If Hedge Funds can't make money than who can?

Blackstone's Wien Says Fund Returns May Shrink by Half to Protect Capital


By Tom Cahill - Jun 15, 2010 Email Share

Vice chairman of Blackstone Group's advisory services division Byron Wein. Source: Blackstone Group LP via Bloomberg

Byron Wien, vice chairman of Blackstone Group LP’s advisory services division, said hedge fund returns may shrink by half as firms seek to protect investors’ capital.



Returns may drop to 10 percent from 20 percent as funds lose their “zeal,” Wien, 77, told the GAIM International hedge fund conference at Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum today.



“I’m worried that by trying to protect capital on the downside they give up too much on the upside,” he said. “The concept of hedge funds was to produce equity-like returns with bond-like volatility. The danger is we get bond-like returns with equity-like volatility.”



Hedge funds lost an average of 2.6 percent in May, the worst month since November 2008, according to the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index. The S&P 500 retreated 8.2 percent, the biggest monthly drop since February 2007.



Wien called for a stock market rally in the U.S. last week, saying that Europe’s debt crisis caused too much pessimism in the U.S., where profits for companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index are projected to rise 17 percent this year. He forecasts the S&P 500 will climb to 1,300 from 1,089 before ending the year around 1100, where it started.



In April, he forecast that oil would go to $100 a barrel. At the time it was trading at $87, and is now trading at $75.25.



Wien called last year’s rally in stocks, oil and gold correctly. He incorrectly predicted that the dollar would fall to $1.65 against the euro. It fell to $1.51 in November 2009 and is now trading at $1.22.



Wien was chief strategist at hedge fund Pequot Capital Management Inc. from 2005 to 2009. He was a senior strategist at Morgan Stanley before joining Pequot.



To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Cahill in London at tcahill@bloomberg.net

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Not surprised to see WFC which was my favorite stock to trade.

Here is the Link:

http://www.businessinsider.com/25-stocks-being-manipulated-by-high-frequency-traders-2010-6

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Head Fund Watch - May 2010

Now we have roughly 1,000 more funds reporting returns for May than we had on the 11th (1818) notice that the return edged lower and this is probably the first half and likely to be the best of the bunch.  Expect this week a continued slew of bad numbers, and soon we should here from the few that are making a killing.

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William Tell's Daily Aimed Market Forecast - For 6/16/2010

A complimentary copy of William Tell's Daily Aimed Market Forecast (Excerpts below) can be downloaded from the William Tell sharesite found through the side menu... enjoy! WT

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William Tell's Daily Aimed Market Forecast - For 6/15/2010

A complimentary copy of William Tell's Daily Aimed Market Forecast (Excerpts below) can be downloaded from the William Tell sharesite found through the side menu... enjoy! WT

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Hedge Fund Watch - May 2010

Notice the that only 1818 funds reporting their returns for May by June 11.  This isn't unusual as many don't report until this week. 

Expect this week a slew of bad numbers.

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Jun 14, 1777: Congress adopts the Stars and Stripes - Flag Day

Gee ya think maybe if they added one or two more stripes we'd be better off?  i mean Thirteen is unlucky isn't it?  Nothing to trade here, just good ol' fashioned historical trivia.

During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress adopts a resolution stating that "the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white" and that "the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." The national flag, which became known as the "Stars and Stripes," was based on the "Grand Union" flag, a banner carried by the Continental Army in 1776 that also consisted of 13 red and white stripes. According to legend, Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross designed the new canton for the Stars and Stripes, which consisted of a circle of 13 stars and a blue background, at the request of General George Washington. Historians have been unable to conclusively prove or disprove this legend.




With the entrance of new states into the United States after independence, new stripes and stars were added to represent new additions to the Union. In 1818, however, Congress enacted a law stipulating that the 13 original stripes be restored and that only stars be added to represent new states.



On June 14, 1877, the first Flag Day observance was held on the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the Stars and Stripes. As instructed by Congress, the U.S. flag was flown from all public buildings across the country. In the years after the first Flag Day, several states continued to observe the anniversary, and in 1949 Congress officially designated June 14 as Flag Day, a national day of observance.

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