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Quant hedge fund pioneer Aspect Capital unveils UCITS Core Diversified strategy

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Systematic hedge fund and CTA pioneer Aspect Capital has unveiled a new daily-liquid UCITS-compliant version of its Aspect Core Diversified Programme, a medium-term quantitative trend-following strategy, to capitalise on growing demand for uncorrelated returns amid rising market uncertainty.

Originally launched in 2014, the computer-driven strategy – which today has some USD1.5 billion in assets – looks to generate alpha by zeroing in on a range of medium-term trend opportunities across more than 100 liquid financial and commodity markets.

The new UCITS version rolls out with more than USD40 million of external capital, and has a target volatility of 12 per cent. It is aimed at offering institutional investors exposure to one of Aspect’s core strategies within a liquid wrapper.

Established in 1997 by Anthony Todd and Martin Lueck, who earlier ran CTA pioneer AHL – which is now part of Man Group – London-based Aspect today manages USD8.8 billion across a range of systematic hedge fund strategies, spanning managed futures, multi-strategy, alternative risk premia, and currencies.

The Aspect Core UCITS Fund is the third of Aspect’s UCITS-compliant offerings, joining the Aspect Diversified Trends Fund and the Aspect Systematic Global Macro Fund.

Aspect Diversified Trends – which has a 10-year-plus track record – is a momentum-based quant fund which targets the most liquid financial and commodity futures, currency forwards and derivative contracts. The Aspect Systematic Global Macro Fund meanwhile was launched in 2018, and follows a systematic, relative value approach to global fixed income, stock indices, currency and volatility investing.

Rosie Reynolds, Aspect’s chief commercial officer, said the new strategy will offer investors “much-needed diversification in the form of a robust, liquid, UCITS-compliant vehicle”.

“With uncertainty over the sustainability of current equity market valuations, declining bond yields and the looming threat of inflation, investors are increasingly seeking diversifying, uncorrelated yet liquid investment solutions to add balance to their portfolios,” Reynolds said.

Earlier this year, the firm said its Aspect Systematic Global Macro Fund remains well-positioned to capitalise on both short-term market dislocations and medium-term trends amid the still-uncertain post-pandemic recovery, as well as benefitting from relative value opportunities.

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