This Hedge Fund Honcho Really Delivers the Alpha

It's becoming an annual tradition. Every year it seems—multiple times, in some cases—Leon Cooperman takes the stage to discuss his best investment ideas. And much like the plot in the Bill Murray movie "Groundhog Day," the themes of the Omega Advisors founder's presentations seem to repeat themselves time and again. 

The former Goldman Sachs Asset Management CEO started Omega in 1991. When this year began it had $7.3 billion in assets under management, good enough for No. 73 in the Hedge Fund 100 ranking of the world's biggest hedge fund firms compiled by Institutional Investor's Alpha.  The firm's flagship fund returned between 27 and 28 percent last year and posted first-quarter gains of 9 percent to start 2013—putting it among the best-performing hedge funds…..

Read all about it at http://www.cnbc.com/id/100848963

Slice ‘em, Dice ‘em: Wall Street's newest flav: Risk-parity funds

Risk-parity funds debuted in 2009 & have attracted $30 billion in assets, $16 billion in 2013

Funds are designed to mitigate risk & earn modest gains as opposed to high-risk, high-yield funds

Assets are deployed to equalize risk between stocks, bonds, and commodities.

Index funds were once a novelty, but pioneers like Vanguard 500 brought about a new standard for low costs, tax efficiency and solid performance. Target-date funds, too, were once the next big thing, but losses as high as 45% during the 2008 crash gave the category a black eye.

The latest contender to be a better mousetrap is known as the risk-parity fund. Just four years after their debut, the new breed of funds has already attracted nearly $30 billion in assets—$16 billion of that in the past year alone, according to Lipper….

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/06/02/risk-parity-funds-better-mousetrap/2376517/

How One Hedge Fund Strategy Is Like The Steve Carell Character In Every Movie

Certain hedge funds have been employing an investment strategy known as risk parity, which is safe, measured, cautious. Not unlike most of the movie characters played by Steve Carell.  Hedge funds such as AQR, Invesco, and Bridgewater Associates, which ranks as the world’s largest hedge fund, have been struggling lately. The problem, according to experts, is that these funds all employ an investment strategy known as risk parity, which can best be explained through Steve Carell’s most memorable movie roles.

“The Forty-Year-Old Virgin”  The Role: Carell plays Andy Stitzer, an involuntarily celibate 40-year-old virgin who has always lived a simple, straightedge lifestyle. He has trouble meeting women, despite the best efforts of his friends and encouragement of those around him. Carell’s character is so cautious he has trouble with women even in situations where opportunities are seemingly handed to him.

The Connection: Risk parity involves spreading risk around a portfolio evenly and proportionately based on the riskiness of an asset class. In other words, it’s always making sure to operate with a measured approach and extreme caution. Perhaps too much caution — the kind that can make you miss out on life experiences…

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mariahsummers/how-one-hedge-fund-strategy-is-like-the-steve-carell-charact

Fun and Games: Goldman Sends Employees on $270,000 Scavenger Hunt

NYMagazine’s Kevin Roose reports: It's always been presumed (by me) that when Goldman Sachs employees are in the running to be named partners at the firm, they're sent on a brutal, globe-spanning Amazing Race–style test of physical abilities, where they face challenges like scaling Kilimanjaro wearing only a fur-lined Zegna suit and traversing the Gobi Desert with a summer intern strapped to their backs.

So it's a bit of a relief that the actual test Goldman employees took on last fall — an epic fifteen-hour scavenger hunt that involved 180 of the firm's employees — was more cerebral than physically grueling.

Quartz's Euny Hong embedded with a team from the Goldman commodities desk during "Midnight Madness," a massive all-night hunt that took twenty teams around New York City for a series of complex brain-teaser challenges. (The name is an homage to a bad 1980 Disney movie.) The hunt cost $270,000 in total and was financed by Goldman Sachs Gives, the firm's partner-led charity….

Read all about it at http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/06/goldman-sachss-270000-scavenger-hunt.html

Commodity 'Super-Cycle' Suspended, Not Ending

From Kitco News: Another tough day at the office for metals continues to fuel questions about whether or not the “commodity super-cycle” over the last decade is coming to an end.  Driven largely by Chinese appetite for commodities, the 2000s saw a commodities boom with both precious and base metals prices rising to record highs.  With sharp drops across the metals board in the last three months, some analysts have begun to believe this commodities boom, dubbed the “commodities super-cycle,” is at an end….

Wait….wait.there’s more at http://www.forbes.com/sites/kitconews/2013/06/26/interview-commodity-super-cycle-suspended-not-ending-head-of-global-mining-group-fasken-martineau/

Regulators To Go After Corzine’s Hedge Fund and Brokerage Fraud

According to HedgeCo.Net US regulators are planning a lawsuit later this week against Jon Corzine over the collapse global financial derivatives broker and hedge fund trader MF Global, formerly known as Man Financial, Reuters reports. The company allegedly dipped into customer funds, spending as much as $1 billion in misappropriated funds to cover it’s losses from scrutiny….

http://www.hedgeco.net/news/06/2013/regulators-to-go-after-corzines-hedge-fund-fraud.html

Who Dunnit? SEC Gets Set to Test Policy for Guilt Admissions

Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement chiefs have drawn up a hit list of impending cases where officials intend to test their new policy of requiring admissions of wrongdoing when settling civil charges, people close to the agency told WSJ

The handful of likely target cases include a planned enforcement action against a company alleged to have made illicit profits by charging investors undisclosed markups on top of commissions, one of the people said….

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323998604578565782523815430.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection