1.4.2008 - Commodities Traders Will Need Nerves Of Steel In April
Commodities investors still recovering from last month's whiplash should brace for more bruising jolts ahead. While optimists still abound, even they admit that big swings are more likely in coming weeks. The best way to proceed is "with extreme caution," said Richard Feltes, director of commodity research at futures brokerage MF Global in Chicago. "We've had a very healthy correction. We know the commodity market is not bullet-proof in dealing with issues from the outside."

1.4.2008 - Be wary of agri funds, the soft commodities bubble is about to burst, warns King
Investors who put more than $6 billion into Schroders Agriculture fund could have cause for concern after Investec’s strategist Max King warned of the risks of investing solely in an agricultural futures product.

1.4.2008 - Macquarie Capital buys hedge fund Craton Capital
Australia's Macquarie Capital has acquired European-based boutique commodities hedge fund Craton Capital, sources close to the deal said.

1.4.2008 - PHLX Launches Sector Index Futures
The Philadelphia Stock Exchange launched three futures contracts on its Philadelphia Board of Trade subsidiary a couple weeks ago. While previously the exchange traded only currency futures on six different foreign currencies, the new contracts are linked to three of the PHLX's homegrown indexes.

1.4.2008 - Merrill Lynch Gold Fund Fell 10% After Metal Selloff
Merrill Lynch World Gold, the world's largest gold fund with $8.2 billion in assets, dropped 10 percent last month as prices fell from a record. World Gold, managed by Graham Birch in London, has gained 6.2 percent this year, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. Gold fell 5.9 percent in March after the Federal Reserve helped rescue Bear Stearns Cos. and revived confidence in the banking system.

2.4.2008 - Commodities: Soaring volumes, record prices, falling seat prices
At several of the country's biggest commodities exchanges, volumes and prices have surged in the last year. The same cannot be said for owning a seat on these busy exchanges. The cost of buying a trading right on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Nymex Holdings unit that trades benchmark contracts like crude oil, natural gas and heating oil, has tumbled from a year ago. The price of a seat on ICE Futures U.S., the unit of IntercontinentalExchange Inc. that handles the former New York Board of Trade contracts, last went for a paltry $1,000 - down from over $1.4 million in 2006.

3.4.2008 - NCDEX to launch carbon credit futures on April 10
The National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), India’s largest agri-trading platform, has announced the launch of the futures contract in certified emission reduction (CER), a type of carbon credit certificate futures contract.

3.4.2008 - MF Global seeking financing, not takeover
MF Global Ltd. is considering financing that could result in selling a minority stake in the company or taking on longer-term debt, but not takeover of the company, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday on its Web site, citing a person familiar with the matter.

3.4.2008 - MF Global Mulls Financing, May Sell Stake
MF Global, the futures and options broker whose shares surged Thursday, is considering financing options including a sale of a minority stake, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Thursday. The brokerage has hired Lazard to help it examine options, the Journal said.

7.4.2008 - Kenmar Launches Global Agricultural, Soft Commodities FoF
Rye Brook, N.Y.-based Kenmar has added to its portfolio of cleantech funds of hedge funds with the launch of a global agricultural and soft commodities fund. The new offering debuted with some $50 million in assets and received a $100 million capital infuasion on March 1. The fund, which currently employs seven underlying managers, is designed to be aggressive, and returned 10% last month, according to Peter Fell, director of due diligence research of Kenmar's Global Eco Fund of Funds.

7.4.2008 - `Tidal Wave' in Commodities Rises to $400 Billion
Global investments in commodities rose by more than a fifth in the first quarter to $400 billion, helping boost prices as investors sought a buffer against inflation and a weaker dollar, Citigroup Inc. analysts said.

8.4.2008 - 7 Charged With Illegal Trading on Nymex
Seven people have been charged in an investigation of illegal trading at the New York Mercantile Exchange — including a former board member who has pleaded guilty in exchange for five months in jail, the authorities said Tuesday.

8.4.2008 - Volatility puts Schroders commodities trust launch on ice
Stockmarket turbulence has forced Schroders to suspend its plans to launch an investment trust linked to the performance of a basket of commodities funds.

9.4.2008 - Agricultural commodities set for bull run
Agricultural commodities appear set for a sustained bull run and a sell-off of futures in March after a sharp rally early in 2008 could just be a temporary correction, high-profile hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry said.

9.4.2008 - LIM raising cash for Asia commodity fund
Hedge fund manager LIM Advisors is looking to raise almost $200 million this year for its existing small Asia commodities fund, betting the recent pullback in the asset class has not diminished long-term investor appetite.

