Turns out not everything is bigger in Texas.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area is thought to rank only third in the nation in hedge fund assets under management, behind New York and the San Francisco Bay area, said Samuel Hocking, managing director in Banc of America Securities' prime brokerage division in Dallas.
That means many conferences sponsored by national hedge fund organizations bypass the Lone Star State. And that has led some big names in the Texas hedge fund world, as well as some prominent pension fund officials, to start a hedge fund organization dedicated to Texas and the Southwest.
The Texas Hedge Fund Association, Houston, aims to be a clearinghouse for hedge fund information as well as an educational and networking resource for hedge fund managers and investors. It is the brainchild of W. Thomas Augenthaler, founder of Fund Investors LLC, the parent company of the Hedge Fund Center, an online hedge fund information provider, and Christopher Alan Zook, chairman and chief investment officer of CAZ Investments LP, a Houston firm offering both a hedge fund and funds of hedge funds.
Others who have signed on to the organization's board of directors include John W. Peavy III, chief investment officer of the $75 billion Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Austin, and William J. Blythe Jr., executive director of the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems.
To learn more about the Texas HFA, visit its website at www.texashfa.org.
