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Next Investments is completing deals to launch actively-managed exchange-traded funds with several big name ETF firms. Next Investments, which created Rydex Investments’ $4 billion CurrencyShares ETF line, would not name the active ETF sponsors but said they are leaders in the space. Right now PowerShares, WisdomTree, and State Street Global Advisors have all either filed or launched actively-managed ETFs.

Dalal Pradal has apparently left Bank of America where she worked as in hedge fund sales in New York. Rumour is that she is off to a Swiss bank in the same centre.

Many banks’ balance sheets have been shot to bits and, as one senior figure told me this week, the investment banking model looks as if it has been irreparably damaged.

It’s always hard to find out what exactly goes on with the hedge funds, particularly prominent ones like Tudor. But I hear that Mark Hillery has left the firm. There’s no indication if his departure is permanent or a sabbatical, or whether it’s because of a bumper or disastrous year. I know which one I’d bet on.

The head hunters are already starting to lick their lips. It looks like one of the first jobs Nasir Afaf is going to have when he arrive at Calyon as head of FX trading will be to recruit a new options team. Market talk suggests Frank Weissbach has resigned although not yet left. He is apparently planning on going to TD Securities to hook up, again, with his old muckers Stephane Coquillaud and Dave Hitchins. Weissbach has barely got his feet warm at the French bank, joining it a little over a year ago from Bank of America he might yet be persuaded to stay. But with the uncertainty of a new boss coming, the chances of him staying look slim

They used to say in the old days that if you made enough noise and lost enough money, youd always get another job. Astonishingly, this still seems the case for certain individuals.

The Parker FX Index, which has 76 funds as its constituents, registered a minuscule +0.08% return in May, with 42 managers providing positive results, and 34 incurring losses. On a risk-adjusted basis, the index was down –0.03% in May. The median return for the month was 0.08%. Performance ranged from a high of +5.18% to a low of –4.80%. The index is now up 2.32% for the year. The top three performing funds on a reported basis were Spectrum Currency Fund of Chicago, (+5.18%), the Oppenheim Tactical Currency Strategy (+4.59%), and the Putnam Investments Currency Fund of Boston (+3.54%). The top three performers on a risk-adjusted basis were: the Spectrum Currency Fund (+2.35%); the Oppenheim Tactical Currency Strategy (+2.26%), and the Plimsoll Capital Headwind Program (+1.66%).

While watching the latest cookery programme from sweary diamond-geezer chef Gordon Ramsay I wondered if it would be feasible to launch the FiX on the TV.

This week has seen the launch of another new service that aims to tap into what clearly is significant demand.

Deutsche Bank has appointed Connor Kelly as its head of FX emerging markets options CEEMA and LatAm. Kelly will be based in London and will have a dual reporting line to Rob Mandeno, global head of FX spot and options, and Ahmet Arinc, head of emerging market global rates, global finance and foreign exchange. He was most recently at Goldman Sachs and before that at Calyon.

Simon Manwaring, who was previously at Bank of America, started this week at HSBC in London as a director in the bank’s FX and precious metals derivatives team. He reports to Robert Ross, HSBC’s head of G10 risk.