General Information
For all the latest financial news and information, including real-time market data.
The Financial Times online.
The world’s leading provider of financial information and news
The Wall Street Journal online
A full listing and ranking of investment funds, provided by Standard & Poor’s (formerly Micropal)
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Alternative Investments
This site contains all the latest news from the world of alternative investment management. Covering both hedge funds and managed futures, it is invaluable to either the seasoned alternative investment professional, or to the newcomer to the forum.
The Managed Funds Association is the only U.S.- based association of managed funds professionals. MFA is a national trade association of more than 690 members that represents the alternative investment industry globally. MFA membership is composed primarily of financial and commodity trading advisors, pool operators, and trading managers who are responsible for the management of the vast majority of the assets currently invested in managed futures, as well as significant amounts invested in hedge funds and other financial and commodity-linked investments.
Describing themselves as the forum for hedge funds, managed futures and currency management, AIMA provide an excellent platform for the publication of ongoing research in the alternative investment field. The site also covers the latest news and views.
With a particular emphasis on the European marketplace, Eurohedge provides exclusive business intelligence on the rapidly expanding European hedge fund community.
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Regulatory
The Financial Regulator was established on the 1st of May, 2003 following a government decision to set up the Central Bank of Ireland as the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland. The structure combines two distinct component entities – the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator – each with its own particular set of responsibilities and each with its own specific governance structure. The Central Bank’s responsibilities include surveillance of the strengths and vulnerabilities of the overall economy and financial system. The Financial Regulator’s remit includes monitoring the financial soundness of individual institutions, in addition to wide-ranging consumer protection powers.
The United States Congress created the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 1974 as an independent agency with the mandate to regulate commodity futures and option markets in the United States. The agency’s mandate has been renewed and expanded several times since then, most recently by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. The CFTC’s mission is to protect market users and the public from fraud, manipulation, and abusive practices related to the sale of commodity and financial futures and options, and to foster open, competitive, and financially sound futures and option markets.
National Futures Association (NFA) is the industrywide, self-regulatory organization for the U.S. futures industry. Membership in NFA is mandatory, assuring that everyone conducting business with the public on the U.S. futures exchanges – more than 4,200 firms and 55,000 associates – must adhere to the same high standards of professional conduct. NFA is an independent regulatory organisation with no ties to any specific marketplace. NFA operates at no cost to the taxpayer and is financed exclusively from membership dues and from assessment fees paid by the users of the futures markets.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. All told, FINRA oversees nearly 4,750 brokerage firms, about 167,000 branch offices and approximately 634,000 registered securities representatives. Created in July 2007 through the consolidation of NASD and the member regulation, enforcement and arbitration functions of the New York Stock Exchange, FINRA is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity through effective and efficient regulation and complementary compliance and technology-based services.