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TradeStation Buy-Side Institutional Program

admin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:00:38 +0000

TradeStation’s NYSE Floor Operation Implements Buy-Side Institutional Program

Service Focuses on Floor Broker Parity and Transaction Pricing

New York, NY, September 28, 2010 – TradeStation Securities, Inc. (Member NYSE, FINRA, NFA and SIPC), through its TradeStation Prime Services division, recently launched its NYSE Floor operation, including its outsourced trading desk, to help meet the growing demand of hedge funds and other institutional clients who seek to enhance their transaction pricing while providing additional liquidity. The NYSE trading floor features a parity based model when allocating executions allowing market participants to operate a diverse strategy mix including both classic institutional order flow and higher frequency models.

As described by NYSE Euronext on its website, “The NYSE is the only market to offer both high-tech automation for low latency and complete anonymity along with high-touch participation by market professionals to provide orderly opens and closes, lower volatility, deeper liquidity and price improvement opportunities throughout the trading day. This unique combination provides customers with the highest levels of market quality and competitiveness…Brokers on the NYSE Trading Floor leverage their physical point-of sale-presence with information technologies and order management tools to offer customers the benefits of flexibility, judgment, automation and anonymity with minimal market impact.”

As a self-clearing, agency-only broker-dealer now with NYSE Floor capabilities, TradeStation can leverage this technology and its membership by offering, through their Floor Brokers, access to the NYSE Floor along with over 40 pools of liquidity away from NYSE. Active traders, including spread traders and derivatives traders can also integrate their trading strategies into algorithms that Floor Brokers access from their Hand Held Devices that are engineered specifically for the NYSE parity based model.

For additional information about TradeStation Prime Services, please visit:
http://www.tradestationprime.com/.

About TradeStation Prime Services, a division of TradeStation Securities, Inc.

TradeStation Prime Services, a division of TradeStation Securities, Inc., was founded to serve the needs of start-up to mid-sized hedge funds, registered investment advisers, professional traders and asset managers who need quality prime brokerage services, including execution and clearance, securities lending, capital introduction, and “incubation” services. Clients are offered electronic trading and decision-support platforms, including TradeStation, to analyze their trading strategies and automate or manually place their orders, and may avail themselves of the firm’s NYSE floor membership, which allows it to execute trades on behalf of clients on the NYSE floor as well as in other market centers from its NYSE floor booth/outsourced trading desk. TradeStation Prime Services is located at 400 Madison Avenue, New York, New York.

TradeStation Securities, Inc. (Member NYSE, FINRA, NFA and SIPC) is a licensed, self-clearing securities broker-dealer and a registered omnibus-clearing futures commission merchant, and has memberships or similar approved status (as well as direct connectivity for both market data and order execution) with BATS Z-Exchange, Boston Options Exchange,Chicago Board Options Exchange, Chicago Stock Exchange, EDGA Exchange, EDGX Exchange, International Securities Exchange, NASDAQ OMX BX, NASDAQ OMX PHLX, The NASDAQ Stock Market, NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex. For futures accounts, TradeStation connects directly (for both market data and order execution) with the CME Group, Eurex Group and ICE Group (U.S. and Europe) exchanges. TradeStation is a clearance member with DTCC and OCC for equities and options, serves its futures accounts on an omnibus clearance basis, and also introduces institutional equities accounts to J. P. Morgan Clearing Corp., as clearance agent. TradeStation Securities has offices in South Florida, New York, Chicago and Dallas, and an affiliated introducing broker (TradeStation Europe Limited) in London.

About TradeStation Group, Inc.

TradeStation Group, Inc. (NASDAQ GS: TRAD), through its principal operating subsidiary, TradeStation Securities, Inc., offers the TradeStation platform to the active trader and certain institutional trader markets. TradeStation is an electronic trading platform that offers state-of-the-art electronic order execution and enables clients to design, test, optimize, monitor and automate their own custom Equities, Options, Futures and Forex trading strategies. TradeStation Group’s other operating subsidiaries are TradeStation Technologies, Inc. and TradeStation Europe Limited.

Nature of this Announcement

This announcement is made on a limited basis through hedge fund and other institutional trader
websites and similar media for promotional/marketing purposes, to educate potential customers
of TradeStation Prime Services about its product and service offerings, and is not intended to be
an investor relations or public disclosure document for TradeStation’s publicly-traded holding
company (TradeStation Group, Inc.).

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Listed Hedge Funds

admin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:00:33 +0000

Listed Hedge Funds

Listed Hedge Funds Continue to Struggle

Listed hedge funds have struggled in the last two years and the listed funds of hedge funds is in an even more dismal state, as a recent article in eFinancial News explains. Despite the listed hedge fund sector expanding from 14 to 60 from 2004 to 2008, funds are still trading at an average discount to net assets of 18 percent.

