4.3.2008 - Wealthiest Europeans look to hedge funds, commodities
Europe's wealthiest families are planning to shift their investments further away from traditional assets into alternatives such as hedge funds and commodities, a report showed on Tuesday.

4.3.2008 - Credit crunch leads to plunge in derivatives trading
Trading in listed futures and options declined 21% quarter-on-quarter to a total turnover of USD539 trillion (EUR355 trillion) in the three months to the end of December, as banks refused to lend to each other and liquidity fears intensified, according to a quarterly report from the Bank for International Settlements.

4.3.2008 - UBS index to focus on food inflation
The first commodities index built to allow investors to profit from rising food inflation is due to be launched today.

4.3.2008 - World Grain & Oilseeds Fund, L.P.
DEC Capital, Inc. introduces the World Grain & Oilseeds Fund (WGO). WGO was formerly named DEC Futures Fund, Ltd. The 13-year-old Fund has more than a new name, according to DEC President Doug Carper.

5.3.2008 - Rogers says investors bet on commodity shortages
New money is pouring into commodity markets because supply shortages mean rising prices and high returns for investors, investment guru Jim Rogers told Reuters on Tuesday.

5.3.2008 - Commodities saving grace for investors
Strong returns in commodities in 2008 are offsetting losses elsewhere in institutional investors’ portfolios and attracting a record level of fresh funds into the asset class.

7.3.2008 - Saracen hedge fund lost 22% in February on gas trades
Saracen Energy Partners LP, the Houston-based hedge fund, lost as much as 22 percent of its value last month because of wrong-way bets on the price of U.S. natural gas, two investors said.

8.3.2008 - Superfund offers gold funds
Superfund has launched in the Middle East, the Superfund Gold Funds, as the first providers of gold-based managed futures funds. These funds combine the universal safe-haven investment (gold) with the Superfund managed futures trading strategy in one single product.

10.3.2008 - Hedge fund industry hit by worst crisis in a decade
The hedge fund industry is reeling from its worst crisis in a decade as banks demand more money pledged to support outstanding loans even when the investment is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. Since Feb. 15, at least six hedge funds, totaling more than $5.4 billion, have been forced to liquidate or sell holdings because their lenders - staggered by almost $190 billion of asset write-downs and credit losses caused by the collapse of the subprime-mortgage market - raised borrowing rates by as much as 10-fold while making new claims for extra collateral.

10.3.2008 - Analysts differ about commodity bubble
Commodities were at the centre of one of the earliest known financial bubbles – the tulip mania that hit the Netherlands in the 17th century. The price of the flower was lifted by huge investment demand to a peak of 1,500 guilders a pound in February 1637 – equivalent to what a master carpenter made in about four years. It had seen a tenfold increase in the space of two months and was trading at a level not supported by demand-supply fundamentals.

10.3.2008 - Global Futures and Options Trading Rises 28% in 2007
The Futures Industry Association, a Washington-based trade group, today released its annual report on global trading volume. The report, which measures volume based on the number of contracts traded on derivatives exchanges worldwide, indicates that more than 15 billion futures and options contracts changed hands during 2007, an increase of 28% from the previous year.

10.3.2008 - Commodities investments hit USD178 billion in 2007
Investments in commodities reached USD178 billion (GBP88 billion) in 2007, according to a recent survey of 260 institutional investors by Barclays Capital. The level of commodity investments has already overtaken the USD120-150 billion that investors estimated would be poured into commodity assets in 2008 in a Barclays Capital's survey in February last year.

10.3.2008 - Brevan Howard and Winton hedge funds surge
It's not all gloom and doom in the hedge fund sector, despite some widely publicized meltdowns among funds that invested in credit securities. For instance, Brevan Howard Asset Management's flagship fund, which manages nearly USD17 billion (GBP8 billion), was up 17.1 per cent in the year-to-date through February, according to a March 5 letter to investors. Another bright spot is funds that trade in commodities and futures, many of which have risen dramatically in recent years on emerging market demand, energy price gains and higher crop prices. Winton Capital Management's flagship Futures Fund, for instance, is up 12 per cent this year, with a hefty 7.9 per cent gain last month, according to an investor letter.

11.3.2008 - Hot Commodities, More Worries
Institutional investors continue to pour money into commodities, and are worrying more about it, according to Barclays. In a recent survey, the investment bank found that commodities investments hit $178 billion in2007 and may push past $200 billion this year, as 34%of respondents say they will allocate more than 10% of their portfolio into the sector over the next three years.

11.3.2008 - Commodities boom bypasses Japanese institutional investors
Institutional investors in Japan are watching the biggest commodity boom in decades pass them by as they ponder whether the sector offers good long-term diversification or unacceptable short-term risk.

11.3.2008 - Citadel To Offer Global Macro Strategies
Citadel Investment Group has lured a Moore Capital Management portfolio manager to run a new hedge fund strategy and its soon-to-be-launched multi-strategy global macro unit.

12.3.2008 - Investing in Agriculture  Video news
Macquarie launched a Pastoral Fund to capitalize on future growth in world protein demand. Tim Hornibrook, director of Macquarie Pastoral Services tells CNBC's Amanda Drury why he remains upbeat on livestocks.