9.4.2008 - Man's AHL, Winton Funds Ride Futures to Best Start Since 2001
Man Group Plc and Winton Capital Management Ltd. are off to their best start in seven years as falling stock markets and soaring gold and wheat prices propel profits for funds that trade commodities and financial futures.

10.4.2008 - Funds increase exposure to silver firms abroad
With silver on a bull-run, companies mining the metal are attracting investment from India funds. The allocation for silver has doubled for funds investing in metals companies abroad in the last one year.

10.4.2008 - Managed Futures In 7-Year High
As markets slide, some managed future hedge funds are gliding higher. Man Group and Winton Capital Management both report their vehicles in the strategy – also known as commodities trading advisers-- are enjoying their best starts since 2001. Man’s flagship AHL trading system up 13% in the first quarter, while Winton Futures Fund grew 11%. On average, managed futures funds returned +6.3% in the quarter just ended, according to the Newedge CTA index.

11.4.2008 - NatSource Founders Cough Up New Carbon Hedge Fund
Two founders of Natsource Asset Division Management have left the firm and formed their own hedge fund that focuses on trading carbon emissions. David Kandolha and Harvey Abrahams this month launched Akeida Capital Management, and are now fundraising for their maiden hedge fund, the Akeida Environmental Master Fund.

11.4.2008 - Brian Hunter Helps Deliver 49% Return for Hedge Fund
A commodity hedge fund advised by Brian Hunter, the energy trader whose bad bets triggered $6.6 billion of losses at Amaranth Advisors LLC in 2006, returned 49 percent in the first quarter, according to two investors.

13.4.2008 - ETF Investing: Agriculture, food ETFs and ETNs hedge against rising food prices
Investors who think growing global demand for food will continue to feed the agriculture boom might want to stroll the exchange-traded fund aisle of their local financial supermarket.

13.4.2008 - Jim Rogers' Picks and Pans - Barron's Interview
Barron's interviews investing guru Jim Rogers, who's gung-ho on China: China is going to be the next great country. The 19th century was the century of the U.K. The 20th century was the century of the U.S. The 21st century is going to be the century of China. He recently moved his family to Singapore so that his young daughter would learn the language.

16.4.2008 - More fund managers believe dollar undervalued
Half of global fund managers consider the dollar to be undervalued, according to a new survey published as the US currency hit a fresh low against the euro. Merrill Lynch’s monthly poll of fund managers revealed a net 50 per cent of the asset allocators surveyed believe the dollar is too weak, compared with a net 41 per cent the previous month and a net 30 per cent in January. An even greater proportion believe the single currency is overvalued, with a net 71 per cent of that opinion compared with a net 55 per cent in January.

16.4.2008 - Industry assets rose 27% in 2007, survey finds
Hedge fund assets jumped 27% to $2.6 trillion in 2007, but growth slowed during the second half of the year as the credit crunch began to dent confidence in the industry, HedgeFund Intelligence said on Wednesday.

17.4.2008 - C-View launches new Emerging and Minor Currency Program
C-View, one of the UK’s leading Currency Managers, is pleased to announce the launch of its Emerging and Minor Currency Program. With initial seed allocation of US$50 million, the program seeks to take advantage of opportunities in an additional 10 emerging and developing FX markets alongside the 30 currencies traded currently within the C-View Currency Managed Account Program.

17.4.2008 - Commodities boom still startling
Two years ago, I wrote a column with the headline: “Everybody’s into commodities - You’d better duck.’’ Since then, an index of prices of 24 commodities from oil to corn to aluminum, the S&P GSCI, has gained 45 per cent.

18.4.2008 - Investors talk up oil, commodities
With talk of oil hitting $125 a barrel, and records snapping almost daily in grains and metals, smart money thinks the swollen commodities bubble is about to pop.

18.4.2008 - Mulvaney’s Global Fund Comes Down To Earth In March
After two months of stratospheric returns, Mulvaney Capital Management’s winning streak ended in March. The Global Diversified Fund lost 7.96% on the month, but the $114 million fund remains up 44.28% year-to-date.

18.4.2008 - Red Kite spreads wings into Asia
Red Kite Management Ltd. said on Friday that it's expanding into Asia as the largest metals-trading hedge fund firm benefits from rising prices.

18.4.2008 - MF Global sees loss but shares soar
Futures and options broker MF Global Ltd said on Friday it expects record trading volumes and net revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter and its shares rose nearly 30 percent.

18.4.2008 - Managed Futures Slip In March, Finish Q1 Up
Managed futures lost 0.36% in March but remain up 7.09% for the quarter, according to the Barclay CTA Index.

18.4.2008 - Ex-Refco president convicted of securities fraud
Tone Grant, Refco's former president, was convicted of securities fraud and other criminal charges Thursday in a scheme to hide the commodities broker's financial troubles.

