Hedge Fund Market and Reference Data Providers

Hedge Fund Market & Reference Data Providers

Xignite is the leading cloud services provider of on-demand financial market data and award-winning on-demand data distribution solutions. Xignite's market data cloud fulfills more than five billion service requests per month and offers more than 50 financial Web Services providing real-time, historical and reference data for global equities, commodities, currencies, options, fixed income, mutual funds, derivatives and OTC instruments.

Xignite solutions power mission-critical applications for front, back and mid-office, investor relations, dashboards, e-commerce, wireless applications and financial websites for more than 900 clients in 47 countries, including Citi, GE, Wells Fargo, ING, BNY Mellon, Natixis, Dow Jones, Forbes.com, SeekingAlpha, ExxonMobil, Starbucks, and Barrick Gold. The award-winning XigniteOnDemand cloud platform also powers on-demand market data distribution solutions for stock exchanges, trading venues, OTC brokers and market data originators including the CME Group, NASDAQ OMX, BGCantor and Pearson.

To learn more please visit http://www.xignite.com/ or call Toll-Free: 1-866-XML-SOAP (1-866-965-7627)

To have your listing added to this page please email Richard at Richard@HedgeFundGroup.org

Related to: Hedge Fund Market & Reference Data Providers
Tags: hedge fund market data, market data for hedge fund managers, market data for hedge funds, reference data for hedge fund managers, hedge fund reference data

Capital Raising Conference Speaker: Richard C. Wilson

I have been a capital raising speaker at over 50 conferences and workshops.  I have dedicated myself to becoming a top speaker on raising capital and I have engaged a few of the top speaking coaches in the world in that process. 

If you need someone experienced, confident, and focused on providing value instead of pitching an offering please consider booking me for that responsibility. 

I personally have raised over $200M within the industry, I have trained over 1,000 hedge fund managers face-to-face on capital raising best practices, and since I often hold full day workshops on capital raising I can easily come up with 10-15 topics on capital raising that will fit the theme of your conference.

To book me for your next capital raising or investment conference, or to read 25+ reasons why we should work together for your next conference please click here.






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Hedge Fund Software

Hedge Fund Software

The following are paid service provider listings of some of the most well established and successful hedge fund software service providers in our industry. To be listed here email us at Richard@HedgeFundGroup.org

1) SGGG Portfolio Systems

hedge fund software
The SGGG Portfolio System provides integrated real time trade order, portfolio, and operations management tools to start-up and established hedge fund managers. The software supports multiple portfolios, strategies, asset types, currencies and custodians in a single solution.

The software incorporates FIX connectivity, straight-through-processing, automated reconciliation, and pre-configured connections to prime brokers for trade clearing. Prime brokers can provide the full system to their hedge fund clients, or a limited version which imports positions from the prime broker and provides real-time P&L.

Through the use of new web-based technologies the software achieves unparalleled performance, functionality and value for money.

For more information please call +1 416 644 1861 or request a demo at www.sgggpsc.com

Our Service Provider Directory:

Permanent Link: hedge fund software, hedge fund software provider, top hedge fund software programs

Hedge Fund Accounting Services

Hedge Fund Accounting Services

 

Since 1974, Arthur Bell has earned a solid reputation in the hedge fund industry for our experience, client service and quality assurance. We provide audit, tax, performance analysis, investor representation, and consulting services to hedge funds, funds of funds, CTAs, commodity pools, investment advisers, and broker-dealers in the United States, Cayman Islands, and worldwide.

As a member of the Center for Audit Quality of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, our firm receives peer reviews for quality and independence and has received the highest available rating. Arthur Bell is also registered with and subject to inspection by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which allows our firm to conduct audits of SEC registrants, hedge funds sponsored by Registered Investment Advisers, and broker-dealers.

Learn more by contacting Bob Zink, CPA  at (410) 771-0001 x115, Bob.Zink@ArthurBellCPAs.com, or online at http://www.ArthurBellCPAs.com

Permanent Link: hedge fund accounting services, accounting services for hedge fund managers, hedge fund manager accountants

Hedge Fund Startup Services

Hedge Fund Startup Services

Guide to Reviewing Hedge Fund Startup Services

I recently contributed an article to Investopedia titled, "A Guide to Hedge Fund Startup Services."  This guide is based on my experience working with hedge fund startups and provides you with practical tips for reviewing hedge fund startup services.

