UK-based Mondis Capital last month made its foray into the hedge fund space with the debut of its Mondis Growth Fund, a global macro offering. The Cayman Islands-domiciled vehicle has a long equity bias but can also invest in bonds, commodities, currencies, exchange traded funds and managed futures assets.

Some of the world's richest central banks will not stop investing in the euro, supporting its reserve status, despite the sovereign debt crisis hammering the euro zone's currency, government sources said.

Calstrs, the country's second-largest pension fund, is the latest long-term investor to move into raw materials as a diversification strategy and an inflation hedge

Parisbased hedge fund seeding firm NewAlpha Asset Management has invested in a global macro fund managed by New Jerseybased G Capital Management

Precious metals have seen a recent rise in popularity, partly driven by ETPs, and gold in particular has done better than them all

Swiss bank Valartis is shutting its energy hedge fund, its administrator said.

For the second time in two months, a Morgan Stanley executive is leaving the investment bank for hedge fund BlueCrest Capital Management.

M&G has launched a Ucits III version of a global macro investment strategy employed for the Prudential life fund for the last decade.

You know it’s been a rough year when a hedge fund calls a 1.39% loss a “strong month,” but in the case of Quantitative Investment Management, it will do.

The Teucrium Corn Fund has begun trading on the NYSE Arca.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is planning to regulate colocation which allows highfrequency traders place their computer servers inside an exchange to access prices quickly

Children's Investment Fund Foundation set up by activist investor Chris Hohn promises Charities Commission to give more awayA charity backed by activist hedge fund TCI, headed by multimillionaire Chris Hohn, has given assurances to the Charity Commission that it will increase the amount it gives to good causes after donating the equivalent of just 1.2% of its assets, which amount to L1.4bn.According to accounts filed at Companies House by the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), which was set up by TCI in 2003, grants made by the charity nearly halved in the year to 31 August 2009 from L30.6m to L17.9m. Most of CIFF's funds come from TCI, which made its name as an aggressive investor instrumental in blocking Deutsche Börse's bid for London Stock Exchange and sparking the bid battle for Dutch bank ABN Amro.CIFF, whose chief executive is Hohn's wife, Jamie Cooper-Hohn, is one of Britain's biggest charities, with L1.45bn at its disposal. The money is in a diversified investment portfolio that includes corporate and government bonds, equities and commodities. Its focus is on helping deprived children in Africa and Asia.A spokesman for the commission, which regulates Britain's 180,000 charities, said it had met representatives of CIFF to discuss the fund's approach, but that discussions with large charitable organisations are not unusual: "We meet regularly with the trustees of many large charities. We have been advised of its strategy to increase its charitable expenditure over the next few years in line with its business plan and model. We are not investigating this charity."Cooper-Hohn said that CIFF was in the throes of speeding up the way it awards grants, but that the charity was determined to "thoroughly research projects before committing funds" and would "rather wait than rush into schemes where there were risks that the money wouldn't be utilised in a way that achieved maximum impact for the children we are trying to help".The foundation looks at projects as if they are investments with a defined social return rather than purely good causes. Cooper-Hohn cites the example of an initiative involving Bill Clinton to provide children with improved access to anti-retroviral drugs crucial to the battle against HIV/Aids."When we first took an interest, it cost $1,500 for a year's course of the drugs for a child," she said. "We could have just paid for drugs. Instead we worked to change the way anti-retrovirals were produced for children. It has been a long haul, but a year's course now costs just $50."She added that the charity had made some very large commitments in the past, "but things don't go in a straight line. One minute, we take three proposals to the board for final approval, and that can be followed by a lag."Our aim is to make long-term, well-researched investments, bringing business rigour and a private sector approach into development."Part of the reason for the mismatch between donations received and grants given is that CIFF grew very quickly in the boom years when its main contributor, TCI, reaped the benefits of the credit boom. For instance, in 2007, Hohn gave L325m to CIFF, but last year gave L19m during a period when TCI ran up investment losses.In 2003, CIFF had just L10m at its disposal, but the tally is now so big that the charity has been forced to recruit more staff and beef up its board, Later this year, Lord Malloch-Brown, a former Foreign Office minister, will become a director.One of CIFF's latest projects is called "Living good" which aims to place community workers in Ugandan villages with the aim of cutting child mortality rates by 15%.CharitiesHedge fundsBill ClintonRichard Wachmanguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

The managed futures shop, which manages about US$1.24 billion, has shut six offices around the world and laid off staff to cut costs.

