Hedge fund gains may not be what they seem

Financial News’ Harriet Agnew reports:  Hedge fund performance data published this week by JP Morgan prime brokerage appears to show that the sector outperformed domestic and international equities, commodities and fixed income during the 16 years from 1997 through 2012.

But there are several reasons why this chart may exaggerate the actual performance of hedge funds.

For example, at the end of 2007, the hedge fund industry ran almost $1.9 trillion in assets. So its 19% performance loss the following year would have wiped roughly $360bn off the industry’s asset base. A time-weighted series ignores this….

More?  check out http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2013-06-14/hedge-fund-performance-methodology?mod=blogheadlines-home

What’s A Fund Mogul to Do? Towns With Mansion Shortages

From CNBC: Wealthy home buyers are quickly running out of mansions to buy. While housing inventory is falling throughout the country, it's falling especially fast in some of the country's richest ZIP codes. A study from Altos Research, the Mountain View, Ca., real-estate research firm, found that inventory in the nation's 90 wealthiest ZIP codes fell 15 percent over the past year, slightly faster than the broader market.

But in the richest ZIP codes, inventory is down more than 50 percent. In a ZIP code in Carmel, Calif., inventory fell 76 percent over the past year. There were only four homes left on the market priced at $1 million or more as of the end of May, according to Altos…..

Read all about it at http://www.cnbc.com/id/100811031

Only in NY: Hamptons Hedge Fund Manager And Police Face Off

Forget everything you know about the glamorous lives of the rich and famous.  Thanks to to the tireless tweeting of Hamptons Handyman Joe Schwenk (aka HamptonsBorn), we know about a fairly serious confrontation that happened this morning between a hedge fund manager and his generators, a neighbor with a hatred for noise, lawyers, private security, and the cops.

We imagine that the hedge fund manager, identified only as "Mr. C",  probably needs those "movie set" generators — Bloomberg machines suck up a lot of power…..It all started out early this morning….:

http://www.businessinsider.com/police-called-on-hedge-funds-generators-2013-6#ixzz2W4tZ9zBL

SEC, Fund Execs Strike Deal Over $68M Insider Trading Plot

 From Law360: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has reached a tentative settlement in New York federal court with convicted hedge fund executives Anthony Chiasson and Todd Newman over an alleged $68 million insider trading scheme involving shares of Dell Inc. and Nvidia Corp., the agency said Monday.

Chiasson, a founder of Level Global Investors LP, and Newman, a former portfolio manager at Diamondback Capital Management LLC, were convicted in December and sentenced in May to 78 months and 54 months in prison, respectively…...

Read all about it at http://www.law360.com/whitecollar/articles/448983/sec-fund-execs-strike-deal-over-68m-insider-trading-plot

Saving The Zombies And Shorting The Yen: Hedge Funds And Japan

From buzzfeed: The hedge fund industry is increasing its bets on the Japanese market, where the stellar first-quarter results for some funds show few signs of slowing. Some estimates call for hedge funds to increase assets focused on the Japanese market by as much as 20% in an effort to capitalize on the intense policy changes being instituted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, known among investors as “Abenomics.”

Managers that got into Japan last year have generated tidy profits for their funds. George Soros reportedly made $1 billion since late last year on his yen plays. And as far as many in the hedge fund industry are concerned, the end isn’t anywhere in sight….

More?  Check out http://www.buzzfeed.com/mariahsummers/saving-the-zombies-and-shorting-the-yen-hedge-funds-and-japa

Traders Pay for an Early Peek at Key Data

From WSJ:  “….This is a "blind spot" in U.S. law, said Richard Painter, a former Republican White House ethics lawyer. Groups, he said, should "not be allowed to selectively disclose market-moving data to people who pay more money—that is not right."

But it is legal, and so is trading on the advance peeks. Even as securities rules bar companies from selective data disclosure, and as authorities vigorously pursue insider trading in all its forms, no law prevents investors from trading on nonpublic information they have legally purchased from other private entities. Trading would be illegal only if the information was passed through a breach of trust, said securities lawyers….

Read all about it at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324682204578515963191421602.html

Rival hedge funds hope to feast on SAC Capital redemptions

According to Reuters a long list of rival hedge funds is eager to tap the billions in outside money that Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors is expected to return to investors by year-end.

Israel Englander's $18 billion Millennium Management, which has long had a rivalry with SAC, is the name that comes up most often as a possible alternative investment, the industry sources said. The firm also relies on a group approach where dozens of smaller portfolio teams, rather than one or two main managers, buy and sell securities quickly, often thousands of them…. Balyasny Asset Management, Visium Asset Management and Kenneth Griffin's Citadel, which all feature multi-manager trading teams, have also been named frequently as candidates for some of the estimated $3 billion to $4 billion expected to leave SAC, said industry sources….

Wait...wait...there's more at http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/12/us-saccapital-money-idUSBRE95B16320130612