The Series 7 exam, also known as the General Securities Representative Examination, is the central exam which brokers need to pass before accepting commissions from clients.  The exam allows brokers to engage in the following trasactions through the broker-dealer firm they are registered with: solicitation, purchase, and/or sale of all [...]

Deputy Treasury Secretary Anthony Ryan spoke at the Annual Meeting of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) today.  In his speech he discussed the recent turmoil in the markets and the measures the Treasury Department has taken to help unfreeze the credit markets and stabilize the economy.  He [...]

Generally speaking, offshore hedge funds utilize both domestic and offshore law firms when launching the hedge fund.  In a recent survey, offshore hedge fund law firms were ranked; please see press release below. Walkers named Top Offshore Law Firm in 2008 Alpha Awards 28-Oct-2008 Underlining its reputation as the offshore [...]

The following is a press release regarding the results from a prime brokerage survey. Alpha Magazine Survey Ranks Merlin Securities as the #1 Prime Broker for Small Hedge Funds in 2008 Merlin Securities Receives Top Honors for Second Year Running SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 28, 2008 — Merlin Securities, a leading [...]

Historically, prime brokerage was relegated to a few of the very large Wall Street investment houses – the Goldmans, Merrills, Bears and Lehmans.  Many of these firms  provided prime brokerage services to the very large hedge funds.  However, these firms could not provide the comprehensive trading services required by smaller [...]

Raising capital is the most vital part of the hedge fund start-up process.  If the manager cannot raise sufficient capital to cover the cost of starting up and running the fund, the manager will soon be out of business.   Because raising capital is difficult, and because hedge fund managers cannot [...]

The SEC’s Lori Richards, Director, Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, spoke last week at an event and emphasized the importance of compliance during these volatile markets.  For chief compliance officers (CCOs) at registered investment advisory firms, the following speech transcript should be required reading.  Hedge fund managers registered as [...]

As hedge fund managers are limited in their ability to advertise their performance results because of the Regulation D rules, one of the ways which managers have found to market their hedge fund and distribute the performance results is through hedge fund databases. What is a hedge fund database? Hedge [...]

This article outlines the issues which are central to ERISA plans when such plans invest in hedge funds. The information comes from a report prepared by the Government Accountability Office and provides hedge fund managers with a good informational foundation of the issues which matter to ERISA plans. As ERISA [...]

Discussion of the new world of U.S. financial regulation that will be developing over the coming months continued last Thursday as the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform received testimony on oversight of the financial markets from the SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, among others.  Chairman Cox’s testimony can be [...]