From TheStreetTv – AlphaClone CEO Maz Jadallah explain how his ETF beats the market by replicating the holdings of top hedge fund managers.

From FT- From outdated, overcapacity ports to stalled road and rail projects, Indonesia’s infrastructure is in a sorry state. The resulting traffic jams and transportation delays affect everyone from local commuters to international investors. The government has grand designs to build new roads, airports and metro systems but endemic corruption and red tape stand in the way. Indonesia will have to up its game if it is to fulfill its potential as on of the world’s hottest emerging markets.

But what does the acquisition mean for you and users of Tumblr? (I found myself googling ‘how many users does Tumblr actually have?) Will Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer be able to stick to her now infamous words of “we won’t screw it up”.

Forbes have just run a great article on why the acquisition of Tumblr by Yahoo is actually good for users – read the original article here. Below is a quick summary:

1. Yahoo will ruin Tumblr with ads.

Steven Rosenbaum in his article for Forbes argues that without some big funding and a ‘parent with deep pockets’ Tumblr would have had to succumb to a flood of ads. No user would choose this surely?

2. Yahoo needs Tumblr’s culture.

Apparently…Yahoo needs youth, tech leadership,  social skills, and passion for content and community. 

3. Yahoo has a terrible track record with acquisitions.

Although everyone still talks about Flickr and other not so successful acquisitions made by Yahoo, with Mayer’s Google experience and David Karp’s youth and tech leadership, the future is said to be bright.

4. Yahoo overpaid for Tumblr.

Steven Rosenbaum argues quite the opposite! Tumblr had 184 million unique visitors, and 12.1 billion pageviews last month according to Quantcast and has been outperforming Facebook and Yahoo on mobile. Bargain Mr. Rosenbaum argues!

5. Yahoo will sanitize Tumblr content.

Yahoo has already hinted that it will leave Tumblr and Karp to their own devices bar a few Yahoo  lawyers tooth combing the blogging service.

For the full original article, click here.

So what’s next? I think there are now two big questions on everyone’s lips now:

1. Can these social media sites actually make money?

2. What and who is next in Mayer’s ambitious acquisition plan?

Let me know what you think!

Don’t miss…

We’ll be running a Venture Capital afternoon at our Private Equity Latin America conference on June 17-18 in Miami – don’t miss the start-up battle in conjunction with The LAB Miami!

Are Public Private Partnerships in Germany a kind of infrastructure investment that should be pursued or rather a thing of the past?

I recently had the opportunity to speak to numerous experts within the German Infrastructure Investment industry and was surprised to almost instantly come across a full blown discussion of whether Public Private Partnerships are a suitable and working solution for overcoming Germany’s infrastructure investment gap or should be considered dead and gone.

The Boston Consulting Group suggests PPP as a possible solution to bridging the huge gap between current and needed investment in infrastructure, however also notices the special challenges associated with these. There have been numerous negative comments in the last years, arguing a susceptibility to manipulation because of secrecy of contracts and adding fuel to the controversial discussion of motorway projects in Germany. This is being disputed by experts involved, such as AK ÖPP chairman Thomas Töpfer, who rather sees PPP projects as “impressive examples that large scale projects do not need to use an excessive amount of time or money”.

So what is PPP in Germany – dying out or being revived? Why does it not seem to be working as well as in the UK? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below!

Attend the Infrastructure Investment World Deutschland allowing you to explore this topic further and engage in in-depth discussions. To find out more about the event download the brochure.

Are Apple’s glory days over? It seems so as Google is now in favour for hedge funds.

On the week of the 29th April 2013, Apple sold the largest corporate bond deal in history. Amongst those snapping up the debt were hedge funds. Being the first bond offer from Apple in nearly 20 years, investors were eager to add the name to their portfolios.

Hedge funds were known to be attached to the Apple name but now the shares have slowed down, investor enthusiasm has also stalled. The stock is down more than 18%. See the graph below for % of largest hedge fund shares with each of the technology giants.

Google shares are up around 28% year-to-date with shares at around $900.

One of the top 10 richest investors in the world, George Soros owns one of the hedge funds making the jump to Google, leaving Apple behind. Supposedly he’s had a pretty good run lately too…

What do you think? Is it time to drop Apple and move to Google? Let us know your thoughts.

We recently asked, should funds be worried about high frequency traders? Velocytech have kindly provided us with this whitepaper: Move Forward With FPGA Based Trading Systems: The road to low latency | Key issues and best practices. This whitepaper provides more information on HFT and may allow investors to better understand the issues involved.

Download the whitepaper here >

Velocytech have aimed to bring first level answers to the questions:

• What are the typical steps firms take on the road to low latency trading?
• Where are firms on the road to low latency?
• What are the key issues at stake in FPGA based trading?
• What are the best practices when implementing FPGA systems?

Download Velocytech’s whitepaper here to find out more >

The World Exchange Congress 2014 is in Doha, Qatar and is the World’s largest congress for global exchanges and trading venues. Click here to find out more about attending.

