Investor withdrawals from hedge funds reached $19.96 billion during November, new data from eVestment's December and Full Year 2021 Hedge Fund Asset Flows report show, despite the full-year growth in assets under management reaching $15.9 billion. The firm's research lead, Peter Laurelli, says that although outflows in December crimped the year's performance, it "still goes down as the first year of net inflows since 2017 and second since 2015."

Total hedge fund assets under management are estimated to have passed the $4 trillion mark in the final months of 2021 with total investor inflows into the sector during the year reaching $400 billion, figures from Hedge Fund Research show. Total industry capital has now risen by more than $1 trillion since the end of Q1 2020, after they dipped below $3 trillion at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in Q1 2020.

Investment banks in the US and EU are getting ready to become more aggressive in their underwriting of huge private equity deals. The banks are working on more than $100 billion of major debt deals.

Oil traders which have bought up cheap call options on oil contracts over the past 18 months are positioned to take advantage of the shifts in supply and demand that is pushing physical market prices up. "If all the stars align, the oil traders, who have held onto their options patiently for months, may finally win the jackpot," writes Javier Blas.

Asset owners are cautiously open to the idea of investing in hedge funds with an exposure to private markets, as they look to tap early growth in non-public companies. "As companies stay private longer, they often become competitors to public companies," says one investor.

Hedge funds and other active managers failed to gauge the shift in equity markets this month and switch their exposures from growth to value stocks. Long-short funds fell 4% during the first 2 weeks of 2022, data from Goldman Sachs' prime brokerage unit show, while comparable figures from Morgan Stanley point to a similar trend.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said he wants to find a way to more directly regulate crypto exchanges. Gensler said the SEC's other regulatory priorities this year include more thorough disclosure by hedge funds and private equity funds, improved transparency about executive compensation, and reforms to the Treasury market.

Short sellers could ultimately benefit from the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposals for greater market oversight thanks to reductions in borrowing costs, writes Robert Armstrong.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has announced a temporary concession regarding transaction reports on the short selling indicator, pending overall changes to the UK transaction reporting regime. Responding to questions over possible penalties for errors or omissions in the required reports on the indicator, it confirms: "Until the future of the short selling indicator field (for the purposes of the UK MiFIR transaction reporting regime) has been determined, we will not take action against firms who do not meet these requirements."

The US Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice are planning a major overhaul of the current guidelines on mergers, and have issued a joint statement inviting public comment on their proposals. The agencies intend to focus particularly on the possibility that mergers can create anti-competitive conditions.

EU Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness said at an Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting that the EU plans to consult on a proposal to extend temporary equivalence for UK clearinghouses until 2025. In the coming weeks, the European Commission is expected to begin a public consultation on actions that will make the EU a more attractive clearing hub and on supervisory arrangements for EU central counterparties.