From the category archives:

Business Issues

San Francisco Futures Professionals March Meeting | March 16, 2010

March 12, 2010

NFA Regulations and Capital Raising on Agenda
The San Francisco Futures Professionals Group (LinkedIn Group) will be meeting next week to discuss the most recent NFA Regulatory Seminar.  Bart Mallon of Mallon P.C. will be providing an overview of the major regulatory items discussed at the seminar including the new NFA rule on social media, issues [...]

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Hedge Fund Marketing - Building a Strong Brand Identity

January 18, 2010

Importance of Brand Identity Emphasized in Recent White Paper
There has been a clear trend over the last 12-18 months for hedge funds to focus on a number of operational issues in order to become more attractive to institutional investors.  While much of focus has been on the risk management side, I have seen more recent [...]

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NFA Provides Social Networking Compliance Guidance

January 12, 2010

Member Firms Subject to Increased Oversight & Compliance Responsibilities
In early December the National Futures Association (“NFA”) submitted two proposed amendments proposed amendments to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) regarding NFA Member Firms and their use of the internet and social media networks.  The amendments focus on communications by firms over the internet in various [...]

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NFA Annual Questionnaire

January 11, 2010

Reminder to NFA Member Firms
As part of the annual processes and procedures NFA Members will need to make sure that they complete the NFA Annual Questionnaire.  As discussed below in the NFA’s most recent notice to members, it is important that NFA Members complete the questionnaire because some of the answers will appear as BASIC [...]

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Fund Appreciation Rights

December 6, 2009

Alternative Hedge Fund Compensation Structure
At the very beginning of this year there was much discussion about the hedge fund compensation structure in light of the horrible returns from 2008.  Many funds lost money but managers aren’t typically subject to the same types of clawback provisions as private equity fund managers.  Additionally some funds had to [...]

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Weekly Hedge Fund News Stories | November 30 - December 4

December 5, 2009

Below are a list of some of the news stories which caught my attention this week.
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Hedge Fund Carried Interest Tax “Loophole” Repeal? - the hedge fund carried interest “loophole” is again being discussed as a potential issue to be addressed by Congress before the end of the year.  One proposal introduced by Representative Levin (R) [...]

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Hedge Funds, the Secondary Market and PTP Issues

December 4, 2009

Secondary Hedge Fund Market Poses Issues for Fund Managers
Recently there have been a number of groups springing up to provide a secondary hedge fund market.  While such platforms provide investors with a potential avenue to get out of their illiquid investment (the investment in the fund may be illiquid for a number of reasons including [...]

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Series 65 and Series 66 Passing Grade Increased

November 27, 2009

IA Exams Pass Rates Expected to Plummet

The North American Securities Administrators Association (“NASAA”) recently announced that the two central investment advisor exams (the Series 65 and the Series 66) will become even more difficult.  Starting January 1, 2010 candidates will need to attain a score of 72% in order to pass the Series 65 exam [...]

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Hedge Fund Manager Registration to Cost Taxpayers $140 Million (at least)

November 17, 2009

CBO Calculates Cost of House Hedge Fund Bill
This past week the Congressional Budge Office (“CBO”) released a cost estimate of H.R. 3818, the Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act of 2009.  In a number of private conversations I have had about hedge fund registration over the last 9-12 months one of the issues that was [...]

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Hedge Funds and Insider Trading after Galleon

November 15, 2009

By Bart Mallon, Esq. (www.mallonpc.com)

High Profile Case Highlights Issues for Hedge Fund Managers to Consider
Insider trading is now an operational issue for hedge fund managers.  The high profile insider trading case involving RR and the Galleon hedge fund has put the spotlight directly on hedge funds again and has also sparked a debate of sorts [...]

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