Many actively managed mutual funds are now in the market for ETFs for their low costs of ownership and ease of trading. But should shareholders be annoyed?

Stan Luxenberg of wealthmanagement.com recently wrote The New Buyers of ETFs.The article highlights the increasing popularity of ETFs in the last ten years with asset allocation funds and more specifically, profiles the new buyers within ETF markets.

ETFs are also becoming popular with asset allocation funds, which aim to emphasize the best investment categories. Say a fund decides to allocate 5 percent of assets to emerging markets bonds. The manager could bid for individual securities, but it could be simpler to buy an ETF.  A growing number of asset allocation funds now put most of their holdings in ETFs. That approach makes it easy to put a precise percentage of a portfolio into an asset class.

During the past decade, ETFs have spread relentlessly, appealing to pensions, retail investors, and financial advisors. But lately, a new group has begun buying: actively managed mutual funds. According to Morningstar, hundreds of mutual funds now own passive ETFs.

Read the full article here and share your comments below

The demand for financial advice and wealth managers is growing, shown by the steep increase in assets. But who are the firms we should be looking out for? Not the biggest but the ones that next year may be on the fastest growing list with client lists increasing all the time. Here are the 10 emerging wealth managers in the US by growth in AUM.

10. Two West Capital Advisors, LLC

Growth in AUM (mil): $267 – Assets under management (mil): $334 – Executive: Marko Ungashick

9. Lakeside Wealth Management Group, LLC

Growth in AUM (mil): $267 – Assets under management (mil): $353 – Executive: Staci Scharadin

8. Sundvold Financial

Growth in AUM (mil): $269 – Assets under management (mil): $307 – Executive: Jon Sunvold

7. Argi Investment Services, LLC

Growth in AUM (mil): $273 – Assets under management (mil): $481 – Executive: Joe Reeves

6. Alexandria Capital

Growth in AUM (mil): $276 – Assets under management (mil): $405 – Executive: Augustine Hong

5. Ahc Advisors Inc.

Growth in AUM (mil): $277 – Assets under management (mil): $280 – Executive: Craig Larsen

4. Everbank Wealth Management

Growth in AUM (mil): $321 – Assets under management (mil): $421 – Executive: Frank Trotter

3. Intervest International, Inc.

Growth in AUM (mil): $325 – Assets under management (mil): $391 – Executive: David Smith

2. London and Capital Investment Advisors, Inc.

Growth in AUM (mil): $353 – Assets under management (mil): $496 – Executive: Pau Morilla-Giner

1. Hudock Moyer Wealth Resources, LLC

Growth in AUM (mil): $392 – Assets under management (mil): $452 – Executive: Barbara Hudock

What do you think? We’re seeing the comeback of the wealth manager, but will the competition be too fierce during the financial recovery? Let us know your thoughts on the list.

See the full list of the Top 50 wealth managers here.

Total Asset provides downloads, videos and blogs for investors and funds. Click here to subscribe to our enewsletter. It’s free and only takes a minute.

Click here to download a copy of a presentation at Private Banking Asia 2013 by Hyung-il Lee , Director of Private Banking, Hana Bank which expounds on

• PB & HNWI market in Korea
• Characteristics of HNWI in Korea
• Key areas in consideration of the Korean PB market

If you’re looking to find out more or enter the private banking market in Korea, you need to download this presentation.

Join us at Private Banking Asia 2014, Asia’s leading wealth management conference held in Singapore on 25-27  March 2014. Visit our website now or contact Manmitha Srinivasan at +65 6322 2321 or manmitha.srinivasan@terrapinn.com.

Who do you trust in the world of finance? Not many I imagine after the reputations of many of those in the finance world has been tarnished by failures and the blind eyes turned by those in charge. Readers Digest recently published the 100 most trusted people in America. In scouring this list, I only found 5 people I thought would count in the finance category. These people are in all areas of finance- from Nobel Prize Winners to newspaper columnists:

5. Paul Krugman – Columnist – New York Times

Columnist on the Op-Ed Page and professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University, his professional reputation rests largely on work in international trade and finance. He also received the John Bates Clark medal given to “that economist under forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic knowledge.”

4. Steve Forbes – CEO – Forbes Media

Under his reign, Forbes has become one of the most powerful sources for investment information and the famous rich lists. Leading the way for business decision makers and investors, Mr Forbes is number 4.

3. Warren Buffett – CEO Berkshire Hathaway

The 82 year old billionaire and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway is number 3. Maybe because we know he can bail anybody out. If he wanted.

2. Alvin E. Roth – Nobel Prize Winning Economist

Number 2 on the list is the winner of The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2012.

1. Lloyd Shapley – Nobel Prize Winning Economist 

The second half of this Nobel Prize winning team, Lloyd Shapley also won The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2012. Their prize motivation being “for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design”.

What do you think? Would you trust these men? Is there anyone else you can think of that you’d trust in finance? Let us know your thoughts.

Click here to see the full list.