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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (53091)	8/4/2009 9:17:02 AM
From: dvdw©	Respond to of 219343

Placing an article below for you. It details some of the concerns of the alt invstmnt community. Are you a part of it? Hedge funds alt I companies use leverage, that variable is applied in tactical fashion against securities that have limited supply. Collectivly these funds cant perform risk management without full and complete disclosure about the cost of covering at some future date, which cannot be known... the risk managment and reporting by these funds is off the books and out of view, deemed proprietary....which is another way for these companies to engage financial reporting, selectively, which goes directly to the business of contriving scenarios which may or may not disclose true risk. On the matter of EBITDA for most is an accepted descriptive characterization....it is what it is, and is useful within the context for which it is applied. Investors can choose to invest in companies that dont have large borrowings and interest obligations, most who screen investments, understand this as a searchable comparative within the matrix of comperables. It is not a one scenario inclusive metric that you describe. Investors in hedge funds cant do the same level of diligence with respect to hedge fund accounting, leverage used, how its used, with respect to exit plans against scenarios that have these folks locked up by agreements until the fund sends them a letter saying they have failed. If a stock is bad you sell it or not based on need, with a hedge fund you wait for the inevitable miscalculation of risk management that exists outside your level of understanding, and pray that you get your paper profits out before the next round. Personally, choosing to read a financial statements inclusive of EBITDA while discriminating what was presented, is far less risk than the ALT I community offers its clients... Hedge Fund Demand: Brighton House Associates Q2 2009 Report Yesterday, August 3, 2009 : Permalink HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) - During the first quarter, most alternative investors spent their time rebalancing their portfolios, redeeming with current managers, and waiting for the market to correct itself. This process freed up capital and uncovered gaps in portfolios, ultimately leading to a significant increase in alternative investment interest in the second quarter, according to a report by Brighton House Associates (BHA), a hedge fund and FoHF reserach firm. Fixed-income strategies and volatility arbitrage were sought after, and experienced a significant boom in interest, as investors looked to take advantage of pricing inefficiencies created by rebounding markets, the report said. Investors’ concerns were evident by a push for greater liquidity, transparency, and access from managers of alternative funds. This shift manifested itself in conversations BHA analysts had with the global investor community. Nearly a quarter of all real estate fund interest in Q2 came from wealth advisors. Consultants and government pension plans also showed significant interest. 48% of the real estate investors that BHA spoke were specifically targeting the commercial sector. In terms of strategy; most investors were looking opportunistically at any type of real estate exposure, and the majority of investors were focused on core and value-added strategies. The second quarter of 2009 was very strong for alternative investment funds. Funds of hedge funds in particular saw an increase in investor interest after a disastrous Q1. In the first quarter, BHA received 108 mandates for funds of funds from investors; in the second quarter that number jumped over 40%. Several factors contributed to this change, including increased investor tolerance for lock-ups and longer redemption periods, increased investor interest in single-strategy funds of funds, and various investor types looking to increase their funds of funds exposure. Many investors that spent the first quarter on the sidelines outlined active mandates while others committed capital to funds. Investors reported interest not only in funds with which they had long standing relationships, but also in new funds to which they were introduced in the past few months. While many strategies realized increased interest during the quarter, volatility arbitrage and fixed income were two of the most intriguing, the report said. The rise in interest in volatility arbitrage is of little surprise. As the push for liquidity, focused investors on highly liquid, short-term trading-oriented funds. Investors also increasingly favored the relative stability and predictable returns that fixed-income funds provide. In the private equity space, venture capital showed signs of rebounding after a rough start to the year. During the second quarter, 57% of investors profiled by BHA analysts maintained minimum asset requirements of $1 million to $200 million for potential funds, and 19% looking for funds with a minimum of $21 million to $75 million. Investors and managers are hoping to build on the momentum created during the second quarter and carry it forward into the second half of the year, the report concluded. Brighton House Associates is an alternative investment research firm that speaks to investors across the globe about their current interest and activity in alternative investment funds. Brighton House works with a network of over 100 fund managers and assists in indentifying qualified investors for their internal marketing campaigns. Each quarter, BHA analysts collect detailed profiles from more than 1,000 investors globaly that are actively making investments in hedge funds, private equity and real estate funds, and related funds of funds. These investors’(AUM) range from less than $100 million to more than $10 billion dedicated towards alternative investments. Editing by Alex Akesson For HedgeCo.net alex@hedgeco.net

