New Daily Publication Monitors Sovereign Wealth Funds As Influence and Assets Grow

Zurich, October 20th, 2008 -- Opalesque, the world's largest subscription-based publisher covering the alternative investment industry, has just launched its seventh publication, the Opalesque Sovereign Wealth Funds Briefing. This new, daily publication in the popular Opalesque “Briefing” format offers a quick and complete overview on the actions and issues relating to Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). SWFs rank now amongst the most important and most observed participants in the international capital markets. The service can be subscribed as daily email newsletter or by RSS feed at http://www.opalesque.com/SWF_Briefing/.

Can you really afford to miss stories like these?

l The Premier League of Sovereign Wealth Funds

l Abu Dhabi’s wealth fund still eyeing Europe, US

l Chinese SWFs may wave investment plans

l China wealth fund to raise stake in Blackstone to 12.5% from 9.9%

l Cooler winds blow from Beijing

l SWFs have their role in crisis

l SWFs seek safety

l Kuwait sovereign fund eyes Gulf, North Africa buys

l Dubai may need help from Abu Dhabi to fund borrowing

Thanks to the new Opalesque Sovereign Wealth Funds Briefing (http://www.opalesque.com/SWF_Briefing), readers will be able to receive a reliable, daily update on these "800 pound gorillas" of the capital markets.

Large archive already available

The Opalesque Sovereign Wealth Funds Briefing Archive (http://www.opalesque.com/SWF_Briefing/??page_id=398) has already over 500 articles archived and is full searchable. The articles are grouped and can also be accessed through the following categories:

l Alternative Investments

l Asset Allocation

l Compliance/Regulation/Legal

l Ethical/Green Investments

l Fund Management/Administration

l Fund Profile/New Launches

l Investment

l Market

l Performance

l Reserve Currencies

A free service from Opalesque

The new Opalesque Sovereign Wealth Funds Briefing is a daily, free service from Opalesque. The service can be subscribed as daily email newsletter or by RSS feed at http://www.opalesque.com/index.php?act=registration.

About Opalesque:

In 2003, with the publication of its daily Alternative Market Briefing, Opalesque successfully launched an information revolution in the hedge fund media space: "Opalesque changed the world by bringing transparency where there was opacity and by delivering an accurate professional reporting service." - Nigel Blanchard, Culross. This hybrid financial news service, which combines proprietary industry news stories and filtered third party reports, has been credited by many industry insiders with delivering precise, accurate, and vital information to a notoriously guarded audience.

Each week, Opalesque publications are read by more than 500,000 industry professionals in over 100 countries. Opalesque is the only daily hedge fund publisher which is actually read by the elite managers themselves (http://www.opalesque.com/op_testimonials.html).

Altesque Events presents 2008 Hedge Fund Insider`s Update....

When: Monday, November 10, 2008, from 7.45 am (whole-day event)
Where: The Crowne Plaza Times Square, 1605 Broadway at 49th Street, New York City.

Altesque Events, LLC, formerly Opalesque Global Services, LLC, would like to extend an invitation to you to sign up and attend its 2008 Hedge Fund Insiders’ Update.

This is the one conference of the year designed to up......................

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Altesque Events presents 2008 Hedge Fund Insider`s Update....

NWQ Capital opens for business in Perth.....

Australia-based Hatfield Liptak Advisors' October newsletter informed us that, last month, Perth-based hedge fund distributor, NWQ Capital Management, has commenced operations. The firm, founded by Jon Horton, has secured exclusive distribution arrangements with New York based Saguenay Capital and Chicago based Lakeview Partners.

Saguenay offers multi-strategy fund of hedge funds while Lakeview provides fund of hedge funds focussed on shareh......................

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NWQ Capital opens for business in Perth.....

As CTA strategies continue to rack up gains.....

