New York State Registered Hedge Fund IARs

A list of New York-registered hedge funds and their representatives who are specifically licensed to do advisory work in New York is now available on the Empirasign web app.

Why is this new?

This information has never been publicly available before because representatives of investment advisers and solicitors were not required to register with the state of New York prior to February 1st of this year. Revisions to Title 13, part 11 of the New York Code of Rules and Regulations adopted in December 2020 introduced new registration and examination requirements for Investment Adviser Representatives (IARs) who meet certain conditions -- generally, six or more NY State domiciled investors and 10% or more of AUM being controlled by individual investors. The new rules went into effect on February 1st, with a registration compliance deadline of August 31st. Examination requirements must be completed by December 2nd.

A press release from the NY Attorney General explains that these changes were enacted in order to modernize and simplify the state's securities registration process, as well as to help protect New York investors from fraud - which became significantly more prevalent as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why is this information useful?

Prior to these changes, the contact information for portfolio managers and analysts at SEC-registered Hedge Funds in New York was largely unavailable, as they generally did not have to register as IARs. Previously, one would have to rely upon a hodge-podge of personal and internal tools or subscribe to error-ridden commercial personnel database products in order to ascertain these contacts. For those who have met the criteria described above, this is no longer the case. Verifiable names, addresses, contact information, and place of employment for these IARs is now published in an easy-to-use format on the Empirasign web app.

Where is this information sourced from?

The application for initial registration as an investment adviser is made by filing Form ADV with the CRD/IARD system. These forms disclose information including a firm's AUM and compensation structure, allowing us to identify firms which meet the criteria of a hedge fund.

Resources:

• NY State Investment Adviser FAQs (ag.ny.gov)
• Attorney General James Announces Final Rules to Modernize and Streamline Securities Filings in NYS (ag.ny.gov)
• New Registration and Examination Requirements for New York Investment Adviser Representatives (Lowenstein Sandler LLP)
• New York Adopts New Registration and Examination Requirements for Certain Investment Adviser Related Personnel and Solicitors (Katten Munchin Roseman LLP)
• 13 NYCRR Part 11 PDF
• Form ADV PDF

Largest Holders by Issuer

Discover which funds hold the most valuable positions from any issuer or deal(s) with our Largest Holders by Issuer feature. This tool aggregates and ranks the market value of each fund's portfolio holdings based on our N-PORT Filings database, which provides the most up-to-date holdings data available via the SEC. Simply enter any issuer ticker, CUSIP, or ISIN, select which deals you wish to view, and hit Submit.

The search results table can be sorted by any column (Fund Company, Fund Name, Value Date, Number of Positions, or Market Value). All search results tables can be exported by clicking on the green Excel icon.

Click on any Fund Name to view a complete list of all holdings records for a particular fund from our N-PORT Filings Database. Fund Holdings Search results will include:

• Complete current and historical portfolio holding records.
• Directors and officers for the fund company.*
• Registered representatives for the advisers of the fund.*
• All pricing services used by the fund.*
• A visualization of how the fund's assets are allocated across sectors according to their current report, as well as previous filings.
• Accession Numbers hyperlinked to the original form N-PORT and N-CEN filings on the SEC EDGAR website.*

These results can also be exported via the green CSV icon, located at the top of the page.

*Derived from Form N-CEN filings. See our blog post on how we link bonds to people here.

Largest Holders by Sector

Supercharge your prospecting efforts with our new Largest Sector Holders search tool. This tool aggregates and ranks the market value of each fund's portfolio holdings based on our daily-updated N-PORT Filings database, allowing users to instantly view the most significant players in each market sector. Simply choose one or more asset sub-sector(s), select a vintage (Pre-Crisis, Post-Crisis, or All), and hit Submit.

The search results table can be sorted by any column (Fund Company, Fund Name, Value Date, Number of Positions, or Market Value). Select the row for a fund in the search results table to view all of a fund's most recent positions for the queried sub-sector(s). Search results (at the sector and fund level) can be exported to a filters-enabled Excel spreadsheet by clicking its eponymous icon.

An unrestricted view of a fund's holdings can be viewed by clicking the name of the fund on the sub-sector positions page. These Fund Holdings Search results will include:

• Complete current and historical portfolio holding records.
• Directors and officers for the fund company.*
• Registered representatives for the advisers of the fund.*
• All pricing services used by the fund.*
• A visualization of how the fund's assets are allocated across sectors according to their current report, as well as previous filings.
• Accession Numbers hyperlinked to the original form N-PORT and N-CEN filings on the SEC EDGAR website.*

*Derived from Form N-CEN filings. See our blog post on how we link bonds to people here.

Example of Excel Auto Filters Export for a Fund's ABS Cards Holdings*

TRACE Pricing Data

Empirasign users now have access to FINRA TRACE market data. Just look for the new TRACE tab featured on all eligible bond trade history pages. The new data includes price, current face, trade date, trade time, and settlement date.

We've also added TRACE pricing data to our Price History charts, which provide the most complete picture of the market available on one screen. Visualize comprehensive historical and real-time pricing data from BWICs, Dealer Run (Bids, Offers, Two Way Markets), Price Talk, N-PORT P filings, NAIC transactions, and TRACE in seconds. Easily download and share this data with colleagues and clients by clicking the download icon located in the top right corner of the chart.

Linking Bonds to People

Our latest integration links data from the SEC's EDGAR database (securities) and FINRA (people). This allows Empirasign users to connect a bond's trade history to the registered representatives controlling the investment decisions of funds with current or previous positions in that bond.

All US-registered investment companies (Mutual Funds and ETFs) use Form N-CEN to report basic registrant and series-level information to the SEC on a yearly basis. These filings disclose a fund's directors, officers, advisers/sub-advisers, auditors, pricing services used, and various other information. While these reports are publicly available on the SEC EDGAR website, one must perform several steps of data integration and normalization to locate the relevant information for specific funds. For example, no information about the people (PMs and analysts) who work for a fund's adviser(s) is revealed in this report.

By regularly spidering these reports and joining fund information with CRD data from FINRA, Empirasign takes care of all the heavy lifting - allowing users to instantly view the registered reps for the advisers/sub-advisers of funds with current or previous positions in any bond searched via our web app. Simply navigate to the tab labeled "Registered Reps records" on any bond trade history page.

Links to the profile of each registered rep can be found by clicking on "External Links" under the "Rep Profile" column. Users have the option to view the representative's BrokerCheck profile, Bloomberg Bio (via B-Links), or search results from LinkedIn, Google or Bing. (More options for External Links are coming soon.)

Users can also view this information by searching a Registrant or Fund Name on our Fund Holdings Search Page. Results include:

• Directors and officers for the fund ("Fund Officers records" tab).
• Pricing services used by the fund ("Pricing Cos. records" tab).
• All current and previous positions held by the fund ("Holdings records" tab).
• A visualization of how the fund's assets are allocated across sectors ("Asset Allocation Chart" tab)
• Accession Numbers linked to the original form N-PORT P and N-CEN filings on the SEC EDGAR website ("Filings records" tab).

Additional Info

Form N-CEN filings are part of the SEC's efforts to modernize investment company reporting, with a particular emphasis on the need for transparency among ETFs and securities lending. More information on Form N-CEN, Form N-PORT and other facets of these efforts can be found here. FAQs about N-CEN filings can be found here. A reference copy of this form can be found here.