Hedge funds have become important players in the U.S. & global capital markets. These largely unregulated funds use: a variety of complex trading strategies & instruments, in their liberal use of leverage, in their opacity to outsiders, & in their convex compensation structure. These differences can exacerbate market failures associated with agency problems, externalities, & moral hazard. Counterparty credit risk mgmt. (CCRM) practices are the first line of defense against market disruptions with potential systemic consequences. This article examines how the unique nature of hedge funds may generate market failures that make CCRM for exposures to the funds intrinsically more difficult to manage, both for regulated institutions & for policymakers. Ill.
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Banking and Financial Services. Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities, and Government Sponsored Enterprises
Hedge fund managers are the new "masters of the universe." The best earn more than $1 billion a year and are so sought after that they can afford to turn investor money away. The funds they run have, to some extent, established an alternative financial system, replacing banks as lenders to risky companies, acting as providers of liquidity to markets and insurers of last resort for risks such as hurricanes, and replacing pension funds and mutual funds as the most significant investors in many companies—even in some cases buying companies outright. The revised and updated second edition of this lively guide sheds much needed light on the world of hedge funds by explaining what they are, what they do, who the main players are, the regulations affecting them, the arguments as to whether they are a force for good or bad, and what the future holds for them. "More people have a view about hedge funds than know about them. Philip Coggan bridges the knowledge gap in this clearly written guide. Every chapter is a goldmine of information and analysis, making it easy to learn about hedge funds. No investor, no investment adviser, no trustee, no dinner-table conversationalist should express opinions on the sector until they have read this book." —Elroy Dimson, BGI Professor of Investment Management, London Business School "While much has been written about hedge fund strategies and their (occasionally spectacular) failures, we have not yet seen a general primer to help the investor understand the world of hedge funds. Philip Coggan presents us with exactly that—a well-written, succinct summary of a world we all need to understand better." —Rob Arnott, Chairman of Research Affiliates and Editor Emeritus of the Financial Analysts Journal
Operations in Financial Services establishes a framework for this research area from an operations management perspective. The first section presents an introduction and provides an overview of the topic. The second section establishes links between the current state of the art in relevant areas of operations management and operations research and three of the more important aspects of operations in financial services - (i) financial product design and testing, (ii) process delivery design, and (iii) process delivery management. The third section focuses on the current issues that are important in the financial services operations area. These issues center primarily on mobile online banking and trading in a global environment. The fourth section discusses operational risk aspects of financial services. The final section concludes with a discussion on research directions that may become of interest in the future.
Hedge Funds summarizes the academic research on hedge funds and commodity trading advisors. The hedge fund industry has grown tremendously over the recent years. According to some industry estimates, hedge funds have increased from $39 million in 1990 to about $972 million in 2004 and the total number of hedge funds has gone up from 610 to 7,436 over the same period. At the same time, hedge fund strategies have changed significantly. In 1990 the macro strategy dominated the industry while in 2004 the equity hedge strategy had the largest share of the market. There has also been a shift in the type of investor in hedge funds. In the early 1990's the typical investor was a high net-worth individual investor, today the typical investor is an institutional investor. Thus, the hedge fund market has not only grown tremendously, but the nature of the market has changed. Despite the enormous growth of this industry, there is limited information available on hedge funds. As a result, there is a need for rigorous research from both the investors' and regulators' point of view. Investors need research to better understand their investment and their risk exposure. This research also helps investors recognize the extent of diversification benefits hedge funds offer in combination with investments in traditional asset classes, such as stocks and bonds. Regulators can use this research to identify situations where regulation may be needed to protect investors' interests and to understand the impact hedge funds trading strategies have on the stability of the financial markets. The first part of Hedge Funds summarizes hedge fund performance, including comparisons of risk-return characteristics of hedge funds with those of mutual funds, factors driving hedge fund returns, and persistence in hedge fund performance. The second part reviews research regarding the unique contractual features and characteristics of hedge funds and their influence on the risk-return tradeoffs. The third part reviews the role of hedge funds in a portfolio including the extent of diversification benefits and limitations of standard mean-variance framework for asset allocation. Finally, the authors summarize the research on the biases in hedge fund databases.
This edition of the OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook reviews developments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for government borrowing needs, funding conditions and funding strategies in the OECD area.
Over the last 20 years hedge funds and derivatives have fluctuated in reputational terms; they have been blamed for the global financial crisis and been praised for the provision of liquidity in troubled times. Both topics are rather under-researched due to a combination of data and secrecy issues. This book is a collection of papers celebrating 20 years of the Journal of Derivatives and Hedge Funds (JDHF). The 18 papers included in this volume represent a small sample of influential papers included during the life of the Journal, representing industry-orientated research in these areas. With a Preface from co-editor of the journal Stephen Satchell, the first part of the collection focuses on hedge funds and the second on markets, prices and products.
Until about twenty years ago, the consensus view on the cause of financial-system distress was fairly simple: a run on one bank could easily turn to a panic involving runs on all banks, destroying some and disrupting the financial system. Since then, however, a series of events—such as emerging-market debt crises, bond-market meltdowns, and the Long-Term Capital Management episode—has forced a rethinking of the risks facing financial institutions and the tools available to measure and manage these risks. The Risks of Financial Institutions examines the various risks affecting financial institutions and explores a variety of methods to help institutions and regulators more accurately measure and forecast risk. The contributors--from academic institutions, regulatory organizations, and banking--bring a wide range of perspectives and experience to the issue. The result is a volume that points a way forward to greater financial stability and better risk management of financial institutions.
This book uses data from a multitude of countries to explain how and why hedge fund markets differ around the world. The authors consider international differences in hedge fund regulation which include, but are not limited to, minimum capitalization requirements, restrictions on the location of key service providers, and different permissible distribution channels via private placements, banks, other regulated or non-regulated financial intermediaries, wrappers, investment managers and fund distribution companies.
How to diagnose and monitor key hedge fund operational risks With the various scandals taking place with hedge funds, now more than ever, both financial and operational risks must be examined. Revealing how to effectively detect and evaluate often-overlooked operational risk factors in hedge funds, such as multi-jurisdictional regulatory coordination, organizational nesting, and vaporware, Hedge Fund Operational Due Diligence includes real-world examples drawn from the author's experiences dealing with the operational risks of a global platform of over 80 hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, private equity, and real estate managers.
