Analysis: Hedge funds register, wait for SEC to visit

Hedge fund managers are increasingly nervous about getting a knock on the door from U.S. securities regulators now that a new rule requires them to register as investment advisers and provide lots of data about their inner workings as a result.Hundreds of large managers, which already employ sizable legal teams, took the mechanics of meeting the March 30 deadline in stride, industry consultants say.The cost of paying lawyers and adding compliance workers to ready for the new requirement, which was part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, generally proved most burdensome for funds with less than $500 million in assets. And all types of funds --large and small -- had to commit hundreds of hours going through the process of checking boxes and writing narratives.Now a far bigger concern for...

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Hedge fund COMAC stays bearish despite rally

Hedge fund COMAC Capital, the $5.2 billion (3.3 billion pound) macro fund run by Colm O'Shea, is bracing for a fresh round of turmoil in European markets, people familiar with the fund said, and is sticking to its bearish strategy despite losing out in this year's rally.London-based COMAC, down more than 5 percent in the period up to mid-March this year, believes the flood of cheap central bank cash into parched markets is only a temporary fix for Europe's ills, and masks the region's poor economic prospects, these people said.Most hedge funds are returning to winning ways in 2012 thanks to the rally in equity and bond markets and a bullish stance. The average hedge fund has risen 5.03 percent from the start of the year up to March 15, according to the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index.Bullish...

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Commodity funds BlueGold, Clive miss out on oil rally

* BlueGold down 2 percent on first two months of year* Clive up 3 percent, but trails broader market returnsBy Barani KrishnanMarch 16 (Reuters) - At least two major commodity funds have missed out on this year's oil rally, one of the energy market's biggest since the financial crisis, market sources said.BlueGold and Clive Capital, both based in London and known for taking big bets on oil, have relatively weak returns to show for the first two months of the year when crude prices put in one of their strongest two-month performances since 2009.Trade data shows that some major speculators, including hedge funds, have started building bearish positions on U.S. crude.Oil prices have been range-bound since the start of March, indicating the run-up that accelerated last month on supply worries...

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Hedge fund managers looked to tech in 4th quarter

(Reuters) - Last year was a dismal one for many U.S. hedge fund managers, but based on their year-end stock holdings, some managers were well positioned to take advantage of this year's strong start in the equity markets.Thomas Steyer's Farallon Capital Management, for instance, added about 1 million shares of Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) in the fourth-quarter. Shares of the telecommunications equipment manufacturer are up 12 percent in 2012.Barry Rosenstein's Jana Partners loaded up on 650,000 shares of Netflix (NFLX.O) in the fourth quarter, when the Internet TV and DVD delivery company's shares were taking a pounding. It was a shrewd move: The company's shares are up 77 percent this year.Managers including David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital and David Tepper of Appaloosa Management loaded up on...

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Wife of toppled Swiss bank chief was "risk-taker"

It was at hedge fund Moore Capital in New York that she first made a name for herself and met future husband Philipp Hildebrand, who resigned on Monday as head of the Swiss central bank due to a lucrative currency trade Kashya made weeks before he imposed a curb on the value of the Swiss franc.Hildebrand told a news conference that he decided to quit after weeks of media pressure because he realised he could not prove that he had no prior knowledge of the trade when his wife initiated it last August.Very little is known about the 50-year-old woman at the heart of a scandal that has shaken Switzerland, raised questions about its sacred bank secrecy and pushed out its slick young bank governor at a critical time for the country.But Reuters was able to piece together a picture by talking to several...

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PROFILE-Philipp Hildebrand's very Swiss finish

The 48-year-old former hedge fund manager's two-year chairmanship of the Swiss National Bank was rocky at best. He had faced down calls to go after he ran up record losses in 2010 to try to halt the rise of the Swiss franc, an effort which cost the central bank 26.5 billion francs.His fortunes seemed to have turned last September when the SNB successfully set a cap on the soaring Swiss franc at 1.20 per euro. But it emerged last month that Hildebrand's wife Kashya, a former hedge fund trader who now runs a Zurich art gallery, had bought 400,000 Swiss francs worth of dollars three weeks before her husband oversaw those steps.Hildebrand said he only learned of the trade the following day, rejecting claims that he had personally authorised the currency deal, which made a sizeable profit. But...

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Morgan Stanley's Wisniewski quits to join hedge fund

Morgan Stanley's veteran head of European foreign exchange and emerging markets trading has left to join BlueCrest Capital Management, becoming the latest senior Morgan Stanley trader to join a hedge fund this year.Marcin Wiszniewski, who has worked at Morgan Stanley for 14 years, has joined the $18.3bn (€13.5bn) London hedge fund as a portfolio manager on its $500m BlueCrest Emerging Markets Fund. He will join on May 10.Wisniewski ran the desk since July 2008 when previous co-heads Bart Turtelboom and Karim Abdel-Motall were hired by London hedge fund firm GLG Partners to help replace Greg Coffey, who had joined Moore Capital.Wiszniewski has been replaced at Morgan Stanley by Chris Nicoll, who has rejoined the bank as co-head of foreign exchange and emerging markets trading in Europe, following...

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