Salient to Investors: Hedge Fund Research said 873 hedge-funds closed in 2012, the most since 2009, but the net number increased after 1,108 firms were started. Hedge funds managing over $5 billion got 65 percent of Q4 2012 fund inflows, firms with under $1 billion got 8.7 percent. Average industry management fees declined
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Investors sold $5.4 billion of gold ETFs in February, the most since their creation in 2003. Credit Suisse and Barclays say the 12-year gold rally will peak in 2013. Credit Suisse said gold is significantly overvalued and unlikely to return to its September 2011 record of $1,921.15.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Amanda Sneider and David Kostin at Goldman Sachs said: Net long exposure to stocks in hedge funds rose to 52 percent in Q4 2012, matching the 10-year high reached in Q1 2007. AIG became the most-held position, Apple fell to third place. Hedge funds notably reduced holdings of Apple and gold
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: 4,500 private equity firms manage $3 trillion in assets. Preqin said as many as 708 firms face deadlines through 2015 to replenish their funds for future deals to avoid reduced fee income when the investment periods on older funds run out, typically after 5 years. Preqin said many venture capital
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Money managers increased net-long positions on rising US oil prices to a nine-month high last week, in the longest weekly run of gains in records back to June 2006. John Kilduff at Again Capital says oil is in a bull market and headed for $100 or above. Miswin Mahesh
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: JPMorgan Chase Private Bank put individuals and families with more than $5 million into a partnership that bought over 5,000 single family homes to rent in Florida, Arizona, Nevada and California. David Lyon at JPMorgan said investors can expect returns of up to 8 percent annually from rental income as well
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Commonfund and the NACUBO said US university endowments lost on average 0.3 percent in the year ended June 30 after gaining 19.2 percent a year earlier. Over a third of the schools reported receiving less in donations than a year earlier. Harvard’s endowment fell 4.1 percent, Yale’s less than 1
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: George Soros said institutions that invest in hedge funds should expect poor performance because of high fees – typically 2 percent of assets and 20 percent of returns – and because hedge funds are such a dominant force in the market, so can’t, as a group, outperform it. Soros
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Copper traders are bullish for a third consecutive week on the fastest expansion in Chinese manufacturing in two years. ETF Securities said $28 million went into its ETFS Physical Copper ETP last week, the most since its introduction in 2010. Barclays said China consumes 42 percent of the world’s copper,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Martin Rothe at Altradis Capital writes: Most hedge fund strategies still largely depend on stock market performance and those not incorporating equities haven’t lived up to their promises. A strategy’s historical return may not necessarily predict future returns, but selecting strategies with distinct return distributions makes it
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