What’s news around the hedge fund industry for Friday, Feb. 3, 2012:

Around the web

Hedge funds add 1.34% to start year, Credit Suisse index shows. (FINalternatives)

Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners lost 47% in 2011. (Bloomberg TV) Story.

Boyer Allan Investment Management to shut. (HFMWeek)

Kyle Bass urges Texas state university endowment to hold gold hedge. (Bloomberg)

North Carolina Retirement Systems to increase hedge fund investments. (Pensions & Investments)

Hedge funds raising money for Mitt Romney. (Bloomberg TV)

FX Concepts’ John Taylor says Fed’s easy money policy to weigh on dollar. (Bloomberg)

TD Bank to add $255 million reserve for Scott Rothstein litigation fallout. (South Florida Business Journal)

Push sputters for credit default swaps futures. (WSJ.com)

Farmers say CME’s post-MF Global fund inadequate. (Reuters)

‘Too early’ to spot gaps in global regulation. (Financial Times)

Towers Watson adds CTA funds to its buy list. (HFMWeek)

U.S. brokerage firms closing shop after trading drop-off, capital squeeze. (Bloomberg)

After hedge funds, a career rejuvenation for Julie Macklowe. (Bloomberg Businessweek)

HSBC set to move most of its U.S. fund services to Dublin. (Irish Independent)

Do hedge funds like Facebook’s IPO? (HedgeFund.net)

Legg Mason launches Permal Hedge Strategies Fund. (HedgeCo.net)

Carlyle Group backs down on lawsuit ban. (FINalternatives)

Tax break pushes corporate taxes to just 12.1% of profits, lowest level in 40 years. (WSJ.com)

Banks depleting earnings backstop. (WSJ.com)

Europe is wrong on austerity that may sink the global economy deeper into the 1930s-style depression which has already begun, Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman tells Reuters in an exclusive interview.

“There will be a need to rein in the debs eventually, but right now it’s just a spiral,” Krugman says. “It’s like a medieval doctor who … you’re sick so he bleeds you and you get even sicker so he bleeds you some more. It’s just not working.”

What’s news around the hedge fund industry for Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012:

Around the web

Is the insider trading crackdown behind lousy hedge fund returns? (Forbes)

MF Global: From vapor to vapid. (Futures Magazine)

CME sees no need to revamp futures regulation in post-MF Global market. (Crain’s Chicago Business)

Victor Khosla’s Strategic Value Partners said to raise $918 million distressed debt fund. (Bloomberg)

JPMorgan slashes $710 million Lehman bankruptcy claim. (Thomson Reuters News & Insight)

Judge OKs Tranquility Master Fund claim against WaMu before bankruptcy hearing. (FINalternatives

Presenting the only beneficiary from record global leverage: finance employees. (ZeroHedge)

CME creates $100 million fund for farmers and ranchers. (DealBook)

What? MF Global European sovereign debt not enough of an issue for S&P? Since when? (Managed Futures Education Center)

Q&A: Tiburon Partners founder Mark Martyrossian bullish on Asia. (FINalternatives)

MF Global client attorney James Koutoulas explains in one sentence why JPMorgan’s involvement in MF Global is suspicious. (Clusterstock)

Super Bowl quants say Patriots will cover the spread vs. Giants. (Bloomberg)

ML Capital launching two new UCITS funds on MontLake Platform. (FINalternatives)

Soros-backed wireless startup faces big test at Super Bowl. (Crain’s Chicago Business)

Was 2011’s most successful hedge fund actually a pension? (AI CIO)

Barclays’ Todd Edgar said to plan start of Atreaus Capital macro hedge fund in May. (Bloomberg)

Goldman Sachs’ Petershill fund takes stake in Lee Robinson’s Altana Wealth Ltd. hedge fund. (Bloomberg)

People moves

French infrastructure investor OFI InfraVia hires three. (FINalternatives)

After the European Union blocked the merger of NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse, Sachin Shah of Tullet Prebon says exchanges like the Nasdaq and the CBOE might look to get their own deals done. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s news around the hedge fund industry for Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012:

Around the web

MF-ed up: After a delay, MF Global’s missing money is traced. (DealBook) Here’s where my blood starts boiling: “The clashes stem from the conflicting interests of those involved. James W. Giddens, the trustee overseeing the liquidation of the brokerage unit, is charged with returning money to wronged customers. That mission is at odds with the interests of Louis J. Freeh, the trustee overseeing the liquidation of the firm, who is seeking to recover money for MF Global’s creditors. … Mr. Freeh’s lawyers have declined to share a number of internal MF Global e-mails with Mr. Giddens and federal investigators, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has asked for access to the documents.” Wouldn’t a criminal investigation break through this log jam?

