AIMA, GPP and Edgefolio have released a report that outlines six areas of focus as emerging hedge fund managers expand their assets under management, such as finding a wider range of capital investment sources as AUM exceeds $100 million. "This road map for the aspiring billion-dollar fund manager ... reveals the importance of effective marketing, aligning your business with your investors and maintaining efficient working capital levels," AIMA CEO Jack Inglis said.

Gold has experienced its strongest rally in more than two years, and data show many factors supporting bullish positions. A note of caution is that potentially weak demand in India, the second-largest buyer of gold, could emerge as the rupee has declined and the price of gold is rising locally.

Fidelity Investments has launched Fidelity Digital Asset Services, a new company that will electronically buy, sell and store cryptocurrencies from over-the-counter crypto trading firms for its institutional clients. Fidelity Digital will start with bitcoin and ether, adding other digital assets in 2019.

Returns on commodity investments for banks and hedge funds picked up in Q3 as reflected in overall improvements in their fixed-income sectors. The results confirm a turnaround from a dismal 2017, with oil and natural gas among the bright spots.

Societe Generale analysts said relative-value trades that harness European credit default swaps on high-yield debt are likely to see advantages from spread compression as well as a positive yield differential between investment-grade and junk-rated credit. High-yield names in Europe tend to have "artificially-inflated debt structure created to finance a leveraged buy out," while junk-rated credit in the US tends to involve "high leverage, low earnings and genuine refinancing issues," the analysts wrote in a research note.

Prudential Financial has persuaded the US Financial Stability Oversight Council to lift its designation as a systemically important financial institution while maintaining the same business model. The decision means only big banks face the increased oversight that comes with the designation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has voted unanimously to deny requests from the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq to increase fees they charge financial firms for market data. The SEC said the exchanges failed to justify the need for an increase.

Financial firms in more than a half-dozen jurisdictions are participating in cryptoasset markets, but the size of investments is unclear, and this exposure could threaten the global economy, the Financial Stability Board says. National regulators have a responsibility to come up with data to track growth of cryptoasset holdings, the FSB says.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo said the US is ready to retaliate if EU regulators force US counterparties to violate US rules to comply with EU regulations. If that situation arises, the US will respond with "a range of readily available steps to protect US markets and market participants," he said.

Banks' legal and compliance officers note confusion about the best approach to adopt for year-end product reviews required by investor-protection rules under Europe's revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. Some say they find the rules overwhelming, but others see application in a "proportionate manner" as a way of reducing the compliance burden.