Citadel Group Losing Race to Clear CDS Trades

Citadel Investment Group and CME Group recently teamed up to help the Treasury and guarantee Credit-Default-Swaps, but have been unable to find any customers to clear the trades.

Meanwhile, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), JP Morgan (JPM) and several other banks have also teamed up in the CDS market and were able to clear $7.5 billion in trades last week according to Intercontinental Exchange.

Currently, most trades in the CDS market are inter-bank.

The federal push for guarantees in the Credit Default Swap market comes amidst the failure of Lehman Brothers last year and the forced injection of $100s of billions to AIG.

Asian Hedge Fund, Highbridge Capital Management, Limits Redemptions

Highbridge Capital Management, a hedge fund owned by JPMorgan, may limit withdrawals from its Asian Opportunities Fund. The fund is down 32% on the year and Highbridge Capital Management intends to give investors half of their money returned by the end of January. The rest of investors' money will be returned in 12 to 18 months, reports Bloomberg. This comes after earlier news that Highbridge might limit withrdrawals from its Asia Opportunities Fund completely.

Though Highbridge's Asia-focused fund has performed poorly this year, it has returned more than 20% since inception, and double digit gains in 2006 and 2007.

JP Morgan purchased an interest in Highbridge Capital Management in 2004 and increased its interest to 78% in January.


Read the full story here:

Top 50 Hedge Funds in US

Below is a list of the top 50 hedge fund groups in the US. These are the largest US hedge funds ranked by assets under management (Jan 07 AUM).

JPMorgan Asset Management New York NY
Goldman Sachs Asset Management New York NY
Bridgewater Associates Westport CT
D. E. Shaw Group New York NY 2
Farallon Capital Management San Francisco CA
Renaissance Technologies Corp. East Setauket NY
Och-Ziff Capital Management New York NY
Cerberus Capital Management New York NY
Barclays Global Investors* San Francisco CA
ESL Investments** Greenwich CT
Citigroup Alternative Investments New York NY
Tudor Investment Corporation Greenwich CT
Caxton Associates New York NY
Atticus Capital New York NY
Campbell & Co. Towson MD
Citadel Investment Group Chicago IL
Moore Capital Management New York NY
Avenue Capital Group New York NY
Perry Capital New York NY
SAC Capital Advisors Stamford CT
Soros Fund Management New York NY
HBK Investments Dallas TX
FX Concepts New York NY
Angelo, Gordon & Co. New York NY
Fairfield Greenwich Group New York NY
Stark Investments* St. Francis WI
Davidson Kempner Advisers** New York NY
Highfields Capital Management Boston MA
Wellington Management Co.** Boston MA
Canyon Capital Advisors Beverly Hills CA
AQR Capital Management Greenwich CT
Fortress Investment Group** New York NY
Maverick Capital New York NY
Duquesne Capital Management** Pittsburgh PA
Millennium Management** New York NY
Adage Capital Management Boston MA
Cantillon Capital Management New York NY
York Capital Management New York NY
Lone Pine Capital Greenwich CT
Black River Asset Management Minnetonka MN
King Street Capital Management New York NY
Baupost Group Boston MA
Bain Capital/Brookside Capital Partners Boston MA
BlackRock New York NY
Pequot Capital Management Westport CT
AllianceBernstein* New York NY
TPG-Axon Capital New York NY
Paulson & Co. New York NY
Elliott Associates Greenwich CT
Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo


For more detailed hedge fund lists