????對沖基金行政管理服務(wù)是一個(gè)正在蓬勃發(fā)展的作坊式行業(yè)的組成部分，目的是增加基金對投資者的透明度。行政管理人要確定交易的發(fā)生以及一個(gè)基金組合的凈資產(chǎn)值 (NAV)處于令人滿意的狀態(tài)，還要確定基金是否擁有其宣稱持有的資產(chǎn)——在麥道夫騙局等丑聞曝光后，這絕非小事。

????但不足之處是行政管理人往往從對沖基金處獲取價(jià)格信息，也沒有義務(wù)核查這些信息是否正確。這就有點(diǎn)像一家信貸評級機(jī)構(gòu)從債券發(fā)行人處獲得抵押擔(dān)保證券(MBS)的有關(guān)信息，不一定要確保這些數(shù)據(jù)的現(xiàn)實(shí)性。

????“沒有法律要求第三方去核實(shí)管理資產(chǎn)，”律師事務(wù)所Sadis & Goldberg的合伙人羅恩?蓋夫納表示。他從事對沖基金架構(gòu)、組織和咨詢服務(wù)。蓋夫納還說，投資者須記住行政管理人并不為他們工作，而是受雇于對沖基金。

????根據(jù)一家對沖基金的交易品種不同，行政管理人的工作可能會更加復(fù)雜，成本更高。對于流動(dòng)性好的股票和債券，行政管理人很容易就能從湯森路透(ThomsonReuters)或彭博(Bloomberg)買到數(shù)據(jù)。如果行政管理人必須跟蹤外匯、大宗商品或衍生品，可能就必須從不同的數(shù)據(jù)供應(yīng)商購買數(shù)據(jù)。而對于流動(dòng)性差的證券，行政管理人要獲取并驗(yàn)證這些證券價(jià)格的成本可能非常高。

????“通常只有規(guī)模很大的行政管理人才負(fù)擔(dān)得起眾多數(shù)據(jù)購買，”咨詢公司SBCC Group的董事長、曾擔(dān)任某行政管理人董事的塔尼亞?伯德表示，“因此行政管理人往往走中間路線，凡力所能及便獨(dú)立定價(jià)，其他價(jià)格則由對沖基金提供。”

????蓋夫納指出，行政管理人在價(jià)格信息上對對沖基金的依賴程度一般在招募書中都有描述。但投資者往往不會花時(shí)間去弄清這種關(guān)系。

????近日《福布斯》(Forbes)的一篇報(bào)道談到，身陷一起對沖基金騙局的投資者們聲稱被全球最大的對沖基金行政管理人Citco所傷。報(bào)道稱，一支名為Lancer的對沖基金買入一家毫無價(jià)值的殼公司的限制性股票，并在公開市場上以更高價(jià)格購入一些股票，以顯示投資盈利。這種虛增的價(jià)值數(shù)據(jù)提交給基金行政管理人Citco后進(jìn)入了投資者月報(bào)。

????在隨后的一項(xiàng)訴訟中，一些Lancer投資者宣稱，即便在他們告知Citco他們對Lancer的凈資產(chǎn)值有擔(dān)憂后，Citco在發(fā)出的報(bào)告中仍采用Lancer提供的“具有誤導(dǎo)性”的估值。針對《福布斯》的報(bào)道，Citco的回應(yīng)是公司已做了所有該做的事情。這涉及到為何行政管理人可免責(zé)于不當(dāng)行為：和評級機(jī)構(gòu)一樣，每次出事時(shí)，它們都可推脫于是他人提供的數(shù)據(jù)。

????這就是為何明智的投資者會要求看一支基金的倉位。對于那些根本不交易或很少交易的資產(chǎn)，他們應(yīng)想辦法找出其他對沖基金和經(jīng)紀(jì)商-交易商在處理類似資產(chǎn)時(shí)公布的價(jià)格。

????這樣的價(jià)格發(fā)現(xiàn)是一些所謂的老成投資者不愿（或不能）去做的。但對于投資者而言，感覺自己能核實(shí)資產(chǎn)價(jià)格是否正確依然重要，這部分也是因?yàn)樾姓芾矸?wù)業(yè)的整合。對沖基金不愿支付足夠高的價(jià)格來承擔(dān)數(shù)據(jù)搜集成本，導(dǎo)致中小行政管理人生存艱難。

????“如果我們不能從根本上解決當(dāng)前問題，隨著業(yè)內(nèi)公司數(shù)量的減少，問題可能變得根深蒂固，” 伯德表示，“然后你就會遇到順周期性問題，正如金融危機(jī)期間一樣。每個(gè)人都在做同樣的事情，但沒有一個(gè)人在做正確的事情?！?/p>

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業(yè)界花絮……

????**事件：華爾街女性論壇（The Wall Street Women Forum）于本周三召開，這個(gè)僅向受邀者開放的論壇面向女性高管，希望能幫助她們學(xué)習(xí)如何建立關(guān)系以及如何登上職場階梯頂峰的技巧。

