Funds
ESG-focused funds have rightly been receiving a lot of attention over the last 12 months or more, as institutional investors continue to analyse the impact their portfolios are having on the planet, and society at large.
Managed futures funds produced a third straight positive month in April returning 1.43 per cent, according to the Barclay CTA Index, compiled by BarclayHedge, a division of Backstop Solutions. For the year to date, CTAs returned 3.80 per cent through April.
“Strong performance in commodity and equity markets were enough to overcome losses in currency and fixed income sectors,” says Sol Waksman, president of BarclayHedge.“
All but one of the sectors tracked in the Barclay CTA Indices were in the black for March. The Cryptocurrency Traders Index set the pace gaining 9.75 per cent, while the MPI Barclay Elite Systematic
Event driven strategies topped the hedge fund performance chart during the first three months of the year, as the industry drew some USD9 billion in new capital in Q1 and saw trading volumes surge, new analysis by hedge fund asset administrator Citco shows.
Citco Fund Services’ ‘2021 Q1 Hedge Fund Report’ probed strategy performance, investor flows and trading volumes, among other things.
The study found that close to three-quarters – 73.4 per cent – of hedge funds delivered a positive return during Q1 as the strong performances at the end of 2020 carried through into the new year.
The quarterly
The hedge fund industry added to its gains in April, returning 2.14 per cent as the industry posted a sixth consecutive month in the black, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge, a division of Backstop Solutions. By comparison the S&P 500 Total Return Index gained 5.34 per cent in April.
For the year to date, the hedge fund industry gained 7.06 per cent through the end of April. The S&P 500 Total Return Index returned 11.84 per cent over the same period.
All sectors but two tracked in the Barclay Hedge Fund Indices were in positive
Brummer & Partners’ flagship multi-strategy fund has slipped into the red so far in May according to mid-month estimates, with a sharp dispersion in returns across its underlying equity, macro and trend-following strategies – but the long-running Stockholm-based vehicle remains in positive territory year-to-date.
Brummer Multi-Strategy, which comprises a range of hedge fund sub-strategies, has lost 0.8 per cent in the first two weeks of May, the firm said in an update on Tuesday. Despite the recent dip, the strategy’s SEK class is still up 1.1 per cent since the start of January.
The twice-levered BMS 2xL version of the
London-based global long/short equity hedge fund Pembroke Emerging Markets is rolling out a UCITS version of its Cayman strategy to tap into growing investor demand for uncorrelated emerging markets exposure.
Pembroke, a boutique EM equities strategy operating under the umbrella of UK-based multi-boutique investment firm BennBridge, is led by equities and derivatives market veteran Sanjiv Bhatia, a former Harvard Endowment portfolio manager and Goldman Sachs trader.
The existing Cayman strategy, which launched in April 2018, has generated a net annualised return of more than 10 per cent, with a Sharpe ratio of 1.83 and 5.7 per cent volatility, since inception.
The
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) has set a new milestone in its Power Derivatives business by becoming the No1 platform in Japan Power Futures trading in less than 12 months.
In the first quarter of 2021, EEX achieved a 96 per cent market share of volume with 2.32 TWh traded in the first three months of the year.
“As the biggest exchange in power trading worldwide, EEX has a proven track record in building new markets together with its customers. I’m very proud of what we have achieved in Japan over the past 12 months and in particular, our market
Apex Group, a global financial services provider, has acquired Tzur Management (Tzur), a fund administration services provider with offices in Tel Aviv, Israel and New York.
This strategic deal further enhances Apex’s geographic reach and ability to deliver high quality services to clients globally, on a local basis. The acquisition of Tzur will add 90 employees, AuA of USD13 billion and a new jurisdiction to the Group’s footprint, further solidifying its global position as one of the world’s largest financial service providers.
Founded in 2011, Tzur is a full-service, multi-disciplinary fund services manager serving clients in the global alternative
EM sovereign credit initiated a rebound at the turn of the quarter (+3 per cent QTD) as Treasuries bounced back after having registered the worst quarterly returns since the early 1980s (-4.3 per cent for the Barclays US Treasuries in Q1), according to the latest weekly hedge funds brief from Lyxor’s Senior Strategists Jean-Baptiste Berthon and Philippe Ferreira, and Hedge Fund Analyst Pierre Cerryn.
In line with broader market developments, EM Global Macro strategies rebounded quarter-to-date, up +1.6 per cent as of 7 May, but still down -1.3 per cent year-to-date. The rebound in EM currencies was also supportive and
Using data from HFR and Eurekahedge, AlternativeSoft selected five funds with the highest 2020 returns to see if simple momentum has generated strong returns in 2021.
The five funds generated returns between 149 per cent and 300 per cent in 2020, with the best performing, SYWLP, returning 300.45 per cent was SYWLP.
However, when AlternativeSoft analysed the performance of the same funds in the first quarter of 2021, it found that their momentum were not carried over. SYWLP, for example, has a negative return of 28.47 per cent so far this year, while overall, the top five funds in 2020
