Just what Merrill needed, more bad news. Details via The Times, Online.

-- MDt

Labels: front running, Merrill Lynch

Have brokers been tipping off hedge funds about pending mutual fund trades to help the hedgies (who have supplanted benefit mutual funds as brokers biggest client base) benefit from pending trades? Undoubtably this frontrunning practice exists and the SEC aims to find out exactly how endemic it has become. Morningstar's got the deets on the pending SEC investigation.

-- MDT

Labels: front running, hedge fund, homeland security, investigation, SEC

Ok, well...not quite. But they're going to be watching you guys very closely. Closer to home, the SEC is heating up its investigation into front running...taking a hard look at whether hedge funds are inappropriately benefiting from inside info supplied by investment banks. Other inside-the-beltway regulatory maneuvers are also afoot, including:

High-ranking Treasury Department officials held 15 meetings over three days last year with representatives from prominent hedge funds, investors, lawyers and others to gather information about hedge funds' operations. Next week, the President's Working Group on Financial Markets -- comprising leaders from the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board, the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission -- will meet and consider issuing a statement that highlights the importance of the funds to the market and the risks, insiders say.

More on potential regulation and the steps the hedge fund industry are taking to prevent it, via The Washington Post.

-- MDT

Labels: front running, hedge fund, investigation, regulations, SEC