Most hedge funds took a dive in May, but not all.

BNP Paribas has added a veteran metals analyst to service its commodity derivates hedge fund customers.

The state of the natural gas futures market is bringing back some bad memories.

New Yorkbased Asset Management Finance has invested in privately held currency hedge fund International Foreign Exchange Concepts

Managed futures lost 0.77 per cent in May, according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge.

BlueCrest Capital Management raised L349 million (US$517 million) for its listed hedge fund, the largest such share sale in more than two years.

Qbasis Invest, the Liechtenstein-based managed futures specialist, is expanding its London marketing operations with the appointment of Alistair Evans as director sales, UK.

Managed futures shop Qbasis Invest has added a hedge fund marketer to its growing London office.

China let the renminbi drop slightly in value against the dollar on Tuesday in a move that analysts said was designed to deter speculators benefiting from a stronger Chinese currency

CME Group has introduced intercommodity options on cornwheat futures spreads

The hedge fund industry has recouped most of the assets it lost during the financial crisis, according to a new report.

Mining investment firm, Vallar wants to raise funds in the market, despite the gloom surrounding equities this weekMining investment firm, Vallar wants to raise funds in the market, despite the gloom surrounding equities this week. Vallar plans to raise L600m to carry out acquisitions in the sector.Its directors include Nathaniel Rothschild, the fifth Baron Rothschild-in-waiting and a well-known member of the Bullingdon dining and drinking club at Oxford University.In the wake of the announcement by food-delivery business Ocado that it was planning a listing, the company said in a statement: "The Directors believe that the long-term global macroeconomic outlook for the global metals, mining and resources sector is positive. With limited new supply of target commodities coming on-line against the background of growing demand from the industrialisation of emerging economies, the Directors believe the fundamentals of this sector are compelling."The value of the initial acquisition was expected to be L2bn to L5bn, financed with debt and by issuing additional shares, a source close to the situation told Reuters."After a number of years of consolidation, the mining industry is entering a phase of streamlining and we think many attractive targets will become available," said Campbell, who has 35 years of experience in the sector, including positions with diamond group De Beers and units of mining firm Anglo American.Rothschild is the former co-chairman of hedge fund Atticus Capital LP and chairman of the international advisory board of Russian aluminium group UC Rusal.MiningElena Moyaguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Former Citigroup Inc. trader Andrew Hall posted a decline of more than 10% in May, according to a story Friday in The Wall Street Journal. His hedge fund, Astenbeck Commodities Fund II, saw its weakest month in the last two years -- down almost 10% this year through May, behind its peers' average loss of 5%. Hall left Citigroup last year amid criticism about pay practices at government-supported banks and after Citigroup was forced to sell Hall's energy-trading business, Phibro LLC, to Occidental Petroleum Corp. for $370 million. At Citigroup, Phibro earned an average of $371 million a year for five years before the sale and Hall was paid around $100 million in 2008.Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

Four years after his Amaranth Advisors crashed and burned in one of the most spectacular hedge fund collapses in history, Nicholas Maounis plans to get back in the game.

BNY Mellon has unveiled a new version of its webbased application for crossborder FX payments iDeal ForexSM

Federal regulators have allowed a second online exchange to proceed to trade future box-office receipts for movies. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission yesterday approved the proposed futures contracts for the new Cantor Futures Exchange. That allows the movie futures trading to proceed. Two weeks ago, the agency narrowly approved box-office...

LONDON (Reuters) - Investment house Threadneedle on Tuesday said it is launching a new commodities fund, to capitalise on surging investor interest in the sector, which it sees as a good way to take advantage of the growth in emerging markets.