12.3.2008 - JWH ‘Exceptional’ In February
Volatility? What volatility? Proving that January was no aberration, asset management firm John W. Henry & Co. put together back-to-back winning months making gains in all of its programs last month.

13.3.2008 - Commodities Fund Gains 20% In February
U.K.-based Beach Horizon is having its best ever start to a year. The commodity trading adviser’s US$77 million Beach Horizon Fund finished February up 20%, and is up 31.6% year-to-date.

13.3.2008 - Eddington Launches Global Macro FoHF, Preps Equity FoHF
London-based Eddington Capital Management is opening its global macro fund of hedge funds to outside investors, while at the same time it is prepping an equity fund of funds for launch. Eddingon, which prefers to “quietly” launch its products with seed capital before making them available to other investors, is opening its Eddington Macro Opportunities Fund to outside capital on April 1, nine months after launching it.

14.3.2008 - Commodities Indices Ape HFs
A new breed of commodities indices is making the sector look a lot more like hedge funds. Departing from their traditional long-only approaches, the likes of Barclays Capital’s CORALS Index and Deutsche Bank’s Harvest Index have added a short-selling component.

14.3.2008 - China Bourse: More Commodities
One of mainland China’s primary futures exchanges is calling on the government to okay the formation of commodity futures funds in an effort to attract more institutional investors. “The proportion of institutional investors in the country’s futures market is too low, at only 5%, and the rest are individual investors,”

14.3.2008 - Investors moving to commodities
Following the downturn in equity markets globally, investors are moving if not flocking to commodities, thanks to spiralling prices the world over.

14.3.2008 - Hedge Recession With Employment Futures
The CME Group may have just the ticket for the investor looking to hedge against the recession that most economists seem to think we are in (according to a recent Wall Street Journal article). On April 27, the exchange plans to launch futures contracts and options on futures contracts tied to the monthly nonfarm payroll data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

14.3.2008 - Former Turtle Trader Up 20% YTD
It’s still early, but R. Jerry Parker, founder of Richmond, Virginia-based Chesapeake Capital Corp. is on pace for his biggest year ever since founding the trading adviser 20 years ago.

17.3.2008 - CME in $9.48 Billion Deal for Nymex
The parent company of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade said Monday it would buy the New York Mercantile Exchange in a $9.4 billion cash-and-stock deal that melds the nation's two largest futures exchanges.

17.3.2008 - CME to Buy NYMEX  Video news
The details of the $9.4B deal, with CNBC's Sharon Epperson.

17.3.2008 - MF Global says counterparty relationships are sound
Futures broker MF Global Ltd. said Monday it has no exposure to subprime mortgage-backed securities as its shares plunged alongside those of Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

17.3.2008 - Commodities swamped in rush to safety
Commodity prices are hitting new highs almost every day. There seems to be no limit to where prices can go. Well, get ready: the big fall is coming soon. In the current turmoil, there has been a rush into commodities. The volume of funds escaping risky assets and their derivatives has been enough to cause bubble-like euphoria in commodity prices. With global equity market capitalisation almost 10 times the notional value of commodity derivatives, the rush to commodities by investors has been like squeezing a quart into a pint pot.

17.3.2008 - MF Global tries to calm market after shares plunge
MF Global Ltd.'s shares lost nearly two-thirds their value Monday, prompting the largest broker of exchange-traded futures to assure investors that it was in good standing ...

18.3.2008 - New Exchanges Could Struggle
Exchange heads from the world’s leading derivative exchanges have stressed that the derivatives space is open to new competition, but warned that they have the advantage in ...

19.3.2008 - CME Sells Metals To NYSE Euronext
CME Group has sold its gold and silver contracts to NYSE Euronext in a move that has smoothed any potential fall out or difficulty in its acquisition of New York ...

20.3.2008 - HF Sugar Funding Souring
The sweet times for sugars are beginning to sour has hedge funds that have pumped money into the commodity is likely to slow to a trickle. In an interview with Bloomberg News ...

20.3.2008 - Commodity ETFs Lead In Choppy Month
Commodity exchange-traded funds were the best performers in February, in what was a tough month for ETFs. The 34 energy sector ETFs returned an average 10.83% ...

20.3.2008 - Fast Money Commodity Plays  Video news
Best commodity plays, with Tim Seymour, of Seygem Asset Managment.

Metals, gold volumes hit record Wednesday: Nymex
The New York Mercantile Exchange said Thursday that the volume of metals futures and options contracts trading hands Wednesday reached an all-time high. Total futures and options contracts traded on Comex, the part of Nymex that trades gold, silver, copper and aluminum, reached 477,426 contracts, exceeding the 466,397 traded on Jan. 22.

21.3.2008 - Funds race to pull out of commodities futures
A sell-off in gold, food and oil gathered pace yesterday as speculative funds pulled cash out of the futures markets in a continuing quest for security amid fears of a slowing ...

21.3.2008 - Dollar recovers from record lows
Wild swings in the currencies markets pushed the dollar to record lows this week before a dramatic turnaround as commodity prices tumbled and traders cut back their ...

