Now in its fourth year, the annual HedgeweekLIVE North America Emerging Managers Summit brought together a wide range of hedge fund managers both large and small, as well as investment advisors, service providers and other industry advocates, to discuss the increasingly broad array of challenges and opportunities confronting newer funds today.
Serving almost as a ‘How-To-Launch-A-Hedge-Fund 101’ event, the expansive two-day summit offered detailed insights and perspectives aimed at steering start-up managers in the right direction. Speakers across the board grappled with crucial questions that can often define success and failure in a hedge fund’s early stages.
The way the Covid-19 pandemic has shaken up the working environment has posed fundamental questions for start-up hedge funds regarding technology, staffing and client relations, and proved a recurring theme during the event this week.
Attendees heard how fledgling funds must carve out a durable track record to grab investor attention, with speakers underlining the importance of using quality service providers who can help portfolio managers avoid getting “bogged down” in compliance and audit issues during the crucial launch phase.
At the same time, budgetary concerns continue to loom large over the start-up sphere. It is vital, speakers noted, that newer managers also take a long-term perspective on the direction of their firm and fund, with growth and scalability modelled with a view on where managers plan to be several years down the line.
Meanwhile, the technology infrastructure panel heard how staff with coding and tech expertise can provide a “big step forward” for emerging funds in their early years amid the growing importance of data within the industry.
Elsewhere this week, Alex Botte, CFA, CAIA, client solutions research at Two Sigma and Venn, joined Hedgeweek’s editor-in-chief James Williams in our latest podcast to discuss the impact of Covid-19 on how risk is modelled and managed within investor portfolios. The deep-dive discussion explored how next generation AI tools are helping to provide fresh insights on factor risks, and touched on on ESG considerations, crypto assets and inflation risk exposures.
Hugh Leask
Editor, Hedgeweek