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A synchronised recovery in the world economy is making investors more optimistic, though there remain risks for equities, says Robeco’s Lukas Daalder. The Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to set 12 consecutive record highs in February, while the positive sentiment accruing from consistently strong economic data shows no signs of abating.   However, a heavy upcoming political agenda, and the continuing unease over the wild rhetoric of new US President Donald Trump means Robeco remains neutral on equities for now.   “Underlying data has continued to be predominantly positive across the regions of the world, with especially Europe surprising on
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is extending the comment period on its proposed capital requirements applicable to swap dealers and major swap participants for an additional 60 days. The original comment period was to expire on 16 March 2017.   As extended, the comment period will expire on 15 May 2017.   Notice of the extension will be published in the Federal Register. All comments will be posted on CFTC’s website.
ML Capital has launched the Quest Convertible Absolute Return UCITS Fund, a convertible arbitrage strategy, hosted on the MontLake UCITS Platform. MontLake is an independent platform for UCITS funds that provide investors with access to a range of liquid, transparent and regulated investment products domiciled in Dublin.   The MontLake Quest Convertible Absolute Return UCITS Fund uses a fundamentally and quantitatively driven strategy that yields superior risk-adjusted, uncorrelated returns. This strategy seeks to capitalise on the global macro cycles of equity, credit and interest rates that drive the constantly changing valuations in the convertible universe.   Quest's investment philosophy is
Dechert’s Matthew Kerfoot (pictured) comments on FSB’s newly issued Policy Recommendations on the use of leverage by investment funds… In marked contrast to the emerging US deregulatory climate, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) has issued Policy Recommendations to regulate the use of leverage by investment funds. The FSB classifies fund leverage in two ways: balance sheet and synthetic leverage. Balance sheet leverage refers to traditional cash financings through bank lines of credit, prime brokerage margin finance and similar direct financings.  The FSB defines synthetic leverage as financing obtained through total return swaps and other types of derivatives transactions.  Fund finance and
Bloomberg has signed an agreement to become the corporate sponsor of the EDHEC Business School’s MSc in Financial Markets. Students studying the Financial Economics track of EDHEC's MSc in Financial Markets can now access the Bloomberg Professional service, or Terminal, which has more than 325,000 business and financial subscribers worldwide.   The Bloomberg Professional service is a software platform providing trusted real-time and historical data, market moving news and analytics to help business and financial professionals make better informed investment decisions. The service also features execution platforms for every asset class, research and a global network to communicate securely and
The Lyxor Global Macro index outperformed during the first week of March, up 1.3 per cent. More generally, it was a strong start to the month for hedge funds, according to Lyxor’s latest Weekly Brief.   The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index was up 0.8 per cent last week, after having delivered 1 per cent in February. All the strategies ended the week in positive territory, and although Event-Driven lagged somewhat (+0.2 per cent), it remains the best performing strategy year to date.   Lyxor Cross Asset Research writes: “Is alpha back? There has been much discussion recently about the fact
Competition for private debt deals has never been higher with a record amount of dry powder in 2016 despite reduced fundraising, according to a report by bfinance. Senior direct lending funds have become riskier over the past four years, with leverage creeping up and unitranche loans becoming increasingly dominant as managers try to keep IRR expectations on track despite spread compression.   Meanwhile the industry attempts to respond to investor appetite for purer senior debt vehicles and new European demand for US direct lending, says bfinance’s latest Market Intelligence paper “Direct Lending – What’s Different Now?”   The paper draws
Jon Downing has joined the advisory board of BTL, a provider of blockchain solutions to businesses across multiple industries, in particular the finance, energy and gaming sectors. Over the last 25 years, Downing (pictured) has delivered innovation, business and technology services at some of the largest and most respected global companies, including Visa, JP Morgan, HP Enterprise Services and American Express.   Over the last two years, Downing was a key member of Visa Europe’s Innovation Hub, Visa Collab, which was responsible for identifying and testing the most exciting, revolutionary ideas in payments and developing them into commercial realities. Downing
The gross return of the SS&C GlobeOp Hedge Fund Performance Index for February 2017 measured 1.13 per cent. Hedge fund flows, as measured by the SS&C GlobeOp Capital Movement Index, advanced 0.41 per cent in March.   "SS&C GlobeOp's Capital Movement Index for March 2017 rose 0.41 per cent, indicating positive net capital flows for hedge funds," says Bill Stone, chairman and chief executive officer, SS&C Technologies. "This increase was lower than the 0.75 per cent increase reported a year ago for March 2016, with lower inflows accounting for the difference. For the year-to-date, the index is running 28 basis
The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Index, which provides a representative baseline for how the broad liquid alternative investment category performs, returned 0.75 per cent in February, underperforming the 1.12 per cent monthly return for the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index. “We continued to observe large-cap stocks outperforming small-cap stocks, in addition to growth strategies outperforming value strategies. Deep-value credit strategies also continued to outperform as the leveraged credit markets rallied on the anticipated pro-growth policies of the new administration,” says Jason Schwarz (pictured), president of Wilshire Funds Management.   The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Multi-Strategy Index, which includes both single and multi-manager

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