20.4.2008 - Regulator set to clear funds over grain prices
Speculators such as hedge funds or pension funds are not responsible for pushing agricultural commodities’ prices, including wheat and rice, to record highs, US regulators will say this week. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is meeting farmers and traders on Tuesday to discuss the jump in agriculture commodities’ prices amid criticism from US politicians and farming associations that speculators are behind the increase.

21.4.2008 - Halbis Appoints Fund Manager For Commodities Alpha Fund
HSBC Halbis has appointed Shameema Yousuf fund manager of its Commodities Alpha Fund, working alongside lead manager Per Tingberg in managing the discretionary futures fund.

23.4.2008 - JWH Gains On Global Equities, Natural Gas
John W. Henry & Co. continued its winning ways in March with gains in five out of its six programs. The firm’s International Foreign Exchange program offered the heftiest return last month up 13.97% (19.25% YTD) followed by the Financial and Metals Portoflio, which gained 8.91% (29.915 YTD).

23.4.2008 - Managed Futures only slightly negative in March, but holding strong YTD performance
Global indices continued to fall during the volatile month of March. The Federal Reserve tried to support financial markets and twice cut interest rates to the lowest rate since December 2004. Bad news were problems at Bear Stearns, which was then taken over by JP Morgan.

23.4.2008 - Pictet Launches Water Fund
Pictet Asset Management, the institutional division of the Swiss private bank Pictet & Cie, has launched the Pictet Water Opportunities Fund, a Cayman-domiciled public and private equity investment vehicle.

23.4.2008 - Man Investments Note Links AHL, RMF
Man Investments has launched a closed- end capital guaranteed hedge fund product offering investors exposure to two of its most high-profile and best-performing investment engines. Man Vision Ltd. is a structured note investing equally in AHL, Man's flagship managed futures fund, and RMF Investment Management, the hedge fund operator's Swiss-based fund of hedge funds business targeting emerging markets and managers.

24.4.2008 - AXA IM favours liquid hedge fund strategies
Equity markets are set to make little progress during the rest of 2008, but more liquid hedge fund strategies such as global macro and managed futures are likely to perform well, according to AXA Investment Managers.

25.4.2008 - Ag Commodity Bull Run  Video news
It's not too late to profit from the action, with Ewen Watt, Central Strategy Group BlackRock chairman and CNBC's Erin Burnett.

25.4.2008 - NFA Takes Emergency Action Against Last Atlantis
The National Futures Association has taken an emergency enforcement action against St. Thomas, Virgin Islands-based Last Atlantis Capital Management, a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator.

28.4.2008 - Former Merrill Lynch Energy Trader Preps Hedge Fund
Newly-formed Veotoro Management is gearing up to launch a commodities hedge fund at the end of June. The Miami-based firm aims to raise $250 million for its initial offering, The Veotoro Commodities Hedge Fund, and will start trading the fund with some $25 million.

28.4.2008 - China a buy for top investor Jim Rogers
Renowned investor Jim Rogers has revealed that he has begun buying Chinese shares again as the market has bottomed. Mr Rogers, who founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros in the 1970s, said he would be focusing his interests on agriculture, tourism, airlines and education at a seminar in Beijing.

29.4.2008 - Smart Money Leaving Commodities for Tech?
Is this the beginning of a rotation in the stock market? There's debate about this, but there are signs that some smart money is positioning themselves for a rotation out of commodities -- and into tech.

29.4.2008 - Meriwether's hedge fund let investors out, staff go
Hedge-fund manager John Meriwether is letting investors exit his global macro fund after the roughly $300 million portfolio lost 14 percent this year, a person familiar with the fund said on Tuesday.

29.4.2008 - DB Launches Leveraged, Inverse Commodities ETNs
On the heels of issuing seven exchange-traded notes tied to gold and agriculture indexes to leapfrog the competition in leveraged and inverse exchange-traded notes, Deutsche Bank on Tuesday launched four more broad-based commodities ETNs.

29.4.2008 - London Metal Exchange launches steel futures trading
Trading in steel futures has begun on the London Metal Exchange Ring following the successful test phase trading on its telephone and electronic market, LME Select, with the launch of two regional steel billet contracts for Mediterranean and East Asian delivery.

30.4.2008 - Ex-Man Broker Preps Threadneedle Hedge Fund
Threadneedle has added MF Global executive David Donora to set up a commodities hedge fund. Donora will establish and expand a commodities business at Theadneedle, part of which will be the hedge fund, set to debut in the fall. He most recently served as head of structured OTC derivatives in the U.K. at futures broker MF Global, the former Man Group subsidiary.