????**每日新知：據(jù)Hedge Fund Research報(bào)告，對沖基金4月份上漲，但漲幅不如標(biāo)準(zhǔn)普爾(S&P)。

????**如果你沒有注意到這條消息，請看：美國參議員查爾斯?格拉斯里現(xiàn)在想調(diào)查史蒂夫?科恩的SAC“可疑交易活動(dòng)的范圍”。

????而且如果科恩獲得Mets的少數(shù)股股權(quán)，他可能成為管理團(tuán)隊(duì)引人注目的新成員。

????對沖基金經(jīng)理充斥《星期日泰晤士報(bào)》(Sunday Times)的英國千名富豪排行榜。Attara Capital聯(lián)席董事長耐特?羅特希爾德和Sail Advisors董事長羅伯特?米勒位居榜首，身價(jià)分別為16億美元左右。

????一些對沖基金受到了大宗商品價(jià)格的沖擊。

????塞思?卡拉曼240億美元的Baupost Group今年將借歐洲主權(quán)債務(wù)危機(jī)之機(jī)，開設(shè)首個(gè)海外辦事處。

????一部新出版的小說將對沖基金界描繪成陰謀、性和謀殺……的溫床，不再是那些觸目可見的彭博終端、對著電話大嚷的胖子們以及普通牛排餐廳的午餐。

????Hedge fund administration is part of a burgeoning cottage industry that attempts to make funds more transparent to investors. Administrators make sure that trades have occurred, and that the net asset value (NAV) of a fund's portfolio is copacetic. They also try to ascertain whether a fund has the assets that it claims to own -- no small thing in the wake of some infamous frauds, including the massive sham operated by Bernie Madoff.

????But there is one small fly in the ointment: Administrators often obtain pricing information from the hedge funds themselves, and are not obligated to check that the information they get is correct. It's akin to a credit rating agency getting the information about a mortgage-backed security from the bond issuer, and not having to make sure that the data is realistic.

????"There's no law that requires any vendor to verify assets under management," says Ron Geffner, a partner at law firm Sadis & Goldberg who structures, organizes and counsels hedge funds. He adds that investors need to remember that administrators aren't working for them. They're hired by the hedge funds.

????An administrator's job gets trickier and more expensive depending on what a hedge fund trades. For liquid stocks and bonds, an administrator can easily buy data from ThomsonReuters or Bloomberg. If administrators have to track currencies, commodities, or derivatives, they may have to pay for information from a different data provider. And for illiquid securities, it can get very expensive for an administrator to go out and verify those prices.

????"Usually only very large administrators can afford a lot of data vendors," says Tanya Beder, who is the chairman of consulting firm SBCC group and who has also served on the board of an administrator. "So administrators often make deals. They agree to do independent pricing on the stuff that they can, and get prices on everything else from the hedge fund."

????Geffner notes that the extent to which an administrator relies on a specific hedge fund for pricing information is usually described in the offering documents. But investors often don't take the time to understand that relationship.

????Forbes recently ran a story about investors caught up in a hedge fund fraud who claim they were burned by Citco, the world's largest hedge fund administrator. According to the story, a hedge fund called Lancer would buy restricted stock in a worthless shell company, as well as a few shares on the open market at a higher price in order to show a gain. The artificially inflated value was given to Citco, the fund's administrator; Citco used the data in monthly statements to investors.

????In a subsequent lawsuit, some Lancer investors claimed that even after they told Citco that they were concerned about the fund's NAV, the administrator continued to send out reports with "misleading" valuations at the behest of the hedge fund. Citco responded to the Forbes piece by saying that it did all that it was required to do, which points to a reason why administrators may be absolved of wrongdoing: When bad things happen, they—like the rating agencies -- are allowed to rely on someone else's data.

????That's why smart investors will ask to see the positions in a fund. For assets that don't trade, or trade very little, they should work to find out what prices other hedge funds and broker-dealers that deal with similar assets are reporting.

????That's the kind of price discovery that some so-called sophisticated investors are unwilling (or unable) to do. But it's still important for investors to feel like they can verify that asset values are right, in part because the administration business is consolidating. Hedge funds aren't willing to pay enough to cover the cost of gathering all the data, which is making it difficult for smaller administrators to survive.

????"If we don't get at the root of ongoing problems, they become entrenched as players vanish," says Beder. "Then you get the pro-cyclicality problem that we saw during the financial crisis. Everyone was doing the same thing, but no one was doing the right thing."

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Notes from behind the hedge...

????** Events: The Wall Street Women Forum is coming up this Wednesday, an invite-only happening for senior level women who want to learn how to form relationships and learn skills that will help them get to the top of whatever ladder they want to climb.

????** Another day, another study: Hedge Fund Research reports that hedge funds gained in April, but not as much as the S&P.

????** In case you missed it: Senator Charles Grassley now wants to probe the "potential scope of suspicious trading activity" at Steve Cohen's SAC.

????And if Cohen gets his minority stake in the Mets, he could be an intriguing addition to the management team.

????Hedge fund managers pepper the Sunday Times Rich List of the 1,000 wealthiest people born or based in Britain. Attara Capital co-chairman Nat Rothschild and Sail Advisors chairman Robert Miller topped the list. They're each worth about $1.6 billion.

????Some hedge funds are getting crushed by commodities prices.

????Seth Klarman's $24 billion Baupost Group is opening its first overseas office this year to take advantage of Europe's sovereign debt crisis.

????A new novel portrays a world where hedge funds are a hotbed of intrigue, sex, and murder… rather than a world filled with Bloomberg terminals, dumpy guys yelling into phones, and lunches at mediocre steakhouses.