21.3.2008 - Conn. CTA Shuts Its Doors
Last month, John Eckstein and Adam Dunsby offered their tips on commodity investing to the reading public in a new book. But the new authors were writing something else ...

21.3.2008 - Sarasin Launches Ag. Fund
Not deterred by the recent slide in commodities, London-based Sarasin & Partners is launching a new fund investing in a diversified portfolio of agriculture and ...

23.3.2008 - Food makers hedge their bets
Under mounting pressure from surging commodity prices, makers of the name brand foods that fill the nation's grocery shelves are fighting back on several fronts ...

23.3.2008 - Van Eck Gold Fund Manager Talks Market Conditions
Whether its gold, platinum, uranium, iron or other precious and industrial metals and minerals, Van Eck Global has been at the forefront when it comes to providing investors of ...

24.3.2008 - Playing Commodities  Video news
Discussing the future of commodities, with Rebecca Patterson, JPMorgan Private Bank; Steven Leuthold, Leuthold Weeden Capital Management; and CNBC's Maria Bartiromo.

24.3.2008 - Commodities Bubble Burst? Big Clue Comes Next Week
Investors wondering whether the agricultural commodities bubble has burst will get some important clues in next week's annual crop plantings report, considered a bellwether for ...

25.3.2008 - Long-Term Upside for Commodities  Video news
The recent selloff in commodities is temporary, says Peter McGuire, MD at Commodity Warrants Australia. He remains bullish in the long-term on commodities and explains why ...

24.3.2008 - Former Soros portfolio manager preps energy hedge fund
With summer just a few months away and energy prices projected to soar to record highs, one hedge fund honcho is looking to cash in. Charles Leykum, a former portfolio manager at Soros Fund Management, is prepping an energy hedge fund dubbed the CSL Energy Fund for launch this summer. Leykum said the fund is a long/short equity vehicle but declined to disclose any other specifics on his new offering.

24.3.2008 - End Of The Hedge Road: Cornerstone
Poor performance has prompted Cornerstone Quantitative Investment Group to shut down and liquidate its offerings at a time when most of its peer commodity trading advisers and commodity pool operators are doing well. According to HFM Week, citing figures from BarclayHedge, the Stamford, Conn.-based firm’s International Value Fund ended 2007 at -15.2% and dropped another -8.18% in January, with assets declining from a high of $475 million in 2006 to $183 million.

25.3.2008 - Industrial demand ‘behind boom for metals’
As speculators and investors attract blame for driving up commodity costs, new research shows demand from industrial users has spurred a price boom in a range of metals.

26.3.2008 - Rydex Makes Fund of Hedge Funds Offering
Rydex Investments has launched the Alternative Strategies Allocation Fund to bolster its portfolio of hedge fund strategies. The fund of hedge funds made its debut on March 7 and is currently managing some $3.7 million in assets.

26.3.2008 - CME buys UK credit data group
The CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, is to acquire Credit Market Analysis, a provider of credit derivatives market data, in the latest move by a derivatives exchange to establish a stronger foothold in the over-the-counter market.

26.3.2008 - BlackRock says gold record high may be challenged
Investment manager BlackRock expects tight gold supply and a gradual rising trend in the price which could lift the metal to new highs above the record $1,030 per ounce hit last week.

27.3.2008 - Eurex To Launch Derivs On DivDAX
International derivatives exchange Eurex will expand its product range in the area of equity index derivatives with futures and options on the DivDAX index. The new product will be available from 14 April 2008.

27.3.2008 - Strategies for Volatile Commodities  Video news

27.3.2008 - Mysterious discrepancies in grain prices baffle experts
Economists note there should not be two prices for one thing at the same place and time. Could a drug store sell two identical tubes of toothpaste, and charge 50 cents more for one of them? Of course not.

27.3.2008 - Man Group to beat forecasts despite turmoil
Man Group, the world's biggest listed hedge fund firm, said on Thursday it would beat analysts' average profit forecast for the year ended March 31, despite turmoil in financial markets. The group said it had benefited from a bigger-than-expected rise in net performance fee income, as well as a strong performance at its AHL futures business.

27.3.2008 - UK's Augustus relaunches quant currency hedge fund
British fund firm Augustus Asset Managers said it has relaunched a quantitative currency hedge fund after changing its computer-driven model following tough conditions for quant funds last year. Many quant funds -- which rely on computer models to make their bets -- suffered badly last August and November after being caught out by a spike in market volatility following the summer's U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown.

28.3.2008 - Commodities Bubble Still Growing  Video news

31.3.2008 - Commodity and short-selling funds among few winners in volatile quarter
A cursory look at the best-performing exchange-traded funds so far this year shows that many recently introduced funds, such as those tracking commodities and offerings designed to short stocks, were the rare winners in a tough first quarter for investors.

31.3.2008 - Commodities in a Global Context  Video news

31.3.2008 - Stenham launches global resources fund
Stenham Asset Management has launched the Stenham Global Resources Fund (which it has been running internally since July 2006). The fund's primary focus is non-energy related sectors such as water, agriculture and soft commodities. It selects best of breed managers which have long track records trading the underlying commodities.