WEST PALM BEACH, FL (www.hedgeco.net) – Merrill Lynch Asset Management has predicted a rise in the use of alternative asset management in Europe in 2005. According to published reports, Merrill Lynchcompared hedge funds to Apple�s iPod�s portable music system. The asset manager said, �To shift analogies, hedge funds are a bit like iPods, they have a fashion/design/cool component, but their realappeal, we reckon, is that they actually do something useful, albeit at some cost.�
According to remarks attributed to Merrill, the firm expects that �the performance characteristics which the alternative industry has displayed in the past fills a clear need, for investors seek to match long-term liabilities, the shift towards alternatives was structural, not cyclical or a bubble.� Part of the Merrill�s optimism stems from their belief that �the alternative industry is likely to prosper because portfolios are at present sub-optimally diversified.�
The alternative investment sector according to Merrill will prosper because the industry offers investors products they are seeking for and such tendency will enable the alternative investment industry to achieve market share gains.
Many believe that the next phase of the explosion of alternative investments will be propelled by the demand coming from pension and endowment institutional funds. Both pension and endowments have continued to increase their alternative investment allocations. The last impediment against alternative investments was removed when the SEC commissioners decided in favor of hedge fund regulations. Many pension and endowments now see no reason for not pursuing an aggressive hedge fund investment strategy.�
Paul Oranika
Editor-in-Chief
HedgeCo.Net
Email: Editor@hedgeco.net
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