Manuel P. Asensio Founder of Asensio and Company, Inc. was a featured panelist at the second annual Investment Management Conference at the Yale School of Management. The conference was comprised of four panels, which ranged in topic from the first two panel's discussions on "Hedge Fund Regulation; Lessons Learned from the Bayou Group", and the "Evolution of Hedge Funds", to the last two panel's afternoon dialogues entitled "Where the Money is in 2006-Part I", and "Part II".

Mr. Asensio participated in the second part of "Where the Money is in 2006", and was featured alongside panelists such as John Allison of W.P. Stewart and Company, who currently has about $9 Billion under management, and is a long only investor. Other contributors on the panel included: Dr. Walter Gerasimowicz, a seasoned asset manager who was the former head of Lehman Advisory Services and currently serves as the Chairman and CEO of Meditron Asset Management; and Richard Maine, a co-managing partner of Madison Harbor Capital, and the former chief investment officer of Connecticut General Life Insurance Company's $50 Billion investment portfolio. Rounding out the panel was Lynelle Jones of Hathersage Capital Management, who has enjoyed stints in both research at Salomon Brothers, where she worked alongside Dr. Henry Kaufmann, and in sales at Goldman Sachs, before moving on to Hathersage Capital, which is a discretionary absolute return currency trading firm. The panel was moderated by Dr. Owen Lamont, a Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, and Professor of Finance at The Yale School of Management, who has done extensive research on battles between short sellers and public companies, and counts that subject matter as one of the many topics contained within his published research.

One of the highlights during the panel's discussion was an energy stock called Solv-Ex. Solv-Ex was a topic of relevance as the scam bears many similarities to the current controversies surrounding Powder River Basin coal producer KFX. A comparison of these two companies was helpful in looking at the effects of hedge fund asset growth on short selling. Among the parallels made between the companies, were their roots within government subsidies granted during the Carter Administration, to try to encourage coal gasification and synfuels, and aimed at helping to reduce America's dependence on foreign energy. Another similarity between the two was the use of energy prices to promote their stocks, as well as the duration of both schemes. One noted divergence was that most of the investors in Solv-Ex were small retail investors, whereas the largest stakeholders in KFX are large hedge funds. Adding to the intrigue is that among the hedge funds that have sizable long positions in KFX, are some investors who have previously been known as astute short sellers.