The Madoff Fraud is bound to have investors running from hedge funds. However, one should realize that Madoff was not structured as a typical hedge fund. The Madoff structure was unique, and allowed ample latitude for fraud.
Investors in Madoff:-Did not buy shares in an offshore entity advised or managed by Madoff.-Did invest in an offshore [...]

Strategies for 2009
Distressed Asian Convertible BondsLong only and unleveredClosed end fund formatAsia has performing assets at distressed pricesDistressed investors, not distressed issuersList of quasi sovereign issuers – which can later be hedged with sovereign CDS when counterparty risk is settledCurrently poor liquidity – market likely to return albeit smaller than beforeFull exposure to credit default [...]

Last week Bernard Madoff decided to throw in the towel on his own Ponzi scheme and confess to one of the largest cases of alleged fraud in the hedge fund industry, known to date. The list of direct investors includes astute and reputable investors. The details of the scheme are as yet unknown but the [...]

Closed end funds:Fund structure mitigates investor riskSuitable for arbitrage strategiesSuitable for relative value strategiesSuitable for distressed and private equity strategiesLends itself to efficient and risk controlled deployment of leverageTechnically complex strategies which rely on multiple trade legs
Distressed investing:Current cycle is attractive for distressed investingDistressed assets and distressed pricing in developed marketsDistressed pricing and performing assets [...]

An opportunity exists today for a long only buy and hold strategy. The strategy is vulnerable to further mark to market losses but a strategy of investing in CBs from a credit point of view, as opposed to an equity arbitrage point of view yields interesting opportunities. Things could get cheaper next year, and indeed [...]

Commodity prices are overly depressed. See post 27 Nov 2008, A Quick Macro Overview.

Buy AUD, sell USD.