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BluMont
Man Alternative Yield Fund Announces Income Distribution
March 21st, 2007
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BluMont
Capital Inc. Announces Completion of Amalgamation March 2nd,
2007
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BluMont
Capital Inc. Announces Shareholder Approval of Amalgamation
February 28th, 2007
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BluMont
Quarterly Results February 23rd, 2007
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Alternative
Yield Fund Announces Distribution February 23rd, 2007
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Proposed National Instrument 31-103: Impact on
the Hedge Fund Industry
Ronald Kosonic Mondaq Business
Briefing March 2007
Canadian hedge fund managers are
already under the regulatory umbrella of the Canadian securities
regulators because they must register as advisors (investment
counsel/portfolio managers) if they provide portfolio management
services to their funds.
However, the Proposed NI 31-103
will clarify any concerns about registration requirements for hedge
fund participants, including general partners of hedge funds
organized as limited partnerships along with other regulatory
requirements on industry participants.
The proposed NI
31-103 expands and clarifies existing regulation of hedge fund
managers, advisors and distributors by:
- Introducing a new
category of registration for “Investment fund managers”
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Introducing a registration category of “exempt market dealer” across
Canada
- Introducing a new “business trigger” test for
determining when registration is required
- Increasing
capital and insurance requirements across all categories of
registration
- Increasing financial reporting requirements
- Governing referral arrangements
- Enhancing
compliance and supervisory expectations
Click
here for more information on the proposed National Instrument
31-103. |
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Interest-rate swap:
An agreement
between two parties that wish to switch floating-rate loan payments
for fixed-rate loan payments in the same or different currencies.
The rationale behind interest rate swaps is that one party may have
access to better fixed-rates and the other may have access to better
floating rates. Interest rate swaps are normally 'fixed against
floating’ rates, but can also be 'floating against floating' rates.
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Issue 32 - April 4, 2007
We hope you
enjoyed reading BluMont eNews. You can expect our next issue in May.
BluMont eNews is a monthly email publication.
We
want to hear from you. Send us your comments or questions and let us
know what you want to see in BluMont eNews.
Email feedback@blumontcapital.com
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| *As of February 28, 2007 |
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| Click to view full fund performance
and pricing
tables. |
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AIMA Canada recently sponsored a lunch
presentation by Mr. Alexander Ineichen, of UBS Global Asset
Management. Mr. Ineichen has written numerous articles, and two
prominent books about the hedge fund industry. He is considered an
authority in the industry, and as such, managed to draw the largest
crowd AIMA Canada has ever had for one of its events.
Mr.
Ineichen was speaking about his latest book, “Asymmetric Returns:
The Future of Active Asset Management.” Mr. Ineichen’s first book
“Absolute Returns: The Risk and Opportunities of Hedge Fund
Investing” was a top seller and is considered to be a classic text
on the hedge fund industry. His latest book promises to be no less
groundbreaking and influential.
The main thrust of Mr.
Ineichen’s most recent book is to look critically at the concepts of
‘alpha’ and ‘beta.’ The term alpha generally refers to the portion
of a manager’s return that can be attributable to pure skill, as
opposed to passive exposure to an asset class, known as ‘beta.’
Mr. Ineichen’s argument is that the terms ‘alpha’ and ‘beta’
do not fully capture what alternative investments can offer to
investors. ‘Alpha’ and ‘beta’ are concepts that were developed in
the 1960’s within the linear capital asset pricing model (CAPM). The
CAPM model was an important breakthrough in financial management
theory, but it has shown to have limited relevance to financial
markets in practice. Mr. Ineichen is not trying to rewrite financial
textbooks, but he believes that financial thought can move beyond
ideas that were developed several decades ago.
One of the
central tenets of orthodox financial thought is that markets are
efficient and random. Mr. Ineichen argues (as do many others) that
inefficiencies are pervasive in financial markets. Market efficiency
implies that active managers cannot add very much value to a
portfolio, with upside return potential and downside risk balanced
in a symmetric risk/return profile.
‘Alpha’ and ‘beta’ apply
in a relative return world, where money managers are tied closely to
a market portfolio, and there is limited opportunity to reduce
downside risk. However, active risk management in alternative
investment products can significantly reduce downside risk in a
portfolio, creating an asymmetric risk/return profile. Mr. Ineichen
believes that active risk management is the future of asset
management, and the concepts of ‘alpha’ and ‘beta’ cannot capture
the benefits of active risk management. |
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One of the most recent and best books on hedge funds that
is available to the general reader is Hedge Hogging by Barton Biggs.
Mr. Biggs is the former chief global strategist for Morgan Stanley –
he was with the firm for more than 30 years – and more recently, was
the founder of Traxis Partners, a $1.5 billion hedge fund based in
Greenwich, Connecticut.
The book is presented as a series of
vignettes and set pieces relating to Mr. Biggs’s 40+ years in the
investment business and contains a mixture of facile “lifestyle”
portraits and hard-hitting investment insights by Mr. Biggs during
his time as a top-level investment manager.
Some of the more
memorable vignettes include Mr. Biggs’s account of the “Triangle
Investment Club”, an informal private gathering of hedge fund
managers, and his descriptions of it’s membership (the names have
been changed to protect the identity of the members). his time as a
top-level investment manager.
Another particular gripping
section - sure to strike a chord amongst anyone who has ever
attempted it – recounts Mr. Biggs and his partners’ (ultimately
successful) attempt to start-up their own hedge fund. Mr. Biggs also
describes the grueling and pedestrian grind that many new managers
must undergo in attempts to raise money from investors, traveling
across the country, reciting the same pitch over and over again and
with more often than not, little to show for it at the end of the
day despite the great deal of effort exerted.
Other chapters
of this intriguing, yet somewhat discursive work relate to such
subjects as Mr. Bigg’s experiences being an investment manager
through some of the worst bear markets in recent history, the
difficulty of short selling, Fibonacci numbers, anecdotal stories
about Mr. Biggs’ trading activities through recent oil price shocks
and internet bubbles, and a somewhat tangential digression on the
life of John Maynard Keynes. The entire work is interspersed with
Mr. Biggs’s own observations and insights regarding market behaviour
and investor psychology.
Mr. Biggs, an English and Creative
Writing major (he studied under Robert Penn Warren) and former
English teacher, has a knack for a good turn of phrase and his book
makes for both an entertaining and informative read for both
industry participant and lay person alike.
John Wiley &
Sons Inc., 2006 320 pages | |