Following the decision last month to shutter Singapore-based Artradis Fund Management, Hedgeweek reported that co-founder Stephen Diggle was planning to focus on turning his family office, Vulpes I
Following the decision last month to shutter Singapore-based Artradis Fund Management, Hedgeweek reported that co-founder Stephen Diggle was planning to focus on turning his family office, Vulpes Investments, into an investment company. Well, that’s exactly what he’s doing, with Asia Risk reporting this week that he was preparing to launch a new version of his flagship Barracuda fund: an Asian market neutral volatility fund. Vulpes Investment Management is expected to start trading the fund in May. The Barracuda fund and its leveraged AB2 fund closed because volatility in the markets softened, with Diggle admitting that there hadn’t really been many spikes in volatility in the last two years. Investors’ money was returned end-February. The new fund will follow a similar strategy. “With a few tweaks to the process we can limit the capital burn to an acceptable rate, even if these quiet conditions continue,” Diggle told Asia Risk. He said that being long volatility was a good hedge against market instability. The more markets dislocate and weaken together, the higher volatility becomes. Diggle has former Artradis portfolio manager, Phillip von Bernstorff on board, along with a new Chief Risk Officer, ex-Rabobank’s Bert Verdicchio. On closing Artradis, Diggle said it was the result of poor judgment rather than poor risk management. “We bought lots of an asset that was not performing—from a trading point of view we should have stopped earlier,” he said.
