Funds
Hedge fund assets have risen sharply in the past three months, as strategy performance recovers and investors scramble to capitalise on opportunities emerging amid the post-Covid sell-off environment.
The total amount of capital invested in hedge funds globally swelled by USD220 billion between April and June – a quarterly record – to reach some USD3.177 trillion overall, according to new data published by Hedge Fund Research.
The surge was driven both by improving strategy performance – HFRI’s Fund Weighted Composite Index gained more than 9 per cent in Q2, its best quarterly performance since the global financial crisis – and
BlueBay Asset Management, the London-based fixed income and emerging markets manager, is warning the recent uptick in economic activity could give way to “a more difficult backdrop” in August, as the future direction of the global economy continues to hinge heavily on developments surrounding a potential coronavirus vaccine.
BlueBay chief investment officer Mark Dowding said recent economic data showed a “more rapid bounce” during May and June than many predicted following the Covid-19 lockdown.
“We believe that in Europe this momentum may carry over into July data; conversely, in the US we believe that a dip is more likely when
Arrano Capital, the blockchain arm of Venture Smart Asia Limited, has licensed the MVIS CryptoCompare Bitcoin Index (MVBTC) for its recently launched bitcoin fund.
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Investors like Bill Ackman are bringing Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) back into vogue, and while the size and sophistication of these ‘blank-check’ companies is evolving, it is unlikely to signal a long-term structural shift.
Soaring gold prices are bringing stellar returns for hedge funds this year, and now projections for the rest of 2020 are being revised upwards in light of the commodity’s runaway momentum.
UCITS hedge funds delivered on their pledge of portfolio diversification during the coronavirus-fuelled market meltdown this year, and investors should now consider putting more of their money into the sector to seize on continued market dislocations, Lyxor Asset Management says.
A new Lyxor study led by Bernadette Busquere Arnal, European head of hedge fund research, and Nathanael Benzaken, chief client officer, forecasts further growth in alternative UCITS, after the sector outflanked broader market indices during the Covid-19 crash in March.
The commentary also suggested the pandemic is further driving sustainable investment trends among UCITS hedge funds.
While the HFRI Liquid
Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) has added a new long/short strategy to its alternative UCITS platform. Launched on 14 July 2020, U Access – Long/Short Japan Corporate Governance is a market-neutral and sector-neutral fund investing in Japanese equities and focusing on individual companies’ corporate governance.According to UBP’s qualitative and quantitative research, Japanese companies show a strong correlation between stockmarket performance and the quality of their governance. Furthermore, since 2014, a raft of reforms designed to reinforce governance at Japanese companies has created many opportunities for companies that best adapt to regulatory developments as opposed to those that have difficulties doing so.
Rebounding equity and energy markets caught some in the managed futures industry on the wrong foot in June, leading the CTA industry to a 0.22 per cent monthly loss, according to the Barclay CTA Index, compiled by BarclayHedge. Year-to-date CTAs were up 1.04 per cent through the end of June.
“As economies reopened from COVID-19 shutdowns, equity markets continued to recover while energy prices bounced back,” says Sol Waksman, president of BarclayHedge. “That environment challenged some longer-term trend followers who weren’t able to move as quickly as market conditions changed.”
CTA sectors were evenly split between gainers and losers in June.
C8 Technologies has partnered with LGBTQ Loyalty Holdings to make the the LGBTQ100 ESG Index tradable for investors around the world.
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A new company, LedgerEdge, has been launched by David E Rutter with the aim of building an ecosystem for the interchange of data and assets in the corporate bond market.
Read the full story at Institutional Asset Manager…
