Every correction is the same, a normal downturn in one or more of the markets where we invest. There has never been a correction that has not proven to be an investment opportunity. You can be confident that governments around the world are not going to allow another Great Depression “on their watch”.

Every correction is different, the result of various economic and/or political circumstances that create the need for adjustments in the financial markets.
While everything is down in price, as it is now, there is actually less to worry about. When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.

In this case, an overheated real estate market, an overdose of financial bad judgment, and a damn the torpedoes stock market, propelled by demand for speculative derivative securities and Hedge Funds, finally came unglued.

But it is the reality of corrections that is …

The other day, with the market giving up about a third of its March gain in DJIA points, I went looking through my favorite market stats to see if any remaining profits could be pounced upon. Typically, profit possibilities can be identified quickly on NYSE lists of the largest dollar and percent gainers.

Alarmingly, 75% of the largest percent gainers were ETFs, and many of those operate using the same strategies as classic hedge funds— most owned no common stock at all! At the same time, 93% of the largest dollar gainers were ETFs with a large proportion plainly operating like a hedge fund.

Earlier in March, while we were all sunning ourselves in the far-too-infrequent-lately UVs of a brief rally, I was doing a similar search for undervalued IGVSI stocks. Yes, Virginia, there is an equally impressive array of hedge funds betting …

March 14, 2009 - The markets got a reprieve this week, despite the fact that the negative economic data kept streaming in. The catalyst for stocks came from the financial services industry where Citigroup said it earned a profit in the first two months of 2009, and Bank of America was reportedly regaining some footing. As a result, the DJIA gained 9% on the week, the Nasdaq gained 10.6% and the Samp;P gained 10.7%. This is good news, but major concerns persist. Unemployment data continued to show that more Americans are losing jobs and expectations are that this trend will continue at least through the first half of 2009. A direct consequence of job losses is that consumer spending is going to continue to taper off. The US economy has come to be so dependent on consumer spending that this is going to have materially negative impact on GDP. To ...

The purpose of IBOR is to protect financial markets and to create self-sufficient investors who produce economic growth instead of government deficits. IBOR standards create transparent financial markets, regulate speculation, and protect retirement portfolios. Here’s a sampling:

Section One: Product Transparency. All investors have a right to see precisely what securities are inside any investment product by accessing real time information that includes names and cost-based allocation percentages.

Section Two: Regulation and Education.

Section Three: Protection from Speculators. Investors have a right to protection from risks added to portfolios without their control, knowledge, or permission.
Naked shorting, index fund ownership of large share positions, and all naked option transactions would be prohibited.

Section Four: Controls of Hedge Funds.

Section Five: Brokerage Account Statements. Investors have a right to account statements that: 1) help manage asset allocation targets, 2) report realized gains and losses, 3) track …

by Anthony David

For the global macro trader there are essentially two different kinds of trades: relative value and directional. Relative value is essentially when you are looking at two different instruments that have reliable historical relationships and trading off that relationship. Directional trading, as the name implies, is when you place a bet saying that you think oil, gold, etc is going up or down.

There are multiple categories of directional traders. Some are technically oriented and deemed technicians and look at charts and other price action based studies. Other macro traders use fundamental analysis thinking that they can determine if an asset is under or over valued. Gut feel is a style as well. Most of the time gut traders lose their money but there are a few that can trade successfully solely of off their feelings. The next large category of traders are the CTA long term …

Playboy in Play? Honda Throttles Back Jet Program; Hedge Funds to Hedge Bets After Losses; JPMorgan Will Modify Loans; Google Will Rather Fight Than Switch; Mortgage Applications Soar as Rates Fall

The publisher of one of the world’s best known adult magazines, Playboy Enterprises Inc., (PLA) said it would be open to discussions about an outright sale after posting a wider fourth-quarter loss on weaker-than-expected revenue.  The company, which has been through a management shake-up including the resignation in December of longtime Chief Executive Officer Christie Hefner, posted a net loss in each quarter of 2008. A restructuring charge of $157.2 million, and other one-time costs, also hurt results, Reuters reported. Confronting its first quarterly loss in at least 15 years, Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (ADR: HMC) will scale back plans to make business jets and may offer voluntary retirements for ...

Below is a list of my top 10 tips to those professionals who are looking to create a pitch book for their hedge fund. My advise to both $30M and $1M hedge funds is that you can never start this process early enough, it is an iterative constantly evolving project which will never be complete. Here are the top 10 tips for creating your hedge fund marketing materials.

Think long-term. Invest in creating a robust institutional quality pitch book the first time around and complete 5 drafts of it internally before showing it to a single investor.
Stress your team, investment process …

The depressed economic environment which we are now experiencing has forced more hedge funds and private equity firms to close down than within any other single 12 month period. These two industries face a marred public image, overall negative investment returns and an investor base which in many cases now prefers to hold cash equivalents rather than place money at this time in the market cycle. The industry faces many challenges, while also serving as fertile ground for those funds which can prevent losses and recruit talent. It would seem that the next two years ...

by Dagny Taggart

Macro trading and the art of tactical asset allocation can be lumped into the same category. This is because they both share so many similarities. They are both trying to find the best values on the globe and in several different asset classes. The difference is that most global macro traders are aiming for absolute returns whereas tactical asset allocation is typically only looking for market beating returns and less then market risk.

Tactical asset allocation is a dynamic asset allocation process that essentially tries to allocate capital to where the best potential future returns are. For instance if you have a 25% allocation to US stocks and they are at 12 year lows with the lowest PE ratio in over a decade you would likely believe that now is a good time to be putting more money to work there. A tactical asset allocator would then …

Here is a short video interview discussing the topic of the typical hedge fund business model: