01.10.2006 - Amaranth to sell all positions; suspends redemptions
Amaranth Advisors LLC told investors on Friday that it will sell all its remaining positions and has temporarily suspended redemptions to help it raise more money from asset sales.

02.10.2006 - Commodity indexes getting the finger
Recent downward movements in the commodity market has got investors thinking there's got to be a better way to make money than relying on the indices that track it. One solution, suggests Reuters, are commodity hedge funds, which abandon the long-only approach for the long/short variety. "For us, it doesn't make sense to buy long-only," Luc Estenne of Partners Advisers told Reuters. "Long/short is the best way to play commodities. There is…volatility and potentially a lot of returns." The problem with the old approach, he says, is that many commodity indices are too heavily weighted toward energy.

02.10.2006 - Dutch pension funds to use more derivatives, says DNB study
A paper from Dutch pension regulator De Nederlandsche Bank sees derivatives and asset liability management becoming more important for pension funds.The working paper - 'Financial behaviour of Dutch pension funds: a disaggregated approach' - by Jan Kakes of the DNB's Financial Stability Division, examined the financial behaviour of 77 Dutch pension funds during 2002-2005 representing some three-quarters of the country's pension assets.

02.10.2006 - Futures trading volume rises
September was a robust month at three big US futures and options exchanges. Chicago Mercantile Exchange average daily volume rose 17.2% last month from a year ago to 6.1 million contracts. For the third quarter, the CME's average daily trading volume was 5.48 million contracts, up 30% from the third quarter of last year, it says. The CME offers futures and options of futures in six areas: interest rates, stock indices, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy and alternative investment products.

02.10.2006 - The long and short of hedge funds: By Philip Saunders, Max King and Dr. Terence Moll at Investec Asset Management
Following the Amaranth debacle, the Global Multi-Asset team at Investec Asset Management examine the pros and cons of investing in hedge funds.

04.10.2006 - Intercontinental Exchange's moves draw bullish reviews
Several analysts in recent days have raised their price targets and earnings estimates for Intercontinental Exchange Inc., citing the electronic energy-trading company's strong volume growth and aggressive plans to expand into agricultural commodities.

04.10.2006 - Bogle criticizes short-term focus in growing ETF business
Vanguard Group founder and stalwart investor advocate John Bogle said Wednesday he's worried about what he calls a short-term focus in the growing exchange-traded fund business on the part of both providers and investors.

04.10.2006 - Rate cut speculation lifts DJIA futures to all-time high
Taking comfort from the words of the nation's top central banker, traders on Wednesday sent futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average to the highest level ever for a front-month contract. .

04.10.2006 - Commodity-linked currencies slide
Commodity-linked currencies took a beating as the fallout from the slide in raw material prices hit the foreign exchange markets.

04.10.2006 - Grain markets reach multi-year highs
Oil and metals prices may be falling but one part of the commodities market where prices are hitting multi-year highs is the grain market

04.10.2006 - Losses see Vega facing withdrawals
Steep trading losses at Vega Asset Management, an embattled hedge fund firm, may lead some investors to withdraw money, cutting its assets to as low as $1bn, from a peak of about $12bn.

04.10.2006 - Banks still keen on commodities despite price slide
A recent drop in commodity prices may be hurting some hedge funds, but investment banks see a buying opportunity and are increasingly ambitious players in the asset class. Banks, which take the view commodities will yield returns over the longer term, have hired aggressively in energy and other commodities over the past three years and are continuing to do so.

05.10.2006 - Oil prices jump after Opec cuts output
Crude oil rallied after Opec officials said the cartel had informally agreed to cut output by at least 1m barrels a day as soon as possible.

06.10.2006 - Changes in Exchange Minimum Margin Requirements
The changes are effective as of the close of business on Friday, October 6, 2006.

06.10.2006 - Amaranth cutting half its staff; seeks to place
Stricken hedge fund group Amaranth Advisors LLC said it is laying off about half its staff to cut operating expenses as it liquidates its portfolio in the wake of the worst hedge fund loss ever.

06.10.2006 - NYSE electronic trading system debut seen smooth
The New York Stock Exchange's launch of expanded electronic trading got off to a generally smooth start Friday, traders and exchange officials said.

07.10.2006 - NYMEX to Launch Russian Oil Futures Contract on CME Globex®
The New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. announced today that it will launch a new Russian export blend crude oil (REBCO) futures contract on the CME Globex electronic trading platform, beginning on October 22 for trade date October 23.

09.10.2006 - Money managers bet on cheap mining stocks
Fund managers are piling into mining stocks because they are cheap and do not reflect the strength of metals prices that by historical standards are still very high. Copper, which accounts for almost 30 percent of British miners' earnings, jumped by nearly 85 per cent to USD 8,800 a tonne between August 2002 and May this year. Prices have fallen since May, but most of the gains bar about 17 per cent are still intact.

09.10.2006 - Energy ETFs suffer as oil price falls
With the price of oil down sharply from its mid-summer highs, some investors who put money into energy-sector exchange traded funds have slipped up as well. Despite a small bump late last week, the price of crude oil has fallen about 22 per cent from its July peak of close to USD 80 a barrel and pulled stocks of major energy companies down along with it. ETFs in the sector haven't bucked the trend. The largest energy-oriented ETF, Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund, with about USD 4.6 billion in assets, has dropped 9 per cent from mid-July. Top holdings are ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips.

10.10.2006 - More growth through structured products and MAs
Structured products and managed or wrap accounts are the next cornerstones of the global investment funds sector, according to an on-the-spot poll of fund managers and other industry participants at the SIBOS conference held this week. The majority of attendees at the SIBOS conference briefing 'Investment Funds: Where will future growth come from?' agreed that structured notes or structured products and customised accounts will only grow in popularity in the coming years.

10.10.2006 - Emerging market currencies in trouble again
After a rocky period in May and a sell-off in late September, emerging market currencies are in trouble again. Political uncertainty and deficit problems, notably in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America, have resurfaced as major concerns, analysts say. The situation could worsen in the event that a protracted slowdown in the US begins to affect global growth. The market has seen a clear change of sentiment in September. Investors scaled back risky positions amid political crises in Poland, Hungary and Brazil, falling commodity prices, and speculation about an Ecuadoran debt default. Those factors triggered sell-offs in some high-yielding and high-volatility currencies including the Turkish lira, the South African rand, the Brazilian real and the Icelandic krona.

11.10.2006 - Global institutional demand for HFs will triple to USD1 trillion by 2010
Global institutional demand for hedge funds will triple by 2010, increasing from USD 360 billion currently to more than USD 1 trillion, according to a new study released by The Bank of New York and Casey, Quirk & Associates LLC.

11.10.2006 - China and India to drive commodity boom
China will continue to play a key role supporting the boom in commodity markets, while investors hope that Indian consumption adds fuel to the bull run, a portfolio manager for JPMorgan Asset Management said on Wednesday. Ian Henderson, who manages a USD 2.5 billion (GBP 1.3 billion) resources fund, said the latest price falls in commodity markets are a short-term correction in a multi-year boom.

13.10.2006 - The future of futures?
In 2003, the Intercontinental Exchange was such a small player in energy trading that its computer servers handled less than a fifth of the number of North American natural gas contracts that exchanged hands in the boisterous trading pits of the New York Mercantile Exchange. How things have changed. In the first six months of this year, the exchange, known as ICE, handled about the same number of contracts as Nymex. The supercharged growth of ICE has amazed even its biggest advocates and has upended the traditional business of energy and futures trading.

16.10.2006 - Citadel, hedge funds bet USD 3 billion on gas after Amaranth fall
Citadel Investment Group LLC, the USD 12 billion hedge fund manager, T Boone Pickens and the Merchant Commodity fund expect natural gas to rebound from a historic losing streak. Hedge funds amassed a USD 3 billion wager on rising prices in New York futures markets as gas plunged 74 per cent in the past 10 months, the biggest drop of any commodity. Chicago-based Citadel added to its bet in September by taking over trades from Amaranth Advisers LLC, the hedge fund that's closing after losing USD 6.5 billion in the gas market.

16.10.2006 - CME to Offer Weather Futures and Options on Six Canadian Cities
Exchange adds seasonal strip snowfall indexes for Boston and New York City.

16.10.2006 - Wheat prices raise fears of supply crisis
The rise in the prices of wheat and other grains has led analysts to caution that the world could face a crisis within the next 12 months if there is another disappointing year of global production.

16.10.2006 - Ivory Coast strike threatens cocoa
Cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast began an indefinite strike, slowing deliveries to ports in the world's largest producer just after the harvest of the country's main crop got under way.

16.10.2006 - Base metals surge to new records
Tin prices hit their highest level for 17 years while nickel and lead prices reached new records as traders returned to their desks after London Metal Exchange week.

17.10.2006 - Put third of assets into hedge funds, says Myners
The average pension fund should invest 25%-35% of its assets in hedge funds, says Paul Myners, the former Gartmore chief who wrote an influential report on institutional investment for the government. He urges the industry to "be more evangelical" when it comes to promoting hedge funds. "The traditional ways of running pension funds are complete nonsense. We were paid performance fees for losing our clients' money, I explained to my mother," Myners, who is currently chairman of Ermitage Ltd, told delegates at the Hedge 2006 conference in London.

18.10.2006 - Hedge fund transparency on G8 agenda
Germany is putting hedge fund transparency on the agenda of next year's meeting of the group of eight leading industrial nations in the wake of the Amaranth debacle. Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, said on Tuesday that Germany saw "the new sensitivity" in the US about the systemic risks of hedge funds as an opportunity to discuss the issue.

18.10.2006 - Hedge funds heading for statutory oversight?
Is the hedge-fund industry serious about self-regulation? Does it care in the least about its image? Or does it just want to stuff as much money as possible into the big bag marked swag before the whole party gets closed down? Judging by recent events in London and Geneva, the answers to those questions would appear to be no, no and yes.

18.10.2006 - Banks search for Chicago rival
Investment banks have intensified discussions to develop an alternative to established derivatives exchanges amid concern about the pricing power stemming from the planned $8bn tie-up of Chicago's two futures exchanges.

18.10.2006 - CME and CBOT merger to create USD 25 billion derivatives exchange
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (CME) and CBOT Holdings, Inc. have signed a definitive agreement to merge with the intention of creating "the most extensive and diverse global derivatives exchange".

19.10.2006 - Hedge funds pull in record amount of money in third quarter
Hedge funds pulled in $44.5 billion during the third quarter, the most money that's flowed into the industry during any quarter since at least 2003, Hedge Fund Research, which tracks assets and performance in the industry, said on Thursday.

19.10.2006 - Saudi Arabia backs Opec output cut
The world's biggest oil producer backed an immediate production cut of 1m barrels a day as the Opec indicated its determination to defend $60 as a new minimum international price.

20.10.2006 - Eurex Repo reaches new record on average outstanding volume
Eurex Repo showed continued strong growth in September 2006: The average outstanding volume on Eurex Repo reached a new record at EUR 91.3 billion.

20.10.2006 - ETFs have a brighter future than Futures, says EDHEC survey
Initial results from the EDHEC European ETF Survey indicate that more than half of the respondents expect the use of ETFs to increase in the future, well ahead of the corresponding figures for futures, index funds and total return swaps.

20.10.2006 - Merrill Lynch research paper examines the value of passive management for hedge fund investors
Rules-based passive hedge fund strategies could provide an increasingly attractive alternative to active hedge fund management as the industry continues to mature according to Merrill Lynch analysts.

22.10.2006 - Hedge funds, central banks push Swiss franc to a two-year low
The Swiss franc has become the new favorite for speculators seeking cheap money to finance higher- yielding bets. The franc dropped to a two-year low against the currencies of Switzerland's biggest trading partners, according to an index prepared by the Bank of England. It has fallen against 13 of the 16 most-traded currencies since July. Switzerland's central bank charges 1.75 per cent interest to borrow for three months, the lowest rate outside of Japan. That has attracted speculators, who borrow the franc and sell the currency to invest in Iceland, New Zealand and Turkey, where rates are as much as 15.75 per centage points higher.

23.10.2006 - Merrill agrees to buy Petrie Parkman
Merrill Lynch agreed to buy Petrie Parkman, a boutique investment bank specialising in advisory work on oil and gas deals in North America with more than $100m in annual revenues.

23.10.2006 - Oil & gas service ETFs are now historically cheap
Oil & Gas service stocks got beat up this summer and remain historically cheap relative to the S&P 500 on the basis of forward price-earning ratios. Additionally, the usual cycle-ending glut in supplies is absent, productivity of wells continues to decline, and a likely soft landing for the world economy should keep energy demand from collapsing.

23.10.2006 - Energy fund losses prompt call for transparency
High profile blow-ups of two big energy funds may force hedge funds to provide more information to investors if they want to keep them, according to energy risk manager Chris Jarvis. "Hedge-fund shops are going to have to become more transparent to soothe the nerves of their investors, a lot of whom are going to be a little more proactive in observing what's going on with the fund," said Jarvis, who is launching his own Jarvis Energy Fund on the heels of the meltdown of Amaranth Advisors LLC and MotherRock LP.

24.10.2006 - Hedge funds ride out crash in commodities
The hedge fund managers Boone Pickens and Michael Farmer have more than doubled their money this year even as the five-year commodities boom went bust. Hedge fund returns are trouncing those offered by indexes of commodities, stocks and bonds. The Goldman Sachs commodities index, which the investment firm predicted in December would gain 9.5 per cent this year, has instead lost 12 per cent. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 12 percent, while 10-year US Treasury notes have returned about 8 per cent. Several commodity hedge funds meanwhile are beating their benchmarks. The USD 386 million Merchant Commodity Fund is up 22 per cent this year while Armajaro Asset Management's USD 306 million commodity fund has gained 15.1 per cent.

24.10.2006 - Dow hits new highs; Nasdaq, S close in on resistance
On one level, the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 notched new highs again to start the week.

25.10.2006 - CBOT to Offer Side-By-Side Trading of Full-Sized Metals Options Contracts
The CBOT announced today that beginning on November 6, it will offer its options on Full-sized Gold (100 oz.) and Silver (5,000 oz.) futures contracts via open auction trading, listing them "side-by-side" electronic trading in the contracts.

26.10.2006 - Fed statement initiates dollar sell-off
The dollar continued to lose ground following Wednesday's decision by the Federal Reserve to leave US interest rates unchanged.

26.10.2006 - UK fund managers lack systems to Manage derivatives, S&P says
UK fund managers don't have adequate systems in place to manage the risk of derivatives, a survey by ratings company Standard & Poor's shows. Only 2 per cent of pension funds, hedge funds and other money managers surveyed by S&P have the ability to monitor derivatives before and after trades and to measure the risks they're taking, according to a report published today. Over 60 per cent of fund managers said they want to put a system in place and can't find a suitable management tool to meet their needs.

27.10.2006 - Treasurys shoot higher on below-forecast GDP report
Treasury-bond prices rallied Friday, pressing yields lower, after news that third-quarter gross domestic product growth fell significantly from the prior quarter and missed expectations.

27.10.2006 - Gold gains for the day and week, closes above $600
Gold futures closed above $600 Friday to score a gain for the week with oil above $60 a barrel and the U.S. dollar lower after weaker-than-expected third-quarter gross domestic product data.

27.10.2006 - Soros, Bacon, Jones hedge funds come up short against S&P 500
Investors in hedge funds overseen by George Soros, Louis Bacon and Paul Jones would have made more money this year by buying shares of a stock-index mutual fund. Managers of so-called macro hedge funds have lagged behind market benchmarks, including the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, after being caught off guard by reversals in stock, bond and commodity prices. Macro funds, so named because they bet on broad economic trends, fare better when prices move up or down for a sustained period, which hasn't been the case in 2006 with investor opinions divided about the strength of the US economy.

27.10.2006 - US advisor survey: Alternative investments are going mainstream
A new US survey examining alternative investment usage by advisors shows that usage is growing from hedge funds and real estate into capital-protected and structured products, commodity funds, and managed futures.

30.10.2006 - Bearish “Evening Star” Formation in S 500 Futures
The December S&P 500 index closed lower on Friday October 27, 2006, as it consolidated some of this fall's rally. While a lower-than-expected third-quarter U.S. gross domestic product reading was a factor to blame on the fundamental side, from a technical standpoint, a bearish "evening star" formation is evident on the charts.

31.10.2006 - 'Lighter' regulation best for hedge funds, says Snow
John Snow, the former US Treasury secretary named chairman of Cerberus Capital Management LP this month, said investors, not policy makers, are the best regulators of hedge funds. Snow, who left George W Bush's administration in June after 3 1/2 years, said he came to favor a "lighter" touch for hedge funds because the USD 1.3 trillion industry was too big for the government to monitor effectively.

30.10.2006 - LevX launches on up to €1bn in contract
The world's first index of derivatives based on leveraged loans had a busy trading debut yesterday with some bankers estimating that €500m-€1bn ($1.3bn) of contracts were bought and sold.

30.10.2006 - Dubai fuel oil contract gets muted response
Dubai launched the first energy futures contract in the Middle East kick starting its aim to become a leading energy derivatives trading centre along with being the world's largest oil exporting region. The contract, for fuel oil, is expected to be one of several launched by the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange, which is backed by the state-owned Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre (DMCC).

31.10.2006 - Merrill launches index on Dubai
Merrill Lynch is set to open up exposure to the domestic Dubai stock exchange for international investors with the launch of the first investible index of companies in the oil-rich state.