Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alex who wrote (63784)	2/16/2001 7:19:29 AM
From: long-gone	Respond to of 116764

Tuesday February 13, 4:23 pm Eastern Time Former LTCM head sees alternative investment growth MIAMI BEACH, Fla., Feb 13 (Reuters) - John Meriwether, former head of Long-Term Capital Management LP, said Tuesday that demand for ``alternative'' investment portfolios, which can include futures and options, should grow in coming years after traditional equity investments posted sharp losses last year. ``Significant amounts of assets will be allocated to this field in coming years,'' Meriwether said in a speech to the Managed Funds Association in Miami Beach. ``It also helps that in the last year traditional asset classes stumbled, so by comparison alternative investments are attractive.'' Meriwether, founder and principal of JWM Partners, later told reporters he sees a 50 to 60 percent chance the U.S. economy will enter a recession. He did not give a timetable. Long-Term Capital Management shook financial markets when it nearly collapsed in 1998 after a Russian debt default sparked huge losses for the highly leveraged hedge fund. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and other banking regulators helped organize a $3.625 billion bailout of LTCM to avert a breakdown of global financial markets. A hedge fund might offer portfolios that use products such as futures and options in nontraditional ways to create alternative investments. Meriwether said his approach to the issue of transparency has changed in the two years since the LTCM debacle. ``We were concerned about the impact on the market and our fiduciary duty to our investors'' if trading positions were known, Meriwether said. ``Now we have a much different policy.'' He said the managed fund industry should shift in coming years to focus on ``star strategies'' rather than ``star managers.'' The managed funds industry is dominated by a relatively small number of advisers who handle $100 million or more of assets. ``The press has a way of personalizing hedge fund managers,'' he said. During LTCM's troubles, he said, the press at times used the term ``hedge fund'' as ``almost a pejorative.'' Since then, understanding of alternative investments has risen, especially among institutional investors, he said. biz.yahoo.com