Cowen Group has formed Ramius Trading Strategies, a subsidiary of Ramius Alternative Solutions, and launched the RTS Global Fund.
The multi-manager RTS Global Fund offers clients exposure to hedge funds focused on active trading strategies, primarily managed futures and global macro, through Ramius Trading Strategies’ newly developed managed account platform.
RTS is headed by William Marr, formerly global head of hedge fund research and portfolio construction at Merrill Lynch.
Senior members of the investment team include Alexander Rudin as director of investment research and Nadine Haidar as head of business due diligence.
Marr has built and managed a wide spectrum of multi-manager alternative investment products while previously at Merrill Lynch and Julius Baer.
Cowen’s multi-manager alternative investment business, Ramius Alternative Solutions, has made a significant seed investment and is providing the infrastructure support for the RTS launch. The investment process is governed by the RTS investment management committee, which is comprised of senior professionals from RTS and Ramius Alternative Solutions.
Marr says: "RTS Global Fund is a concentrated single strategy, multi-manager portfolio trading across roughly 250 markets in commodities, currencies, equities, and fixed income. With no structural long biases in any asset class, no requirement for access to borrowed capital, active, trading-oriented portfolio management, and access to outstanding managers, we believe the strategy reduces structural and indirect risks for clients while presenting a compelling investment opportunity."
Thomas W. Strauss (pictured), president and chief executive of Ramius, adds: "We believe RTS Global Funds’ use of a complementary portfolio of strategies with low correlation to other hedge fund strategies and traditional bond and equity markets, as well as the platform’s level of sophistication, are defining benefits for our alternative investments business. We are extremely pleased to welcome Bill, Alex, and Nadine to lead this unit and to have a team with extensive experience constructing and managing portfolios of trading strategies as well as a strong working relationship."