Hedge fund managers and the Super PACs. (The New York Times)

Judge rejects MF Global customer’s priority bid. (WSJ.com)

‘Little child’ CFTC ignores futures oversight role, O’Malia says. (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Falcone brawls with Grassley over LightSquared. (DealBook)

2011 a bruising year for commodities hedge funds. (Financial Times)

Our counterfeit economy. (Charles Hugh Smith on ZeroHedge)

Market abuse: Is this a new era of FSA enforcement? (Investment Week)

Soros sits out Obama Super PAC money race. (Bloomberg)

Basis Capital on the trail of Timberwolf CDO. (The Australian)

Whither the single-family office? New rules redefine family offices. (CFA Institute)

Steven Cohen said to plan donating gains from Siris Capital Group spinout as investors flag risk. (Bloomberg)

Arthur Gerald Jones, the missing Chicago trader who resurfaced 31 years later in Las Vegas, gets probation for fraud. (Reuters)

Former Credit Suisse traders David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui plead guilty in CDO bonus-boosting conspiracy. (Bloomberg)

How the Fed presidents’ assets stack up. (NYT’s Economix blog)

Hedge funds see dip in allocations from sovereign wealth funds. (HFMWeek)

Former Appaloosa pro Jeff Lignelli launches Incline Global Master long/short equity-credit opportunity fund with Tepper backing. (HFMWeek)

U.S. weighs 30% ‘Buffett Rule’ tax on millionaires. (Reuters)

Harvest Capital Strategies opens new long/short fund. (HFMWeek)

Canadian banks to meet with U.S. regulators over Volcker rule. (Toronto Globe & Mail)

Capital Markets Outlook 2012 – cloud computing. (Wall Street & Technology)

High-frequency trading is hitting the BRICs. (Advanced Trading)

Macquarie Group is said to compete for Deutsche Bank asset management unit. (Bloomberg)

Ex-FrontPoint manager “Chip” Skowron calls Morgan Stanley no victim of his crimes. (Bloomberg)

GlobeOp takeover by TPG not yet a done deal; share price rises sharply. (HFMWeek)

SS&C wins PD Capital mandate. (HFMWeek)

Equinox Fund Management selects BNP Paribas for fund administration in the United States. (MarketWire)

Hedge funds warned on FATCA complacency amid U.S.-E.U. negotiations. (COOConnect)

Legg Mason Global Asset Management launches new fund of hedge funds. (HedgeFund.net)

People moves

Akin Gump swoops for Simmons & Simmons’ Tim Pearce and Ian Meade. (HFMWeek)

Jones Trading taps Seth Michaels as new head of advisor services. (FINalternatives)

Palo Verde Capital hires RBS alumnus Patrick Bartle. (FINalternatives)

Dwight Asset Management high-yield team of Ed Meigs and Sean Slein jumps ship for First Eagle Investment Management. (FINalternatives)

Unigestion appoints Nicolas Rousselet new hedge fund chief. (HFMWeek)

Bill Allison, editorial director at the Sunlight Foundation breaks down for Reuters Insider Super PAC contributions to the 2012 presidential candidates. Filings show Mitt Romney has raised $30.2 million through the Restore Our Future Committee, including $1 million from John Paulson, $1 million from Julian Robertson, $1 million from Paul Singer, $750,000 from Chris Shumway, $500,000 from Louis Moore Bacon, $200,000 from Paul Tudor Jones, $100,000 from Lee Ainslie and $100,000 from Kenneth Griffin. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s news around the hedge fund industry for Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012:

Around the web (p.m. edition)

Hedge fund investors seek safety in long-short equity. (Institutional Investor)

Greek officials attack E.U., IMF as debt talks stall. (The Guardian)

FCC seeks comment on Light Squared request. (FINalternatives)

Promising hedge fund strategies for 2012. (GAIM conference, via Hedge Fund Marketing Alliance)

