Salient to Investors: CB Insights said social-media companies drew only 2 percent of the venture capital headed to Internet-based enterprises last quarter, versus 6 percent each quarter in the 2-year stretch that ended in mid-2012. Anand Sanwal at CB Insights said big data and cloud companies are grabbing the attention of
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Matthew C. Klein writes: Hedge Fund Research says the S&P 500 index with dividends reinvested beat the average hedge fund over the past decade. There are always periods when certain asset classes did better than others. E.g., gold from the middle of 2001 increased by more than 600
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: After a decade as rock stars, hedge fund managers seem to be fading just as quickly as musicians do. Generating “alpha” is slipping further out of reach. Goldman Sachs said in May that hedge fund performance lagged the S&P 500 index by 10 percent this year, while
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Matthew C. Klein writes: Hedge funds et al can now solicit the public for capital by advertising, a welcome development. It is easy to avoid scoundrels by sticking to index funds. Only the greedy get fleeced by offers that are too good to be true. Most finance
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Hamilton “Tony” James of Blackstone Group said stocks were a fool’s game compared with alternative investments. and investing in alternatives makes sense even when they underperform. James said the return from these idiosyncratic investments are very uncorrelated to the broader markets, so portfolio volatility falls. Hedge funds have been
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The number of hedge funds investing in gold is at the lowest level since 2010. Farhan Mumtaz at EurekaHedge said hedge fund performance declines tied to volatility and withdrawals led either to closures or a shift in strategies – the number of funds investing in gold fell
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: John Bogle writes: While the idea of market timing is simple, many hedge fund managers have tried but precious few have succeeded. Joe Carlen, author of “The Einstein of Money”, said the Benjamin Graham Joint Account – the predecessor to Graham-Newman Corporation – lost 70% from 1929 through
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Nouriel Roubini at NYU says gold may fall toward $1,000 by 2015 as the economic recovery curbs demand for bullion, there is a lack of inflation, and other assets such as equities offer better returns. Roubini said investors should have a very modest share of gold and other real
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Marc Faber at the Gloom Boom & Doom Report says: High-end assets from stocks to art to real estate are in a bubble caused by central bank money-printing. This money doesn’t increase economic activity and asset prices in concert, instead creates dangerous excesses in countries and asset
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bob Rice at Tangent Capital writes: Despite negative headlines, sophisticated institutions keep adding to their $2 trillion invested in hedge funds. Benjamin Graham devised a way to make money regardless of market direction by buying a stock he liked, and simultaneously selling short one he didn’t. Over the
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