – 08/31/10) – Hedge fund investors have not forgotten the carnage of 2008, and the managers who learned its lessons — as well as those who produced stellar returns — garnered the top marks in the latest “Hedge Fund Report Card” survey in the September issue of AR Magazine. York Capital Management, the New York hedge fund founded by Jamie Dinan that manages $11.35 … Read more on Marketwire via Yahoo! Finance

Opalesque, the world’s largest subscription-based publisher covering the alternative investment industry, has launched the 32nd issue in a series of regional roundtable forums – the 2010 Opalesque West Coast Roundtable. The 25 page Roundtable publication can be downloaded for free at: http://www.opalesque.com/RT/RoundtableSF2010.html

The Western world has run up massive deficits in an effort to stabilize the markets and economies, but the financial system has not been meaningfully repaired. The authorities have not structurally changed the financial system: “All we did was provide huge amounts of liquidity. The markets are as vulnerable to financial shocks and at least as highly leveraged than they were before the financial crisis. The Fed has more than doubled its balance sheet and will have to exit markets at some point or its legitimacy will be called into question”, says John Burbank from Passport Capital.

“Armageddon” strategies and how plan sponsors have changed their game during the past 18 months

Burbank added that a number of people have asked Passport to design funds comprised of macro trades that would help them hedge against systemic risks. Jay Gould from Pillsbury also helped creating distaster insurance or “armageddon strategy” funds which work under the premise that U.S. will experience a very difficult time over the next several years, “including hyper-inflation, the abandonment of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency, further complications associated with our huge deficit spending, and a rush toward hard assets.”

In this Roundtable, you will also hear from Nuveen’s Ranjit Sufi how plan sponsors have changed their strategies during the past 18 months. This Roundtable further covers:

Overview of the latest products and research from funds and CTAs on intermarket correlations and quantitative trading
A discussion on the impact the regulatory changes will have on the markets: How will mandating more OTC products to clear/trade on an exchange impact liquidity? What is more important in a derivatives contract – liquidity or flexibility?
The democratization of alternatives: More funds using the 1940 Act format will be offering real CTA strategies with daily liquidity
Running a hedge fund from the West Coast: Why this location counts and where West beats the East Coast.

The Roundtable was sponsored by the CME Group and the Opalesque 2010 Roundtable Series Sponsors Custom House Group and Taussig Capital. The following West Coast based experts participated:

John Burbank, Managing Member and Chief Investment Officer, Passport Capital
Jay Gould, Partner, Pillsbury
Jeremy Evnine, President, Evnine & Associates, Inc.
Matt Osborne, Executive Vice President & CIO, Altegris
Ranjit Sufi, Manging Director, Nuveen
Rishi Narang, Founding Principal, Telesis Capital
Tina Lemieux, Managing Director of Hedge Fund and Broker Services, CME Group
Tom Shanks, Founder and CEO, Hawksbill

The Roundtable can be downloaded for free at: http://www.opalesque.com/RT/RoundtableSF2010.html

Matthias Knab, founder of Opalesque and internationally recognized expert on hedge funds and alternatives, moderates the Opalesque Roundtables. All other previously published Opalesque Roundtable Scripts can be accessed here:

http://www.opalesque.com/index.php?act=archiveRT

About Opalesque:

In 2003, with the publication of its daily Alternative Market Briefing, Opalesque successfully launched an information revolution in the hedge fund media space: “Opalesque changed the world by bringing transparency where there was opacity and by delivering an accurate professional reporting service.” – Nigel Blanchard, Culross. This hybrid financial news service, which combines proprietary industry news stories and filtered third party reports, has been credited by many industry insiders with delivering precise, accurate, and vital information to a notoriously guarded audience.

Each week, Opalesque sends out over 700,000 editions of its twelve publications to a global readership in over 170 countries. Opalesque is the only daily hedge fund publisher which is actually read by the elite managers themselves (http://www.opalesque.com/op_testimonials.html).