To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (53091)	8/4/2009 3:32:17 PM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 219343

Brazil investment poised to rise on credit reduction in borrowing costs equivalent to about 3 percentage points, demand for credit for the purchase of new machinery jumped and is now expected to double on a month-on-month basis Brazil investment poised to rise on credit SAO PAULO, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Brazilian purchases of industrial machinery and equipment likely will rise in the coming months as signaled by a surge in demand for credit at the state development bank, the daily newspaper Valor Economico said on Tuesday. Since the BNDES, as the Rio de Janeiro-based lender is known, announced in June a reduction in borrowing costs equivalent to about 3 percentage points, demand for credit for the purchase of new machinery jumped and is now expected to double on a month-on-month basis, Valor said, citing Claudio Moraes, a senior BNDES executive in charge of industrial loans. Investment, or capital spending by companies that includes the construction of facilities and purchase of machinery, pulled growth between 2004 and 2008, spurring the longest stretch of economic expansion in Brazil since the early 1970s. It tumbled after the onset of the global credit crisis, affecting confidence and putting the country in recession for the first time in almost two decades. Loans by the BNDES for new machinery purchases should rise up to 13 percent this year to 30 billion reais ($16.3 billion), compared with a plunge of 11 percent in the 12 months through June, Valor quoted Moraes as saying. Last month, industrial machinery makers in Brazil such as Kepler Weber (KEPL3.SA), Industrias Romi (ROMI3.SA), Gasparini and firearms maker Forjas Taurus (FJTA3.SA) said customers are sounding them out for new products and financing conditions, a signal factories might be mulling resuming production. On Monday, the government said industrial output in Brazil had had its worst six-month tumble in 34 years after confidence faltered and credit dried up in the wake of the global economic downturn. ($1=1.835 reais) (Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

To: Seeker of Truth who wrote (53091)	8/4/2009 4:53:47 PM
From: Joe S Pack	1 Recommendation Respond to of 219343

Hello Seeker, Talking of fraud, here is a decade long fraud by none other than the biggest fish. That is how the genius Welsh got the number cooking. finance.yahoo.com General Electric to pay $50M in SEC settlement * By Stephen Manning, AP Business Writer * On Tuesday August 4, 2009, 4:34 pm EDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- General Electric Co. will pay a $50 million civil penalty to settle charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing the conglomerate of improper accounting in order to make its financial results appear more attractive to investors. The SEC said Tuesday that GE violated U.S. securities laws four times between 2002 and 2003 when accounting for items like commercial paper funding and the sale of train locomotives and aircraft engine spare parts. The SEC said the changes helped GE maintain a string of earnings that beat Wall Street expectations each quarter from 1995 through 2004. "GE bent the accounting rules beyond the breaking point," said Robert Khuzami, head of the SEC's enforcement division, in a statement. The Fairfield, Conn.-based GE doesn't admit or deny the allegations, but said in a statement that it corrected its financial statements during SEC filings made between 2005 and 2008. GE said two of the violations outlined by the SEC were intentional, but that the other two were negligent errors by company officials. The SEC did not quantify how much GE gained through the accounting tactics, but the company said that there was a $280 million cumulative reduction of its net earnings between 2001 and 2007 when it went back to correct the problems. An unspecified number of employees working on the locomotive transactions were fired, and GE has implemented new internal accounting controls, according to a GE spokeswoman. "The errors at issue fell short of our standards," GE said in a statement. The SEC complaint, filed in federal court in Connecticut, accuses GE of four separate transgressions. --In January 2003, GE misapplied accounting standards to avoid reporting a $200 million pretax earnings charge related to a commercial paper funding program. --In 2003, GE did not correct improper accounting related to interest-rate swaps. --In 2002 and 2003, sales of locomotives that hadn't yet occurred were recorded at the end of the year, boosting revenues by $370 million. --In 2002, net earnings were increased by $585 million due to an improper change in accounting for commercial aircraft engine spare parts sales. GE said it turned over 2.9 million pages of documents and spent $200 million in legal and accounting fees over the course of the more than four-year investigation into its accounting practices. Shares of GE rose 10 cents to close at $13.82.