Three years ago Barton Biggs, the curmudgeonly chief global strategist of Morgan Stanley, said a hedge funds had gripped the United States and Europe and that a was inflating. Biggs allowed that he didn't know when the hedge fund bubble would...

Three years ago, at the height of the equities run-up, investors had little reason to be interested in hedge funds. The intervening years have brought with them some important lessons about diversification, and this has made alternative...

The rumors are proving true: The larger brokerage firms, including Raymond James and Wachovia Securities, are warming to the idea of letting reps dabble in more independent-minded pursuits. On March 1, Raymond James Financial announced its...

ARBITRAGE STRATEGIES Convertible Arbitrage: Managers invest in companies' convertible securities. Typically, they will be long the convertible bond and short the common stock of the same company. Positions are designed to generate profits from the...

If there's one way to inspire a rep to care about a process as esoteric and arcane as securities clearing, it's this: remind him that clearing innovations are what make many of his most creative services possible. Take, for instance, a situation...

When stocks plunged in 2000, dispirited fund investors looked enviously at hedge funds. By selling short or investing in mergers, hedge fund owners could make money even when the S&P 500 collapsed. But hedge funds are far from a perfect solution...

Get ready, brokers All of the hand wringing during the last two years over faulty research and enhanced disclosure will seem like grade school compared with the newest cannons trained on mutual funds. New SEC proposals could drastically change...

There aren't a lot of $50 million clients out there, so when one comes around, there's going to be competition to win his business. One such situation arose a couple years ago, after Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter merged but while the two were...

Consolidation of management positions continues apace at Wachovia with the departure of two regional presidents and the firm's former broker advocate. All three are former Prudential managers, marking a continuation of a trend in which Pru...

Frank James has defected from Fahnestock & Co. to join Bear Stearns as branch manager in Chicago. James, who has been in the business for 40 years, was serving as branch manager in San Francisco and had been with Fahnestock's predecessor...