by Doug Friedenberg We had the good fortune whilst we were in London to make the acquaintance of Nicolas Clavel, chief investment officer of Scipion Capital, a hedge fund that invests in financing imports and exports.  Not just any imports and exports, mind you. Imports and exports of commodities related to Africa. We asked Nicolas about [...]

PM's are used to assessing variables like changes in interest rates, unexpected business competition, disruptive technologies, and a host of known unknowns when making their portfolio decisions. An interview with Gernot Wagner reveals climate change as an already visible black swan, with an unimagined capacity for disruption..........and opportunity.

AllAboutAlpha.com attends and reports on a Bloomberg "Manager Mash-up." Vanguard's John Bogle tells a few "truths" and Topsy Founder Rishab Ghosh talks Twitter.

Lisa Suennen of Psilos Group discusses the new wave in healthcare venture capital: improved care quality while reducing costs.

Alpha is often found in the company of those investors who are earliest in seeing the first hints of future events unfolding. Topsy is a new source of that capability.

In spite of what the media might have us believe, it isn't quite the end of the world as we know it, particularly as it applies to European private equity.

This is a column of non-sequential thoughts including but not limited to topics appearing on AllAboutAlpha emphasizing the heartbeat behind the statistics which add up to alpha (definition expanded by the author to suit their purpose). When the relevance isn't apparent at first, lubricate with a bit of your favorite drink, herb or pharmaceutical, and things will make a lot more sense. It's all good. Doug Friedenberg ran a convertible arbitrage hedge fund in a previous century and learned first hand most of the mistakes asset managers can make. In the current century, he works to finance small to mid-sized businesses with a particular specialty in cross-border trade and letters of credit, which sometimes involves emerging/frontier markets. No word yet on plans for next century; maybe a posthumous autobiography.

Our holiday bug in your ear is an encouragement to practice the Golden Rule in the year to come.

We report on a talk given by Dr. Keith Crane of the Rand Organization about renewable energy and climate change at a meeting of the FInancial Policy Council. Dr. Crane showed that the cost differences between renewables and coal shrink when the costs of carbon emission controls are also counted. Subsequent research revealed possible reasons why the average person in the United States has a unique inability to accept climate science, in opposition to the conclusions of the U. S. Defense Department.

Equity hedge fund performance has resembled the results of the S&P Index lately. We speculate that regression to the mean is because humans are involved, and find reasons to be cheerful for the group's future.

We visit a Town Hall meeting to discuss the Occupy Wall Street group's use of social media. While there, we are reminded of the potential power of social media and its use to affect public opinion without spending gobs of money. We also learn reasons why the investment community should, at minimum, pay some attention.

It is by now common knowledge that High Frequency Trading comprises 70 to 75% of market trading in North America and western Europe.  And it helps to remember that the primary usefulness of algorithmic trading is to provide liquidity to the investor class.  We presume that the distinction of said class is that its investment [...]

Well, maybe not $75 Trillion.  And it doesn’t call itself a hedge fund.  To be really, really fair, Bank of America couldn’t have gotten all its derivatives positions wrong, even though it’s a bank.  However, as we shall demonstrate, the phrase “equity sliver” is way too optimistic.  Understand this about a derivative hedge:  it’s a [...]

By Doug Friedenberg We attended a recent meeting put on by Pershing for their prime brokerage clients at which Nouriel Roubini spoke about the near-term prospects for your favorite world, Earth, from an economic point of view.   On a positive note, no large asteroids are currently headed our way, although another prominent economist, Paul Krugman, has [...]

by Doug Friedenberg The passing of a profound individual usually triggers recitals of the great man’s accomplishments, and we’re experiencing that with the passing of Steve Jobs, for good and honorable reasons. But that leaves out what may be the most interesting and relevant understanding to be gleaned from his life, especially since Mr. Jobs did [...]

In Part II of this Alpha Hunter series, we examine the role intellectual property plays in the U.S. economy.

Business owners aren't creating jobs for the sake of creating jobs - they are creating money, with job creation as collateral damage from the money creator's point of view.

Patent trolls aren't the only ones hiding under the bridge and collecting tolls on intellectual property. Alpha Hunter Michael Friedman discusses the hidden alpha potential in IP.