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William J Brodsky, Susan M Phillips and R Eden Martin, among CBOE Holdings' longest serving board members, are to step down from the board upon the closing of CBOE’s acquisition of Bats Global Markets. Their resignations are conditional upon the transaction closing.   CBOE Holdings and Bats have entered into a definitive agreement that provides that at the effective time of the Bats acquisition, CBOE Holdings' board of directors will consist of 14 directors.   These 14 directors will include 11 directors currently serving on the CBOE Holdings board plus three individuals who are serving on the Bats board of
One of the great myths of 2016 is that volatility has returned, says AIMA, which believes this year saw the continuation of the post-crisis trend of low market volatility, having an impact on certain hedge fund strategies. Nevertheless, many individual hedge funds performed very well in 2016. To the end of November, average hedge fund performance was about +5 per cent (HFRI, Preqin).   AIMA’s view is that volatility has not returned, especially when compared with historic volatility levels. The long-term average (since 1990) for the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index (VIX) is 19.7. In 2015, it was 16.6
The manager of Finnish airports, Finavia, reports that Lapland has been fully prepared for a busy winter season, with air traffic volumes expected to be the highest since 2007, and some 500 charter and scheduled flights arriving in Lapland in December. Finavia says that the steady annual growth in the number of charter flights shows how attractive winter destination Lapland has become. “Travel operators in Lapland have done a lot of work in developing travel products also for the summer season,” says Joni Sundelin, senior vice president at Finavia.” Lapland visitors first arrived from London to Enontekiö on 25 November,
Wedbush Securities was founded in 1955 and is one of the largest providers of small and midcap equity research in the US. Three years ago, Sean Trager (pictured) set up the prime brokerage division within Wedbush Securities to cater specifically to smaller money managers. "Rather than focus on multi-billion institutions, we choose to focus on the multi-million institutions. We are building a name for ourselves with the emerging manager community," explains Trager, who continues:  "We provide the infrastructure. If someone were to spin out of a multi-billion dollar hedge fund with friends and family money we give them direct market
One aspect of the prime brokerage model that is emerging in parallel with technology advancement is greater agility and responsiveness to clients' needs. At traditional bank-owned prime brokers, regulatory reform is weighing on them and creating a degree of inertia, causing them to overlook their small and mid-sized hedge fund clients.  This is something that is playing straight into the hands of Sydney-based Invast Global, a subsidiary of Japanese listed Invast Securities Co Ltd. Employing a prime-of-prime model, Invast leads the industry in the provision of multi-asset high-quality, non-bank Prime Services. It provides credit intermediation, access to liquidity (both OTC
"There is a clear message coming out of the marketplace that we are responding to. The smaller and medium-sized managers are being squeezed out of the tier one primes and have nowhere to go," states Jerry Lees, Chairman of Linear Investments. "There is a momentum in the marketplace forcing change. The impact of Basel III on banks' balance sheets means they cannot afford the infrastructure costs to continue supporting smaller hedge funds and this has created a gap." This means small to mid-sized hedge funds are finding it harder to establish a strong prime brokerage relationship.  This is good news
The notion of what it means to be a prime broker is changing. Hedge funders are looking for solutions that go beyond the usual services such as trade execution and clearing, capital introduction, securities lending and margin finance. These solutions extend to middle- and back-office support, compliance support and outsourced trading services. With respect to the latter, this is something that Cowen Prime Services are seeing significant interest in, not just among emerging managers wishing to reduce infrastructure spend but seasoned managers with an eye on improving business efficiency. "What is becoming more evident to us is that hedge funds
The prime brokerage landscape is changing. The largest names still dominate in terms of market share, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley at the vanguard. But in a year when the established order has been overturned – think Brexit and the Trump election victory – the large investment bank-owned primes cannot afford to rest on their laurels.  This is because the nature of hedge fund managers is changing. Those spinning out of existing hedge fund groups and setting up their own funds are largely millennials who have grown up with the Internet and who bring a different mindset to the industry.
Apex is a proven leader in the clearing space and, having built a suite of sophisticated technology solutions over the years, has become the 'go-to' clearing firm for fintech firms. Indeed, it is currently the Custodian-of-Choice for tech-savvy firms like Betterment, Stash, Wealthfront and other robo advisors.  This year, to move beyond merely providing custody and clearing to retail clients (online brokerages and RIAs as well as fintech firms), Apex made the jump to provide prime brokerage services to the institutional community. This September, it launched a full-fledged prime brokerage solution and has already onboarded nearly 20 hedge fund clients. 
Poor hedge fund performance over the past 18 months means that managers face continued fee pressure from investors. As a result, smaller and emerging hedge funds are becoming increasingly attracted to non-conventional prime brokers that are able to offer automated solutions for risk management, account management, trade execution and pricing.  Leading the pack is Interactive Brokers, which has been built on three pillars: low cost, breadth of product (globally) and best-of-breed technology and trading tools.  "These things are becoming much more important as the hedge fund industry becomes more competitive," says Steve Sanders (pictured), EVP, Marketing and Product Development. "What

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