"Ask Inversiones" asks the experts about: Finding The Top Hedge Fund Manager

Michael Corcelli's personal experience started in college while he was trading options with his own money. Michael understands the ins and outs of personal investing. He knows what it takes to earn a dollar and he knows what it takes to hold onto it. 

Later on, he went to work for a conservative insurance giant named John Hancock where he was able to meet 300 families over the course of 3 years, and help them plan and do estate plans with their other trusted professional advisors. They met regularly and carved out very complex estate plans that have, and will save their heirs a lot in taxes, legal expenses and even more in aggravation.
His next step was to join UBS, the largest private bank in the world and a company known internationally for its integrated & complete Wealth Management Solution. The relationships he built around these High Net Worth Families, and the services and products of UBS made a great fit.


Michael  was in the top 5% highest producing Private Bankers at UBS in the world. Thanks to these families and a lot of loving service, he was given numerous accolades. With his faith in the service that he provided, he saw the next opportunity to expand his professional life. So, he left UBS with a couple of inventors and a lot of experience that helped him launch Alexander Alternative Capital. With some good people behind him, and a lot of hands-on work with financial markets, they successfully launched the fund on Feb. 12, 2007. Currently his responsibilities are very exciting. he is meeting with ultra high net worth families from all over the world. His biggest responsibility is to drive their client experience by producing great returns and providing a great client service.

Specialties

Wealth management and handling complex retirement planning issues. From wealth building strategies to wealth transfer-- the whole gamut. He works extremely well with people who want to grow their wealth and protect their assets from market risk.

Why Latin America, Not China, is the World’s Most Exciting Market Opportunity in the Short Term

China may be the market of the future, but Latin America is the market of today. Demographics, economic policy and competition levels all favor Latin America as the market of choice for global companies in search of growth.
In the end, it will be China, not Latin America, that prevails as the world’s largest economy. China, both culturally and politically, thinks long term by investing in its competitiveness, starting with education and infrastructure. China’s climb in the world competitiveness rankings in recent years contrasts the fall of most Latin American countries over the same period, including Chile, Peru, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil.

Yet, present global conditions are kind to Latin America. Surging global demand (starting in China) for commodities favors Latin America, home to more than a quarter of the world’s mining investment, 10 percent of its oil reserves and close to 45 percent of the globe’s arable land. Latin bourses, dominated by its resource companies, have led global equity growth since 2003, when measured in dollars.

With few exceptions, Latin American countries have taken an orthodox approach to managing their trade surpluses, enabling export and FDI earnings to strengthen currencies and recapitalize banking, unleashing historic consumption levels. In 2010, private consumption in Latin America was measured at $3.1 trillion, versus $2.2 trillion in China. Some predict that China will need until 2016 to outpace Latin American private consumption levels and even longer to overtake on consumer spending. In 2010, the average Latin American consumed more than three times the average Chinese citizen. Latin America boasts three times more than China the number of households earning above $15,000, considered the threshold at which families begin purchasing global brands. Thanks to Latin America’s distorted income distribution, it has six times more households than China earning above $75,000 per annum.

Part of China’s impressive story is owed to a demographic zenith it is currently experiencing, with more than 72 percent of its population of working age (15-64). Over the last 20 years, that statistic has grown from a level of 65 percent as the single-child policy reshaped household structures. Going forward, China’s population will rapidly age, bringing new burdens to households. China’s future growth will rely on the challenging task of integrating its rural masses into the urban economy. By contrast, Latin America is urbanized, a painful transition that it undertook from the ’50s to the ’80s. Latin America is just now entering its own working-age growth wave, thanks to more working women and fewer children. Over the next 20 years, the percentage of working-age Latin Americans will grow from 63 percent to 71 percent, boosting household consumption.