The other eight – from the RAB Capital Special Situations fund that floated on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market in May 2005 to the Brevan Howard BH Global fund that floated on the London Stock Exchange almost exactly three years later – all trade at a discount.
One of them, the MW Tops fund run by UK hedge fund manager Marshall Wace, was put into voluntary liquidation by its investors at the end of last month.

The listed fund of hedge funds sector has fared even worse. Having expanded from 14 funds to 60 between 2004 and 2008, with assets growing almost tenfold, the sector is now trading at an average discount to net assets of 18%, according to stockbrokers at Royal Bank of Scotland. The sector, in the jargon, is deeply underwater.

Investors, largely private clients, were attracted to listed hedge funds and funds of hedge funds in the mid-2000s through a combination of familiarity with investment trusts and desire to gain exposure to hedge funds. Source

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Hedge Funds Ireland Debt

admin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:00:27 +0000

Hedge Funds Ireland Debt

Irish Paper Accuses Hedge Funds of Betting Against It

Hedge funds have faced a lot of criticism for its supposed role in the collapse of Greece. Now, as Ireland’s economy struggles, accusations have emerged in at least one Irish newspaper that hedge funds have been shorting Ireland’s debt.

You know a country is really feeling the hit, when its media starts printing the name of investors who are believed to bet betting against it.

The Irish Independent declares that hedge funds are shorting the country’s debt:

US hedge funds Groveland Capital and Corrientes Advisors are thought to have taken major positions against Irish debt. Giant €60bn asset-manager Pictet also revealed that it had earlier bet against Irish government bonds. JP Morgan is also thought to have taken a bearish position on Irish debt.

No word on who “thought” these funds were making these bets, or whether their impact is at all real.
Elsewhere, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan is talking about a “remarkable turnaround” in the economy. Surely. Source

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Tags: hedge funds, hedge funds in Ireland, Irish hedge funds, hedge funds Ireland debt, hedge funds Irish debt

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Hedge Funds Diesel Price

admin — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:00:28 +0000

Hedge Funds Diesel Price

Hedge Funds Continue to Raise Bets on Rising Diesel Price

Hedge funds have raised bets to the highest point in six weeks that the price of diesel will increase. The trades are likely stoked by the doubling of US diesel exports to Europe.

Hedge funds and other large speculators increased bullish wagers on heating oil, a proxy for diesel, by 58 percent the week ended Sept. 21, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in its weekly Commitments of Traders report.

“We’re seeing strong industrial production data in Western Europe,” said Hamza Khan, an analyst at the Schork Group in Villanova, Pennsylvania. “That’s a good indicator for intermodal transportation demand like trains and diesel trucks, especially in Europe given how much more dependent they are on diesel than we are in America.”

Germany, Europe’s largest economy, bolstered diesel consumption in the region as the country avoided the sovereign debt crisis that plagued nations in the euro area, including Greece and Ireland. European demand for diesel and heating oil strengthened in September as refineries halted for maintenance and German consumers stocked up before winter. Source

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David Tepper Equities

admin — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:00:09 +0000

David Tepper Equities

Video Interview: David Tepper Ups Equities Allocation

As I noted in last week’s article on the interview of David Tepper, Appaloosa Management has become one of the most impressive hedge funds in the industry. Tepper’s fund made $7 billion in 2009 largely by buying shares on the bet that struggling banks would recover. Now, Tepper appears to be favoring equities. Here is the first part of his two part interview with CNBC. If you are reading this via RSS or e-mail, click here to watch this video:

Here is the second part of the David Tepper interview:

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Top Five Hedge Funds

admin — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 00:01:11 +0000

Top Five Hedge Funds

Institutional Investor Ranks the Top Five Hedge Funds

Institutional Investor ranks the top 100 hedge funds in terms of total capital. In the following video, Institutional Investor’s executive editor, Michael Peltz, reveals the magazine’s ranking of the top five hedge funds. If you are reading this via RSS or e-mail, click here to watch the video.

Top Five Hedge Funds:

BridgeWater Associates – $38.6 billion
JPMorgan Chase – $32.89 billion
Paulson & Co. – $29 billion
D.E. Shaw & Co. – $28.6 billion
Brevan Howard Asset Management – $26.8 billion

Watch the latest video at &lt;a href=”http://video.foxbusiness.com”&gt;video.foxbusiness.com&lt;/a&gt;

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David Tepper Interview

admin — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 00:01:08 +0000

David Tepper Interview

How David Tepper Made Billions in the Financial Crisis

David Tepper, the billionaire manager of Appaloosa Management, spoke in some detail about his strategy in 2008 and 2009 that made him billions of dollars. During the height of the financial crisis when most hedge funds were just trying to protect against losses, Tepper’s fund was buying up shares in failing banks, expecting a rebound that would pay off big. And that is exactly what happened in 2009, when the banks shares that he had bought for cheap started rising Appaloosa Management made $7.5 billion. Here is an interesting interview with David Tepper:

When Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, investors panicked on Wall Street, causing dangerous aftershocks across the markets. And while most of Appaloosa’s peers were desperately trying to mitigate losses and stave off redemption requests amidst the market’s free fall, Tepper decided it was the perfect time to leap right into the eye of the storm.

So the fund started aggressively buying up depressed bank debt of holding companies like Washington Mutual and common and preferred stock of Wachovia and others.

One has to wonder if the guy eats nails for breakfast.

“We lead he herd,” he chuckles. “The Street follows us, we don’t follow the Street.”

Tepper was sitting on a pile of cash, having sold out of most of his positions in the spring of 2008, and didn’t have any debt. So when the U.S. Treasury put out a white paper in February 2009 announcing its Financial Stability Plan, which included the Capital Assistance Program designed to shore up the capital of banks, he took his time and read the fine print. read more..

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Asia Hedge Fund Growth

admin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:00:58 +0000

Asia Hedge Fund Growth

Asia-Focused Hedge Funds Add 3.9% Assets in First Half

Asia-focused hedge funds growth is slowing in terms of assets. Asia-focused hedge fund assets increased by only 3.9% in the first half of 2010. Hedge funds in the region now manage US$137.8 billion.

Asia may well be the home of the future of the hedge fund industry, but it’s a future that’s slow in coming.

Asia-focused hedge fund assets increased by just 3.9% in the first half. All told, hedge funds in the region now manage US$137.8 billion, up US$5.3 billion from the end of last year, AsiaHedge reports.

Growth in the region was stalled both by weak inflows and less-than-stellar performance, AsiaHedge said. Still, Asia hedge fund assets grew faster than global hedge fund assets, which increased by about 3% in the first half.

“The nascent recovery seen in Asian hedge fund assets toward the end of last year has been stalled due to weak capital inflows, continued redemptions and largely flat performance of the funds in the first half of 2010,” Aradhna Dayal, AsiaHedge editor, said. She added that she expects another “major round of consolidation” for Asian hedge funds. Source

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Forbes’ Rich List

admin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:00:54 +0000

Forbes’ Rich List

Hedge Fund Managers Included on Forbes’ 400 Rich List

Forbes’ 400 list of wealthiest Americans includes many representatives of the alternative investment industry. Among the 400 individuals were at least 61 hedge fund and private equity managers. George Soros of Soros Fund Management leads the alternative investment community with $14.2 billion.

At least 61 alternative investments titans crowd this year’s Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans. And the most well-off among them—the 18 that made Forbes’ top 100—for the most part got richer over the last year.

George Soros remains the richest hedge fund manager in the land with $14.2 billion, making him more than $1 billion richer than last year. Soros ranked 14th among America’s wealthiest. John Paulson came in second among alternatives billionaires with $12.4 billion, nearly doubling his total from last year to leapfrog Carl Icahn, Ron Perelman ($11 billion each) and James Simons ($8.7 billion) on the list.

SAC Capital Advisors’ Steven Cohen came in 32nd on the list with $7.3 billion, followed by Ray Dalio ($5 billion), Sam Zell ($4.4 billion), David Tepper ($4.3 billion), and Bruce Kovner and Stephen Schwarzman ($4.1 billion each). Source

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Hedge Fund Marketing Power Words

admin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 06:01:35 +0000

Hedge Fund Marketing

Powers Words to Raise Capital With

I was recently at a Eben Pagan training session on marketing and during a session at that event we focused in on power words to use in copywriting.

Copywriting Definition: The use of powerful and persuasive writing in marketing to get your prospect to action.

During this session Eben shows us the results of a college study which showed that the following words are some of the most powerful in the entire human language:

You
Money
Results
Save
New
Easy
Love
Discovery
Health
Proven
Guarantee
Free

How many of these words are relevant for hedge fund marketing activities? Many. The truth is that copywriting is an after-thought at best within our industry so if you can incorporate some of these words within a way that doesn’t come off as “Salesy” than you could do very well by having far more engaging marketing materials than your competitors. Some practical applications of power words in your marketing could include:

Team bios
Pitch Books
Email subject lines (big one)
Voicemails
One pager headline or description pieces
Book & Whitepaper titles

Obviously throwing words randomly into a title or subject line is not going to increase the response is you sound like everyone else in the industry so as usual it is not a cure-all for raising capital but it definitely can help.

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Tags: Hedge Fund Marketing, Hedge Fund Marketing Training, Hedge Fund Marketing Copywriting, Hedge Fund Marketing Copywriter, Hedge Fund Sales, Hedge Fund Marketing Materials

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