Death of a hedge fund

Sowood Capital Management, a hedge fund with $3 billion in assets in June, said that more than half of the fund's value had evaporated with losses in the corporate credit market, and that the remaining $1.5 billion would be liquidated and returned to investors. Sowood said that the sale of assets, to Citadel Investment Group, allowed it to avoid "forced sales at extreme prices." "It's mind-boggling," said Bradley Alford of Alpha Capital Management in Atlanta. "This last week, the velocity of losses has picked up dramatically." (Bloomberg)