The most compelling reason to focus on Latin America, however, is its weak but relatively fair competitive business environment vis-à-vis that of China. In all of Latin America, only one home-grown car assembler exists, a kit sports car maker in Mexico that sells exclusively to Europe. By contrast, in China’s burgeoning car market, more than 50 domestic brands compete with global brands. Competition helps explain why Ford Motor Co. struggles to make a profit in Asia ($1 million in Q2, 2011, with losses in China) while it flourishes in Latin America ($267 million profit in Q2, 2011). PepsiCo earns close to 20 percent of its global profits in Latin markets, but flounders in China. In 2010, Pepsi’s Beijing joint venture had a 0.1 percent profit margin, and its newly acquired Shenzhen operation reported a 1.5 percent net profit margin. By contrast, Pepsi LatAm Foods posted a 14.5 percent net profit in 2010. In spite of having its largest operations based in Hong Kong, HSBC, a leading global bank, makes more profit ($1.8 billion in 2010) in Latin America than in mainland China ($215 million). For more-mature product categories, the contrast is even starker. Whirlpool, which markets its white-goods brands across 120 countries, tallies 24 percent of its global sales and about 40 percent of its profits in Latin America while barely selling 4 percent of its volume to Asian markets. Latin America is home to a handful of impressively competitive companies, but, by and large, domestic Latin brands do not compete effectively in most consumer and business categories. By contrast, Chinese companies are competitive, if not always for the right reasons.

Both Latin America and China are challenging business environments where intellectual property can be stolen. However, in Latin America, U.S. and European companies can still apply diplomatic pressure to help enforce their IP rights. In China, the government often is the greatest perpetrator of IP theft — high-speed train technology “transfer” representing the most recent and tragic example. The proliferation of international trade agreements signed by Latin countries provides a legal framework for protecting investments and arbitrating disputes. Resolving disputes with powerful Chinese companies or the government is by comparison a far more daunting task. It is little wonder that experienced global firms are rethinking where to bet on growth.

Apps and Internet Tools are preferred by Investors: Life360, Bill.com and MarkaVIP raise Funds

It has become obvious for anyone interested in funding that new technologies are more and more appealing for investors. If a business focuses on providing applications or solutions for online communication, internet or e-commerce, the company has more chances than others at receiving funding for development and expansion.

For instance, the family communication mobile application company Life360 has recently managed to raise the amount of $3.5 million from Fontinalis Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, 500 Startups, Kapor Capital, Venture51, Bullpen Capital, Social Leverage, EchoVC Partners and others in series A of funding. The purpose of this application is that of maintaining families in touch by the means of tabs and group chats which are supported by a cross-platform FamilyChannel.

When asked about this app, a representative from Life360 stated the following: “For example, Mom can use the Life360 app to request a Check In from her teen daughter and will be able to get a location in response that displays where she currently is on an interactive map. During the East Coast earthquake earlier this year, Life360 proved valuable to thousands of families who otherwise wouldn’t have known the status of their loved ones.” The company intends to use the funds in order to expand the company and develop the infrastructure. They are also considering improving the quality of the app.

Bill.com is another company which has recently managed to raise $15 million in the series D of funding from the Financial Partners Fund, and the previous investors from Emergence Capital Partners, August Capital, JAFCO Ventures and Total Technology Ventures. The company provides services which streamline and automate vendor bill payment and customer invoicing. Although the company already has a 300% rate of growth, the money raised in this new round of funding is going to be used in order to expand the network and the services provided by the company.

MarkaVIP is a private sales club and e-commerce operation which activates in the Middle East, and which has recently managed to raise $5 million in the first round of funding from Silicon Valley’s Lumia Capital and Invus Financial Advisors. MarkaVIP already has 10,000,000 registered users, but the site actually attracts 5,000 more users a day. Martin Gedalin, the Managing Partner at Lumia Capital, stated the following: “MarkaVIP is creating a region-defining e-commerce platform by leveraging a world class management team, market-leading e-commerce know-how, and a loyal following of brand-savvy customers. We have been witness to the company’s amazing growth from early in its life and are excited to deepen our partnership to help accelerate their business momentum.” MarkaVIP has a growth rate of 30-50% per month and it is considered to be the most important local distribution developer in the GCC region.

