Alternative Investments and Hedge Funds

David K.A. Mordecai Testified and Filed Multiple Expert Reports Relating to Hedge Fund Manager Due Diligence

David K.A. Mordecai, President of Risk Economics^® and Compass Lexecon affiliate, testified and filed multiple expert reports relating to hedge fund manager due diligence for various disputes and deliberations. In these matters, Dr. Mordecai addressed a range of topics including the duties, responsibilities and investment due diligence practices, conventions and procedures, both of and by hedge fund managers, as well as the plausibility of both trading directives and reported performance attribution and strategy returns. Although certain of these matters are ongoing, some of these matters have been resolved favorably for the clients. In these matters, Dr. Mordecai was supported by Compass Lexecon teams led by Michael Kwak and by Alex Rinaudo.

David K.A. Mordecai is President and Co-Founder of Risk Economics, a New York City based advisory firm, as well as Senior Advisor to and a Member of the Advisory Committee of Compass Lexecon. The Risk Economics^® litigation advisory practice provides advisory services and testimonial expertise on complex issues related to financial instrument valuation models and frameworks, market and industry standards and practices for the financing, risk management, active trading, and hedging of OTC derivatives and structured products.

As lead for the Risk Economics^® litigation and arbitration advisory practice, David K.A. Mordecai serves as an expert on loss causation and economic damages related to market structure, financial institutions governance, and complex issues related to finance, economics and market standards and practices within securities, derivatives, reinsurance, and commodities markets, as well as market structure within a broad range of non-financial industry sectors. His expertise includes industrial and financial engineering, the valuation of fixed income securities and structured products, including over-the-counter derivatives (in particular fixed income and credit derivatives), complex insurance and reinsurance liabilities, as well as asset liability and risk management models and practices. Having testified extensively at deposition, trial, arbitration and international arbitration, he has been admitted as an expert in federal, state and county courts, and cited favorably in court decisions.

See Compass Lexecon 2013 Newsletter.

David K.A. Mordecai Presented at the 13th Annual Global GAIM Conference

David K.A. Mordecai presented at the 13th Annual Global Alternative Investment Management (GAIM) Conference, June 18-21, 2007 in Monte Carlo, Monaco at the Grimaldi Forum.

David K.A. Mordecai moderated a Strategy & Practice Roundtable Form – Portfolio Risk and Market Trading: Anatomy of a Blow–Up: Critical Lessons Learned from All Sides in Liquidity, Traders, Hidden Portfolio Risks and the Implication for the Industry of Random Events, Agency Costs & Coordination Failures. The panelists included:

John D’Agostino, Formerly Vice President Strategy, NYMEX
Felix Chee, President and Chief Executive Officer, University of Toronto Asset Management
Roy Henriksson, Principal and Chief Investment Officer, Advanced Portfolio Management
Chris Li, Vice President, Portfolio Investments, Dow Chemical Pension Fund

David Mordecai also moderated a panel in the New Financial Markets Stream entitled A Discussion on Volatility-Based Markets, Instruments & Strategies: How Underlying Volatility Forecasting Principles and Empirical Observations Regarding Jumps in Volatility Impact All Traders and Buy-Side Analysts. The panelists included:

Ali Hirsa, Head of Analytical Trading Strategy, Caspian Capital Management
Michael Johannes, Professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Business
Nick Polson, Professor, University of Chicago
Michael Wexler, Chief Investment Officer, Maple Leaf Capital LLC

The GAIM International conference is the largest and longest running hedge fund event in the world, and regularly attracts institutional investors, private bankers, high net worth individuals, family offices and sovereign wealth funds as well as fund managers including big brands and boutique investment houses from across the globe.

David K.A. Mordecai was invited to Keynote at Battle of the Quants

David K.A. Mordecai was invited to give the keynote address at Battle of the Quants: Leading Minds Debate the Influence and Integration of Quantitative Tools in Hedge Funds, a Global Capital Acquisitions Special Events program. In his keynote address, Dr. Mordecai presented empirical results related to his doctoral dissertation The Limits of Arbitrage: An Empirical Analysis of Evidence from Hedge Fund Performance. The event was held at The University Club in New York City, on February 7, 2007.

Event sponsors included Algorithmics, Axioma, Beryl, ClariFi, Lime Brokerage, MSCI Barra, Robert R. Meredith & Company, and Thomson Financial.

David Mordecai is President and Co-Founder of Risk Economics, a New York City based advisory firm. Risk Economics specializes in the application of computational economics to the proprietary development and scalable implementation of robust modeling and data analytic frameworks for valuation, strategic and systemic risk analysis, and dynamic asset-liability management.

David K.A. Mordecai Presented at the 12th Annual Global GAIM Conference

David K.A. Mordecai was invited to present at the 12th Annual Global Alternative Investment Management (GAIM) Conference, July 10-13, 2006 in Cannes, France at the Palais des Festivals.

David Mordecai participated in the GAIM/IAFE Systemic Risk Symposium as Session Co-Chair, and Chair of the Organizing Committee. He also served as Session Chair for Advanced Topics in Structured Credit.

David K.A. Mordecai Presented at GAIM USA 2006

David K.A. Mordecai presented at the 2006 Alternative Investment Management (GAIM) USA Conference, January 23-26, 2006 in Boca Raton, FL at the Boca Raton Resort & Club.

David Mordecai spoke on a panel entitled Advanced Topics in Credit Intermediation and Credit Arbitrage: Risk-Based Leverage and What to Consider When Technicals and Fundamentals Diverge and (Credit) Hedges Fail. His fellow panelists included:

Stephen Antczak, Global Co-Head of Structured Credit Trading, UBS Securities
Todd Groome, Director, Financial Markets Stability, International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Robert Wenzel, Portfolio Manager, Frontpoint Partners LLC

GAIM USA has more influential asset allocators and top performing managers attending and speaking than at any event in North America. The speaker faculty and attendee list comprise a “who’s who” of hedge fund investment and is an unrivalled forum for discovering critical information on the industry and its investment opportunities.

David K.A. Mordecai Presented at the 11th Annual Global GAIM Conference

David K.A. Mordecai made three presentations at the 11th Annual Global Alternative Investment Management (GAIM) Conference, June 7-9, 2005 in Lausanne, Switzerland at the Beaulieu Conference Center.

David K.A. Mordecai presented the Research Paper of the Year: Evidence from Hedge Fund Performance on the Relevance of Credit and Leverage for Investment Capacity and Survivorship Bias.

Additionally, David K.A. Mordecai also moderated two panels. The first panel, which he introduced and moderated, was entitled The GAIM 2005 Global Economic Policy Review: Structural Change Within the Alternative Investment Space: The Latest from the Most Influential Voices to Leading Policy Makers on Both Sides of the Atlantic: Management of Regulation, Markets, Credit & Liquidity and the Implications for Investors & Investees. The other speakers included:

Ingo Walter, Seymour Milstein Professor of Finance, Corporate Governance and Ethics, NYU Stern School of Business and Director & Professor of International Management, Stern Global Business Institute
David DeRosa, Frederick Frank Adjunct Professor of Finance, Yale School of Management
Richard Herring, Jacob Safra Professor of International Banking and Professor of Finance, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

David Mordecai also moderated the panel Assessing Trends in Structured Credit: Identifying Opportunities and Threats that Influence Performance. The panelists included:

Stephen Antczak, Global Co-Head of Structured Credit Trading Strategy, UBS Securities
Andrew Feldstein, Managing Partner, BlueMountain Capital Partners

Risk Economics, Inc.

Alternative Investments and Hedge Funds