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Will Hedge Fund Investors Panic Next? As individual investors, we don’t necessarily need to worry about what mutual fund, hedge fund, and institutional managers are doing with the money they have under management. Instead, we seek out high quality companies, with strong businesses and management teams, and reward those companies with our faith and investment dollars. However, as retail investors continue to withdraw money from … Read more on The Motley Fool via Yahoo! News

A lot of investors who are actively seeking  to invest in shares of high yield investment opportunities, undervalued small cap stocks, offshore funds and hedge funds, or even pre-IPO private equity investment opportunities follow a crowd mentality of deal sourcing that doesn’t always net them the return or value their financial investment was allocated for.

And in most instances, even well capitalized affluent investors,  private equity groups, hedge funds, venture capitalists, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, pensions, & endowments can’t possible be in an inner VIP network of ground floor investments that are only accessible to a few.  So they are forced to park their internal equity into pre-ipo companies, small cap stocks, or portfolio managers hoping for a different result which doesn’t always materialize.

A better option is not to follow the crowd mentality and think outside the box in allocating to overall investment portfolios that are not always traditional in scope.  With a specific risk strategy and multiple exits of of profits not directly related to economic conditions, investing in film may just offer that kind of opportunity for both smaller affluent investors as well as hedge funds, private equity groups, family offices, financial and wealth advisers, fund of funds, and others.

Historically investment in film was either structured without  any risk minimization or the junior equity was crushed by the repayment of mezzanine & senior debt in large studio film slates. Investors thought that just by having their investment allocated with too many other tranches or based on fantasy mote carlo simulation models, there would a higher propensity for success.  Unfortunately the superior returns in film finance and film investing were only successful withing film funds or film production and distribution companies that had a grasp of structured film finance, the commercial viability of a story, as well as international distribution.

While films such as “Paranormal Activity”,  “Hurt Locker” and even “Avatar” were primarily financed with private equity, the upside in revenues for any private investment in Hollywood comes down to numerous factors that keep evolving every week at the box office.

There are plenty of affluent investors, wealthy families,  hedge funds or private equity groups that come into the film business and leave just as quick. Mainly because the partnerships weren’t based on precise risk minimization strategies. There are not too many investment right now aside from film that can offer a guaranteed rate of return before profits, especially if hedged not on a one hit wonder, but spread among 10,20, 50 films where there is a also a control of theatrical distribution.

A a lot of wealth advisers, portfolio managers, financial planners, and accredited high net worth affluent investors and family offices are open to be educated about film as an asset class.  A lot of former real estate developers, oil & gas speculators, hedge fund managers, and successful Silicon Valley investors  seem  to understand the model.

Investors are starting to have a reality check that they can go online, have a recommendation from their financial adviser or research the next hot investment opportunities in internet, technology, biotech, oil & gas, or even alternative energy and see that there is a lot of capital chasing deals with only a handful of investors that ultimately have an exclusive windows into wither private investment opportunities or a handful of fund managers than can really have a consistent ROI.

So now investors need to think outside their box and re-educate themselves on other alternative investments, especially media & entertainment, which seems to be immune to economic factors as well as movies still being the number one export of the United States.  Plus there is really no longer an absolute need for movie stars to headline indie films as the films themselves seem to be star, especially with niche social media and marketing of films where the upside in revenues from theatrical, DVD, Video On Demand, Cable, mobile, and Internet VOD only increases the potential revenue streams.

Here’s how 14 investors made the trades that made their careers A round-up of some of the biggest hedge fund managers and traders and their ‘career’ trades Read more on National Post

The Business Insider

Pellegrini's Hedge Fund to Return Money to Investors Wall Street Journal Paolo Pellegrini, the investor who helped hedge-fund manager John Paulson score more than $15 billion of profits betting against risky … Paulson Protégé Pellegrini To Return Outside MoneyFINalternatives First Druckenmiller, Now Paolo Pellegrini Is Giving Back All His Investors' MoneyThe Business Insider all 3 news articles »

Source: Hedge Fund – Google News

Delaware High Court Clears Way for Coordination of Hedge Fund Investors Reuters (press release) WILMINGTON, Del., Aug 17 /PRNewswire/ — Attorneys from Houston's Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Anaipakos helped a hedge fund investor earn an important ruling at the … and more »

Source: Hedge Fund – Google News