So, if your business is focused on developing new technologies, applications or internet tools, you can consider applying for funds at any given moment as chances are that you are to raise the funds you need sooner than expected.

Source

Alternative Investments Knowledge Hoarding...Who's to be Blamed?

By Ivonne Kinser

While mainstream America's citizens wonder "why we have been intentionally left out of the alternative investments' extravagant party?", and "who is to blame for such discrimination of wealth?", The hedge fund industry's lobbying group is calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to do away with the longstanding solicitation and advertising ban on hedge funds.

I wonder how many more "average people" like myself, shared my own reaction: "Oh! It was the Exchange Commission then!

Now that I know in which side of the field is the alternative investments regulations' ball, I have even more questions that I had before... and would like to take this opportunity to extend an invitation to those who hold the answers, to enlighten not only me, but the many millions of people like me who may be also wondering:
1- "Why?" - If even the Catholic Church is enjoying the benefits of alternative investments, why is that such privilege is being kept purposely out of the reach of the rest of us, read "us" as: the average citizens of a country that takes pride in its status of "free" economy"?
2- Who is stopping alternative investments' firms from sharing the knowledge?
3- Why a nation dealing with a struggling economy turns its back to the enormous potential of the billionaire alternative investments' industry that could, without a doubt, contribute to the activation of the nation's economy.

I want to launch an open call for the industry leaders who have the answers to these questions, (and many more that pertain to this topic), to join me in a conversation in "Ask Inversiones", and discuss what keeps mainstream America wondering: Why in the world we've being left out?

I invite you to comment and thank you in advance for your contribution.

Source Original Post: Evestment

The Retail Arena: The Next Big Thing for Alternative Investments

Alternative investments once reserved for the institutional investors, are now rapidly gaining favor with large numbers of individual investors. What's driving the growth:
1- Clients are fed-up with roller coaster tide that their equity portfolio it has been on for the last decade.
2- Financial advisors are finally growing comfortable with Alternative Investments, and are learning to apply them in a way that can reduce risk, and lower volatility in their clients' portfolio.

Some research and exclusive data shows those alternative investments that financial advisors favor more than any other: REITS

Which Hedge Funds Were Most Profitable In 2011?

Who had the best performance, among large hedge funds.

1. Tiger Global, YTD total return: 45% (assets, in billions: 6.0)
2. Renaissance Institutional Equities, 33.1% (7.0)
3. Pure Alpha II, 23.5% (53.0)
4. Discus Managed Futures Program, 20.9% (2.5)
5. Providence MBS, 20.6% (1.3)
6. Oculus, 19.0% (7.0)
7. All Weather 12%, 17.8% (4.4)
7. Dymon Asia Macro, 17.8% (1.6)
10. Citadel, 17.7% (11.0)
11. Coatue Management, 16.9% (4.7)
12. Stratus Multi-Strategy Program, 16.6% (3.7)
13. OxAM Quant Fund, 16.4% (2.0)
14. SPM Core, 15.7% (1.0)
15. Pure Alpha I, 14.9% (11.0)
16. Autonomy Global Macro, 13.9% (2.1)
17. BlackRock Fixed Income Global Alpha, 13.8% (2.4)
18. SPM Structured Serving Holding, 13.5% (1.6)
19. GSA Capital International, 13.0% (1.0)
20. JAT Capital, 12.7% (2.5)

Source: Dealbreaker

Q&A: Hedge Fund Association Spokesman Encourages Strong Relationships With Media

In an era of non-stop news, even hedge fund managers, who once shunned reporters’ phone calls, are now being forced to interact with the media. However, confusion remains over just what a fund manager can and should reveal to a reporter. FINalternatives recently spoke with Mitch Ackles, who serves as global director and spokesman for The Hedge Fund Association, about the benefits of building a relationship with the media, and what a hedge fund manager should and should not discuss.

Source: FINalternatives