mick silver
29th October 2008, 23:20
Once the new kings of Wall Street, hedge funds are now looking like the court jester.
It's all speculation at this point, but it seems highly likely we'll find out that one or more major hedge funds imploded this week, especially given the dramatic moves in currencies, commodities and emerging markets.
Wild swings in the markets most frequented by speculators are "only the result of imploding hedge funds leading to massive liquidations," writes Ashraf Laidi, Chief FX Strategist at CMC Markets. (Laidi declined to name names.)
Other than John Paulson, whose funds are up 15% to 25% this year, the WSJ says, it's been a brutal year for hedge funds, including many well-respected names, as the Times U.K. reports:
Investors redeemed about $31 billion of global hedge fund assets in the third quarter and a further $179 billion was wiped off the value of their holdings by falling markets, according to Hedge Fund Research.
Hedge funds lost 4.6% in September, according to EurekaHedge, another research firm, which said that the investment class was on course to post annual losses for the first time since 1998.
Several legendary funds have suffered heavily this year, including Toscafund, which is down 55% year to date, and Citadel, which has lost an estimated 27 http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/100987/Wild-Market%3A-Sign-of-a-Major-Hedge-Fund-Blowup%3F
It's all speculation at this point, but it seems highly likely we'll find out that one or more major hedge funds imploded this week, especially given the dramatic moves in currencies, commodities and emerging markets.
Wild swings in the markets most frequented by speculators are "only the result of imploding hedge funds leading to massive liquidations," writes Ashraf Laidi, Chief FX Strategist at CMC Markets. (Laidi declined to name names.)
Other than John Paulson, whose funds are up 15% to 25% this year, the WSJ says, it's been a brutal year for hedge funds, including many well-respected names, as the Times U.K. reports:
Investors redeemed about $31 billion of global hedge fund assets in the third quarter and a further $179 billion was wiped off the value of their holdings by falling markets, according to Hedge Fund Research.
Hedge funds lost 4.6% in September, according to EurekaHedge, another research firm, which said that the investment class was on course to post annual losses for the first time since 1998.
Several legendary funds have suffered heavily this year, including Toscafund, which is down 55% year to date, and Citadel, which has lost an estimated 27 http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/100987/Wild-Market%3A-Sign-of-a-Major-Hedge-Fund-Blowup%3F