Hedge Funds forced to reveal their positions

[italkcash]

Hedge funds have come under a new regulation, where managers of big money funds are forced to give up and reveal their positions of trading. The secret world of hedge funds is for the first time ever going to be disclosed to the public, shedding light of where hedge fund managers are targeting their short selling.

Short sellers, who sell borrowed stock in hopes its price will fall, have been accused of driving down stocks in major financial firms like HBOS, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.

The SEC and other regulators in the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Australia has imposed temporary bans on the shorting of financial stocks.

"The degree of difficulty in completing the new form is related to the degree of short trading activity of each manager and the level of sophistication the manager possesses in capturing the required information," said David Tittsworth, executive director of the Investment Adviser Association, which represents about 500 firms that collectively manage about $9 trillion in assets.

This option is not good for the hedge funds, but this would only apply to hedge funds that are not incorporated offshore, those they can practically not touch.