Too Little, Too Late For Merton’s Fund

Timing is everything, and it seemsRobert Mertoncould not beat the clock signaling that the market for credit hedge funds had hit its saturation point. Merton, a Nobel laureate in economics forever linked with collapsed hedge fundLong Term Capital Managementas its co-founder, has shuttered his firm’s newest fund after just three months. The problem for hisIntegrated Finance’sIFL Continuum Fund, according toTim JacksonofRocaton Investment Advisorsin aBloomberg Newsinterview, is that the past 18 months have seen a glut of credit-type hedge funds. “By this year,” Jackson says, “ a lot of people had already made allocations,” to such firms asGSO Capital Partners以20亿美元的资产Camulos Capitalwith $800 million, founded byBennett GoodmanofCredit Suisse First BostonandRichard BrennanofSoros Fund Management, respectively. And so since March Merton’s offering mustered a mere $30 million. The failed fund was managed byPeter HancockofJPMorgan Chase,who together with Merton and another JPMorgan vet,Roberto Mendoza, founded Integrated in late 2002.