Endowments slow to recover from 2008 crisis as hedge funds lag. (The Boston Globe)

Majedie Asset Management closes hedge fund at ÂŁ350 million. (FINalternatives)

Hong Kong’s Tiger Asia Management court fight tests securities regulator’s offshore reach. (Bloomberg)

Ex-J.C. Flowers U.K. CEO Ravi Shankar Sinha fined over faking invoices. (Bloomberg, via SFGate)

For family of burned woman, an offer, but no help from Darren Weingrow. (The New York Times)

Juan Carlos Horna Napolitano gets 14 months in Francisco Illarramendi fraud case. (FINalternatives)

Derivatives valuations – the top 3 mistakes to avoid in your audit. (FinCAD)

HFR’s Kenneth Heinz discusses the state of the hedge fund industry at MFA’s Network 2012. (MFA Blog)

Moody’s: MF Global’s European sovereign bond bets were a surprise. (WSJ.com) That explains a lot, actually.

Questions not being asked regarding ‘vaporized’ segregated MF Global funds. (Managed Futures Education Center)

MF Global: Where’s the money? (Futures Magazine)

MF Global customer funds were not ‘vaporized’ – Stanley Haar takes The Wall Street Journal to task. (ZeroHedge)

Investors kick off 2012 with defensive stance: Reuters polls. (Reuters)

Three-fourths of Americans with mobile phones say they use them in the bathroom, a new study shows. (Fox Business)

Alden Global Capital maneuver sets off speculation about Philly newspapers. (Philly.com)

Volcker rule stirs up opposition overseas. (DealBook)

Centaur Galileo, the sports betting hedge fund inspired by Mark Cuban, collapses. (Huffington Post)

Yale’s David Swenson says index funds are the wisest choice for most investors. (Bloomberg)

Cowboy capitalism rides again: J.C. Flowers slap by FSA is the latest ‘rogue’. (MarketWatch)

Short sellers ring up $72 billion profit over 18 months. (The Australian)

CP executives hitting the road to defend their strategy. (The Globe and Mail)

Corzine seeking $2.9 million for Hoboken penthouse. (DealBook)

ICE to begin portfolio margining for bank credit swap trades. (Bloomberg)

Southpoint Capital Advisors fund raising over $230 million. (HedgeFund.net)

How to start, and run, a hedge fund. (Tom Groenfeldt on Forbes.com)

People moves

Deutsche Banker C.J. Lanktree departs to launch distressed debt fund. (WSJ.com)

While we commonly talk in this space about what to do when staring losses in the face, less time is spent here and elsewhere talking about what to do when you have had success with a program. Perhaps this is something to do with the human condition and focusing on that which causes us pain before considering that which brings us pleasure, or perhaps it is just a simple case of most investors thinking the upside is easy to manage when compared to the downside.

Disclaimer: The above chart is meant for illustrative purposes only, and is not representative of trading in actual accounts.

Whatever the case, there have been some questions from Attain clients recently asking what they should do with gains in some programs, and, specifically, what their options are for scaling up the trading of the successful programs in their portfolios.

Now, many futures traders and commodity market investors have no doubt heard of the various money management techniques out there which, in one way or another, add to a position when that position is profitable. This technique is sometimes called pyramiding, pillaring, or margin scaling/trading. The basic idea behind it is to use the “market’s money” to add to positions. What happens when this gets applied as a managed futures allocation strategy? You’ll have to click through to find out.

To read more Managed Futures research pieces, visit Attain’s Managed Futures Newsletter archive and our Managed Futures Blog.

DISCLAIMER

Forex trading, commodity trading, managed futures, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors.

The entries on this blog are intended to further subscribers understanding, education, and – at times- enjoyment of the world of alternative investments through managed futures, trading systems, and managed forex.  Unless distinctly noted otherwise, the data and graphs included herein are intended to be mere examples and exhibits of the topic discussed, are for educational and illustrative purposes only, and do not represent trading in actual accounts.

The mention of asset class performance is based on the noted source index (i.e. Newedge CTA Index, S&P 500 Index, etc.) , and investors should take care to understand that any index performance is for the constituents of that index only, and does not represent the entire universe of possible investments within that asset class. And further, that there can be limitations and biases to indices:  such as survivorship and self reporting biases, and instant history.

