By James Williams – With a flood of new regulations set to emerge over the next few months, US hedge funds and service providers need to pay close attention to compliance and regulatory issues even as they battle to stay abreast of their performance forecasts.

The top hedge fund managers and service providers in North America, as voted for by the readers of Hedgeweek…

As part of the Goldman Sachs Alternative Investments and Managers Selection Group (AIMS), Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s specialist hedge fund team – AIMS Hedge Fund Strategies – has over 40 years’ experience. With over USD22billion in AUM, the team is one of the largest providers of alternative investment solutions.

2011 saw a total of 28 new funds join the industry’s largest individual commingled managed account platform across a range of strategies including multi-strategy, special situations, merger arbitrage, emerging market LSE, global macro and long/short credit.

Year after year, award after award, Anchin, Block & Anchin is recognised as a top-tier firm throughout the US in terms of its size, management, scope of services and work environment.

New York-headquartered Liquidnet is a global institutional trading network that connects buy-side institutions to global equity markets. Its global footprint includes subsidiary offices in key financial markets including London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney and Toronto.

CurAlea Associates LLC was established by Seb Calabro and Peter Ort (pictured) in 2010 to provide risk advisory services to hedge funds and other buyside clients.  The firm delivers high touch, high value-added services to clients via both quantitative portfolio risk analyses and qualitative interpretations of portfolio risk.  CurAlea’s hedge fund clients typically employ fundamental investment strategies with a focus on liquid securities.  

Titan Capital, founded by Russell Abrams in 2001, was one of the first pure play volatility fund managers in the hedge fund industry. Prior to establishing Titan, Abrams was co-head of US Equity Derivative Trading and Convertible Arbitrage at Merrill Lynch from 1997 to 2000.

Meridian Fund Services administers funds across all hedge fund structures (single strategy funds, master-feeder funds, FoHFs and separately managed accounts) and private equity funds. At present, the firm has approximately USD15billion in AuA. It services approximately 90 clients across 231 funds, which collectively have more than 5,700 separate investors.

Mohican Financial Management LLC, based in Cooperstown, New York and Wilton, Connecticut, was established by two brothers, Eric and Dan Hage in October 2002. Between them, the brothers have over 35 years of experience trading convertible securities.

Agecroft Partners specialises in consulting and third-party marketing for the alternative investment industry, with a particular focus on hedge funds. The firm raises assets globally for institutional-quality managers by utilising a consultative approach within the institutional investor community. Its approach is to develop in-depth product knowledge of the funds the firm represents and to be able to articulate their investment processes as well as the hedge fund managers.

Toronto-based Third Eye Capital originates and manages privately-negotiated secured loans to predominantly Canadian small- to mid-cap companies. The firm was established in 2005 by Arif N Bhalwani (pictured) and Dr David G Alexander, who together have more than 50 years’ private market investing experience.

CEO Bill Mulligan (pictured) founded US regulatory advisory firm HedgeOp Compliance LLC in 2001, since when it has built a reputation for servicing its clients – large and small – in a comprehensive, proactive manner. Its team of about 50 in the US have a wide array of hedge fund, legal and compliance experience, not to mention IT software development experience. Earlier this year, HedgeOp combined forces with IMS out of London and now has a combined team of about 100 working at offices in New York, Boston, San Francisco and London.

Phalanx Capital Management LLC is a Chicago-based hedge fund firm running approximately USD93million in AUM. The firm manages a market neutral volatility multi-strategy fund that invests in Japan, Asia ex-Japan and Australian markets; launched in April 2005, it currently has around USD56million in AUM.