Hedge Fund New York: Opalesque recently had the chance to speak with Patrick Welton, co-counder and CEO of Welton Investment Corporation, which manages a $500m global macro and managed futures portfolio. The strategy trades in approximately 100 markets spanning commodities, currencies, interest rates and stock indices. Welton’s Global Directional Portfolio (GDP) was incepted in 2004, has earned an average annual return of +15.44%, and has spent much of 2008 continuing to prove its strategy with gains of +0.87% in September, more gains in October, and YTD returns of approximately +11%. Welton Investment Corporation specializes in managed futures and global macro strategies and is based in Carmel, California.

In Part One of this piece Welton spoke about how global macro and managed futures overlap and how the foundations of the current macro events will take years to unwind, and provide opportunity to drive returns for years to come.

Can you give us an overview of the strategy and what markets you invest in? The overarching view of our strategy is a core coverage approach to managed futures and diversified global macro return opportunities. Core coverage of these spaces is grounded in diversification -- diversification not only by the markets we trade, but also the types of strategies that are used, how they are applied, the holding periods of the positions, and even the variety of our analysis inputs in viewing a market between fundamental or statistical approaches....

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As CTA strategies continue to rack up gains.....

Altesque Events presents 2008 Hedge Fund Insider`s Update...

When: Monday, November 10, 2008, from 7.45 am (whole-day event)
Where: The Crowne Plaza Times Square, 1605 Broadway at 49th Street, New York City.

Altesque Events, LLC, formerly Opalesque Global Services, LLC, would like to extend an invitation to you to sign up and attend its 2008 Hedge Fund Insiders’ Update.

This is the one conference of the year designed to up......................

Source:
Altesque Events presents 2008 Hedge Fund Insider`s Update...

Maua Investimentos sees decline in Brazilian export volume and domestic investment....

Mauà’s managers gave their insights on the Brazilian economy in their September monthly letter, received by Opalesque.

“The external turbulence has been affecting Brazil via both the channel of exports, and via the channels of lending and expectations. In trade balance, the slowdown in global growth has already been causing a decline in the volume of Brazilian exports – a movement that should intensify over the next few months. Credit is slowing down in response to the decline in global liquidity, which affects external currency credit lines, and increased risk aversion, which leads national banks to step on the brakes when it comes to granting domestic credit.

Faced with this scenario, we believe Brazilian GDP, which should grow 5% in 2008, will slow down to around 3%. The main reason for the decline in growth should be domestic investment, which should decline from the current 16% p.a. to around 4.5%.

Weaker GDP growth in Brazil and the decline in commodities prices in international markets should facilitate the Central Bank’s work in bringing consumer inflation back to the 4.5% target – and this is precisely our forecast for year-end 2009 IPCA inflation, versus the 4.8% we were forecasting up until September. Due to this, we believe the Central Bank should reduce the size of the interest rate hike cycle initiated in April.

The risk in relation to inflation lies primordially in the BRL depreciation in recent months, which already exceeds 35% in nominal terms. However, we believe this movement is exaggerated versus the fundamentals of the domestic econ......................

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Maua Investimentos sees decline in Brazilian export volume and domestic investment....

Conifer Securities launches prime brokerage services in response to industry counterparty migration trends.....

Hedge Fund News New York: U.S.-based Conifer Securities has announced their launch into prime brokerage services, taking aim at those funds hit by the downsizing of prime broker clientele at larger investment banks and a growing trend in small and mid-sized funds to diversify their prime brokerage counterparty risk. The migration trends in the prime brokerage space cover two distinct areas as risk management initiatives sweep through the industry.

“The trend we have seen over the past six months is that the prime brokers are looking at their client list and squeezing the tail to focus on the larger and more profitable clients.” Conifer President and CEO Jack McDonald told Opalesque. “This, coupled with the trend towards counterparty diversification has resulted in a real migration of counterparties.”

The importance of counterparty diversification as an idea gathered steam after the collapse of Bear Stearns, but did not shake the industry until the beginning of October which s......................

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Conifer Securities launches prime brokerage services in response to industry counterparty migration trends.....