Managed Futures Disclaimer:

Past Performance is Not Necessarily Indicative of Future Results. The regulations of the CFTC require that prospective clients of a managed futures program (CTA) receive a disclosure document when they are solicited to enter into an agreement whereby the CTA will direct or guide the client’s commodity interest trading and that certain risk factors be highlighted. The disclosure document contains a complete description of the principal risk factors and each fee to be charged to your account by the CTA.

Copyright © 2011 Attain Capital Management, licensed Managed Futures, Trading System & Commodity Brokers. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission.

What’s news around the hedge fund industry for Monday, Jan. 30, 2012:

Around the web (early edition)

The Troika vs. Greece. (Felix Salmon)

Man Group signs UN’s Responsible Investment Principles. (FINalternatives)

It’s like magic… Money from MF Global feared ‘vaporized’. (WSJ.com)

… only not. MF Global: This is no bank robbery. (John Lothian)

MF Global told S&P it had ‘never been stronger’ … a week before failure. Key paragraph here: “MF Global, which had been building its European positions since June 2010, first disclosed them in regulatory filings last May, according to a memo by the subcommittee’s staff dated Jan. 27. …[T]he lawyer for Moody’s, said in the letter that ‘nothing stood out’ in those filings for its analysts.” (Bloomberg)

BlueCrest to launch listed feeder for flagship BlueTrend fund. (FINalternatives)

Hedge funds lift commodities bets to two-month high as rally accelerates. (Bloomberg)

CME rejects $15 million in City of Chicago tax increment financing funds. (Crain’s Chicago Business)

E*Trade fills chairman post. (WSJ.com)

Ackman to introduce investors to Harrison next week. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Former UBS trader Kweku Adoboli pleads not guilty to fraud. (DealBook)

Dud hedge funds tinker more with historical reported returns: study. (IPE.com)

Same study: Hedge fund transparency can hurt returns, increase fees. (IPE.com)

Law firm Mount Ozannes opens Hong Kong office. (HFMWeek)

Deutsche Bank faces probe over CDO Paulson shorted. (FINalternatives)

London prime brokerage Global Prime Partners to add cap intro services. (FINalternatives)

Weaning off ‘alternative’ investments. (WSJ.com)

Euro foxes bearish hedge fund managers. (Financial Times)

As Soros says, things could be worse for the U.K. – it could be in the euro. (The Telegraph)

Zenith high-yield bond fund and manager join Serone Capital Management. (HFMWeek)

Deutsche Bank targets problem assets. (Financial Times)

Centro adviser defends U.S. hedge fund buy-up. (The Australian)

Winning over institutional investors with your hedge fund marketing. (FINalternatives)

Understanding investor due diligence. (Hedgetracker)

Simplistic risk models miss tail risk. (Opalesque)

Audio: PerTrac lifts the lid on alternative UCITS investment. (Hedge Funds Review)

The new masters of the media universe. Before the global meltdown, financial news was strictly for geeks and struggled to get on the news. Now, financial correspondents have become celebrities. (The Guardian)

Global pension fund assets it record high in 2011. (Towers Watson, via Business Wire)

Chinese fire wall: Freddie Mac bets against homeowners getting refinancing, while simultaneously ruling which homeowners qualify for refinancing. (Propublica)

Stock repurchases: More money, more problems? (Thomson Reuters Alpha Now)

Gottex sees assets fall by $1 billion during Q4 2011. (HFMWeek)

People moves

The Fed, the world’s most profitable hedge fund, follows record year with mass promotions. (ZeroHedge)

RAB CEO Charles Kirwin-Taylor out. (FINalternatives)

Former Dahlman & Rose Co. president Donald Motschwiller to head up new Direct Access Partners asset management unit. (HFMWeek)

Eagle Asset Management’s Managing Director of Fixed Income James Camp tells Reuters Insider’s Rhonda Schaffler that while U.S. treasuries are getting a bit of a break due to Europe’s debt concerns, he expects yields on the 10-year to fall as low as 1.5%.

“For us the only resolution to European debt and, frankly, the debt around the world is a write-down and a realization of losses to bondholders,” Camp said. “… [U]ntil we actually write down, take losses, clear the decks on the global debt situation, we don’t have an event that we can predict that is going to clear this thing up any time soon.” Read the rest of this entry »