I cover several important areas for hedge fund startups including: constructing a board of advisors, fund formation services, third party marketers, compliance and regulation advisory, prime brokerage services, fund administration services, annual fund auditing services, training and certifications, and, finally, associations and networking groups.  If you would like to read more about how to start a hedge fund please visit StartAHedgeFundNow.com to get your copy of my e-book.
Within this short article we are going to quickly review some options, service providers and processes you can follow while starting up your hedge fund so you will have a better feel for what options are available to you.

Board of Advisors Construction
The common dilemma in the hedge fund industry is that everyone wants you to have a team with deep expertise and experience, often referred to as a high level of "pedigree." The problem is that if you need that great team to raise capital, how are you ever suppose to build that team when you are starting at ground zero with say $2 million in capital or even $200,000 or less in capital? One solution is to build a killer board of advisors.
Your board could include investors in your fund, peers in the industry, friends, or those which you pay hourly or compensate in some other way to act as part of your advisory board. Your board could include investors in your fund, peers in the industry, friends, or those which you pay hourly or compensate in some other way to act as part of your advisory board. While many picky investors will quickly point out that a three-man hedge fund business with a 10-person advisory board is not an institutional quality operation, this is your quickest way of getting great consistent advice for building your hedge fund business without hiring 15 people to your team in your first few years. Read more here.

Related to: Hedge Fund Startup Services

Permanent Link: http://primebrokerageguide.com/2011/07/hedge-fund-startup-services.html

Tags: Hedge Fund Startup Services, Hedge Fund Startup Service, Selecting Hedge Fund Startup Services, Reviewing Hedge Fund Startup Services, Hedge Fund Startup Services guide

Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP)

Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP)

Tomorrow on Thursday July 7th, 2011 the Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) program will open again to 200 new participants. 

We always get flooded with questions about the process you have to follow to earn the CHP designation so here is an overview of how the program works:
  1. First you must register for the program, it costs $975 for both CHP Level 1 and Level 2 when you pay for them both together.  The option is to pay for them at separate times which results in the cost being $775 for CHP Level 1 and $675 for CHP Level 2.  As you can see you save around $500 by registering for both levels at once so that is what 90%+ of our participants do currently.
  2. After registering you will automatically be emailed a receipt for your tuition payment that you can use for tax evidence, employer reimbursement, or just your own record keeping. 
  3. Our team will then be in touch with a welcome email within one business day, and a welcome folder in the mail within 10-14 days of your registration depending on what country you are based in.
  4. The rest of the hedge fund training program is self-paced and 100% online.  You may study 2 hours a week or 20 hours a week, using our study guide, the recommended readings, our practice test, and our exclusive hedge fund video training platform.  
  5. The examination is offered twice a year on June 15th and December 1st so you just need to let us know when you are going to take your examination and we will adjust the roster to reflect that testing date for you.  You must score an 80% or higher on this multiple choice and essay test which is offered online through a secure testing website used by 100's of colleges and universities for online examinations.  
  6. After you complete CHP Level 1 & Level 2 we will send you a certificate in the mail for free to wherever you are based in the world. Over 50% of our participants are from outside of the United States with a growing number in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Over 1,200 professionals have joined this hedge fund training and certification program to do date, the full history of the program as well as the program details are available on our website at HedgeFundCertification.com.





p.s. I hope you do at least check out HedgeFundCertification.com, if you have been watching us grow over the years you will note that every time we open for registration we have added new video modules, more study aides, a better study guide, or additional hedge fund job placement services.  We will not stop improving the program and we appreciate all of the feedback that we have gotten to date from the community. 

Tags: Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) designation, Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) Program

Richard Speaking at Hedge Fund Event in Japan

Hedge Fund Conference in Tokyo

This May I will be traveling to Tokyo, Japan to speak at the 2011 Annual Hedge Fund Investments Japan Congress at the Westin Hotel.

