Alternative asset manager Mariner Investment Group has named Peter van Dooijeweert, the former head of equity relative value trading at Citigroup, to run a global equity volatility portfolio on the Mariner Incubation Platform, a multi-strategy mandate Mariner launched in April 2013.
The portfolio will be known as the Mariner Equity Volatility Strategy. This appointment follows the firm’s recent appointments of Richard Rumble (pictured) to manage a global emerging market equity portfolio and Eric Pellicciaro to manage a global macro portfolio on this new platform.
The Mariner Equity Volatility Strategy portfolio will employ a volatility trading approach that capitalises on van Dooijeweert’s experience in managing portfolios of equity options and other derivatives at investment banks and hedge funds since 1995. The strategy will focus on comparing the relative value of options across single name equities, market sectors, and global indices to build portfolios that monetise identified mispricings.
"Peter brings an impressive track record trading in equity volatility markets, demonstrating an ability to generate differentiated returns throughout market cycles," says Bracebridge Young, Mariner’s chief executive officer. "We expect volatility trading will continue to offer strong risk adjusted returns given the reduction of bank proprietary activity in these instruments and the continued proliferation in the use of volatility related products in the structuring of investment portfolios. We are excited to have Peter and his team managing this portfolio on our Mariner Incubation Platform."
"The Mariner Incubation Platform offers us all the benefits of an institutional grade platform on the infrastructure side to build our business along with synergies associated with access to portfolio managers across market disciplines," says van Dooijeweert. "As markets digest the possibility of the reduction of significant central bank intervention in the US and global economic prospects remain uncertain, we believe that our approach to volatility arbitrage is uniquely positioned to take advantage of market dislocations to generate returns with low to negative correlation to equity markets and other asset classes."
Van Dooijeweert has more than 18 years of experience in trading volatility products. Most recently, he spent three years at Citigroup in both New York and London, where he was head of equity relative value trading. Previously, he was founding partner and CEO of Alopex Capital Management, a global volatility arbitrage hedge fund initially seeded by Tudor Investment Corp. Prior to Alopex, he was a portfolio manager in the equity arbitrage group of Soros Fund Management. He started his investment career with Goldman Sachs as a derivative trader.
Van Dooijeweert is joined by Steven Ahn, who brings 10 years of experience in managing equity derivatives portfolios as well as significant experience in capital structure arbitrage and event driven trading.
The Mariner Incubation Platform allocates capital to established talent in areas that the firm considers investment opportunities primarily in the rate, equity and credit markets. Mariner provides the portfolio managers with infrastructure support as well as the potential to create future standalone advisory relationships including hedge funds. Managers on the platform oversee portfolios with initial investments ranging from USD50m to USD100m.
