International Investing

Very interesting interview from Knowledge@Wharton:
The market events of August 2007 ended a robust 2003-2007 fundraising cycle. Currently, sentiment is one of caution. Thematically, investors are seeking counter-cyclical and risk-mediating investment strategies, such as distressed/turnaround and mezzanine. At the same time, investors recognize that their 2001-2003 fund investments outperformed due to the market conditions. Now may [...]

The new standard of diligence for hedge funds: any recent family member deaths and what was their SAT score? Higher SAT scores translate into higher returns:
The researchers found a “strong positive relation” between a hedge fund’s performance and the average SAT score at its manager’s school. To put the relationship into context, the researchers offer [...]

Dealbreaker for headline and link:
Hedge funds, which have an estimated $1.9 trillion in assets combined, saw investors sell off an estimated $32 billion worth in July, said a report Tuesday.
The outflow was the largest since 2000, according to a monthly report by TrimTabs, an investment research firm. The August outflow could be even greater, the [...]

$100 million! From the WSJ:
Iraq Fund LLC, Iraq’s first hedge fund, aims to raise as much as $100 million within 18 months for investment in companies listed on the local bourse and in state enterprises, a company official said.
The fund, launched despite the ongoing violent conflict in the country, primarily targets undervalued, Iraq Stock Exchange-listed [...]

From the Financial News linked in FierceFinance:
The fixed income arbitrage index was up 0.31%. Each of the other nine strategies covered by Credit Suisse/Tremont lost money over the same period.The overall investable hedge fund index published by Credit Suisse/Tremont was down 1.54% for the first two weeks of August.
However, many individual hedge funds following the [...]

Hedge fund assests increased to record levels last quarter just in time to catch the coming decline:
Total hedge fund asset levels increased by 8% in the second quarter of 2007, to $2.593 trillion from $2.401 trillion in the first quarter of 2007, according to a report by HFN (HedgeFund.net).
The Q2 2007 HFN Hedge Fund Industry [...]

FT reports:
Worries about US credit-market losses spreading to the Asia Pacific region flavoured trading Tuesday. Shares generally fell or rose only weakly, with Bangkok, Jakarta, Sydney and Seoul leading the drop.
…
On currency markets, the US dollar hit a two-month high against the South Korean won as investors worried about credit and foreigners continued to sell [...]

The broking unit of Man Financial Group plc floated its IPO yesterday. It didn’t go over so well, apparently.
MF Global came to the market at $30 per share, raising $2.9 billion for the 80% stake sold. That fell appreciably below the bottom end of the $34-$37-per-share range announced earlier. Worse, the stock stumbled on [...]

From the MarketBeat Blog:
Worries about subprime lending drove the riskiest tranche of the closely-watched subprime ABX derivative index to a record low of 44 cents on the dollar today — understandable, given everything that’s gone on in the subprime sector.
But higher-quality tranches of the ABX also took an ugly haircut today — the AAA-rated section [...]

From BusinessWeek:
It’s white-knuckle time on Wall Street as firms try to prevent the subprime mess from spreading. The hedge fund blowup has suddenly thrown the world’s biggest financial institutions into a game of brinkmanship that will end in one of three ways: a quick, brutal crash of the subprime mortgage market and possibly the broader [...]