My Speaking Topic:

5 Unique Capital Raising Strategies for Hedge Fund Managers
  • Top 10 Hedge Fund Marketing Mistakes – review what managers should avoid doing. Each of these mistakes could cost their hedge funds over $10,000 in lost time and money
  • 5 unique capital raising strategies for hedge fund managers allowing participants to see exactly how they can use these strategies to grow their own hedge funds in assets and work with more investors. These are the strategies that were used to raise over $200M for hedge fund clients in the past.
  • Speed of Implementation, what it is, why it is so important to raising capital and growing a successful hedge fund business.


If you would like to attend please click here to learn more or register.

Tags: Tokyo hedge fund event, hedge fund conference in tokyo, hedge fund speaker from Tokyo, hedge fund speaker in Japan, Asia hedge fund conference speaker, asia hedge fund conference

Securities Lending

Securities Lending

How Does Securities Lending Work?

In September 2009 Standard & Poor’s put out an extremely detailed analytical piece on the Securities Lending market, its size and its growth. The below charts are pulled from this document and the whole article can be found here as a PDF download.

Securities Lending in its most basic form revolves around the need for Hedge Funds, Asset Manager, Option Traders and Market Makers to short shares to adhere to their personal positions and strategies.

The below charts show the typical participants and the roles they play within the market (on the left) and the typical transaction flow between those participants (on the right).

 
The securities lending market has grown quite substantially over the past decade, the chart below depicting the lending taking place on the back of US equities and Non-US Equities. An explosion of lending occurred mid-2007 and mid-2008, especially in Non-US Equities.

 In the remainder of the article they cover such spreads as the Securities Lending Index rate to the Fed Funds and correlations between the different securities lending sectors.



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Tags: Securities Lending, Securities Lending Hedge Funds, Securities Lending Prime Brokerage, Securities Lending Market, Securities Lending Definition

Securities Borrowing

Securities Borrowing

How Securities Borrowing Works

The borrower of securities in an SBL agreement typically has one of two needs for the loan. The first is to cover a short position including in that settlement coverage, naked shorting, market making and arbitrage. The second reason for borrowing shares is to finance a transaction that somehow benefits itself via the extra leverage of cash or via a dividend/tax advantage.

The ‘lending’ within the term securities lending is a misnomer, however; as ownership of the stock, bond or other investment actually shifts to the borrowing party. This means that if a lender ‘loaned’ $1 million worth of Microsoft to the borrower, they are responsible for all dividends and voting rights on the shares. The switch of this ownership may actually make it beneficial for whatever reason (tax, dividend reinvestment, etc.) at times for the lender to lend the shares and the borrower to borrow the shares.

The process itself, which once almost exclusively happened over the phone, now takes place via an electronic platform. An agreement is reached between both parties and set up as either a fixed term or ‘at call’. Fixed term means that the borrower will return the securities at the end of a certain period, while ‘at call’ means that the lender can recall the securities from the borrower at any time within the period.

In the case of a borrower knowing that he will need securities at a specified future date, the lender may ‘ice’ them. This means that the lender has put the securities on hold for the time being, but if another borrower makes an offer on them the borrower has 30 minutes to decide whether or not he wishes to take the securities at that exact moment.



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Tags: Securities Borrowing, Securities Borrowing Prime Brokerage, Prime Broker Securities Borrowing, Securities Borrow

Finance Shorts

Finance Shorts

How Does a Fund Finance a Short Position?

When large firms step in as a borrower of shares in a security lending transaction they must provide collateral back to the lender, usually of between 102 and 105 percent of the original share loan. This collateral cannot be in any form thought, it almost exclusively involves providing hard-dollar cash as collateral. So, for example if a large hedge fund was to short $30 million worth of Microsoft’s stock, they would have to provide between $30,600,00 and $31,500,000 in cash to the lender (minus fees and other transaction costs).

A fund does not necessarily have cash like that just laying around, so how does a fund like that finance the short position? The answer is through the cash it takes it after executing the trade.  When you short a stock you take in cash equal to the number of shares multiplied by the current price. So, typically a firm would borrow a specified amount of share to short from another firm, negating the bulk of the cash collateral needed. In this case the hedge fund would only have to come up with between $600,000 and $1,500,000 for the trade.

Cash amounts such as this are much more common for funds to be able to come up with (versus $30 million) and are often collateralized from free money in the fund or other short-term investment scenarios.



Permanent Link: Financing Short Position

Tags: Financing Short Position, Financing Shorts, Financing Short Positions, How to Finance a Short Position

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