Funds
Hedge funds are continuing to bet against Europe’s travel industry, with several brand-name managers growing their shorts in travel staples such as EasyJet and TUI, amid concerns the fallout from the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak could impact the continent’s tourism sector.
The managed futures industry stepped into 2020 on a positive note with a 0.51 per cent return in January, according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge, a division of Backstop Solutions. It was the third consecutive profitable month for CTAs.“The coronavirus outbreak was a double-edged sword for traders in January, dragging oil prices down over concerns of reduced demand while boosting gold and Treasury bonds as investors sought defensive options,” says Sol Waksman, president of BarclayHedge. “Similarly, the cryptocurrency market benefited with bitcoin enjoying its best January since 2013.”
All but two CTA sectors were in positive territory
The hedge fund industry had a downbeat start to the new year losing 0.18 per cent in January, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge, a division of Backstop Solutions. By comparison, the S&P 500 Total Return Index was more or less break-even with a 0.04 per cent loss in January.
Mixed economic indicators worldwide joined with global events during the month to stunt returns for many hedge fund sectors, resulting in a reversal from December’s 1.73 per cent industry-wide return.
“January was a challenging month for investors, marked as it was by the impact of US-Iran tensions
CubeLogic, a provider of Business Intelligence enabled Enterprise Risk Management and Compliance solutions has secured two new client signings working in partnership with Numerix, a provider of leading-edge solutions for pricing, market risk, credit risk, XVA and FRTB. Within eight months of this new collaboration both CubeLogic and Numerix are delighted to announce that they have jointly secured two high profile deals. The first is with a well-known global liquidity provider and market maker and the second, a crypto currency bank. Together they are providing real-time VaR and Market Risk Management tools for the liquidity provider, whilst helping the Crypto bank
Investors’ bias towards momentum risk is making trend-following hedge fund strategies particularly sensitive to investor inflows, amid a recent spike in market volatility.
Lyxor Asset Management observed how future flows hinge predominantly on the cumulative performance of alternative strategies over a three-month period. On the flipside, investors tend to react to recent performance with a lag of three months.
As a result, flows into CTAs – which have enjoyed a strong positive start to 2020 – as well as long/short credit funds are the “most sensitive” to recent performance. Flows into global macro funds and event driven strategies tend to be
By Don Steinbrugge, Agecroft Partners – Hedge funds fees remain under extreme pressure across the industry. This strong trend is driven by declining return expectations from investors, increased competition across the industry, and an increasing share of industry assets controlled by large institutional investors.
Continuing the positive run from 2019, CTAs kicked off 2020 with all Societe Generale CTA indices in positive territory and the SG CTA Index closing the month at 0.83 per cent. Performance was led by the Short-Term Traders Index, which ended the month up 2.61 per cent.Performance at the month-end was positive amongst all other CTA indexes, including trend following, however the latter half of the month saw retractions to early gains, as markets became volatile. Data from the SG Trend Indicator showed that this mid-January volatility led to reversals in many global markets, impacting CTA performance.
Short-term CTAs proved
Catalyst Funds, an alternative-focused fund company, has launched the Catalyst/Teza Algorithmic Allocation Income Fund (TEZIX), which utilises an algorithmic machine learning technology designed by sub-advisor Teza Investments, to invest in globally diversified multi-assets with a target risk exposure of 9 per cent to 12 per cent portfolio volatility.TEZIX provides diversified exposure, with investments across up to 39 major global asset classes, including equity indexes, government bond interest rates and commodities such as energy, precious metals, base metals, agriculture and grains. The actively managed Fund uses a trading strategy based on a proprietary algorithm and rebalances positions and risk exposure, generally
The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index gained 0.17 per cent in January, outperforming the underlying equity market as represented by the MSCI ACWI (Local), which lost 0.90 per cent over the same period.
Equity markets started the month on a positive note, supported by the de-escalation of the tension in the Middle East, and the signing of the US-China phase-one trade deal. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ returned 1.97 per cent and 2.29 per cent respectively for the week ending January 17.
However, market sentiment shifted quickly towards the end of the month, following the coronavirus outbreak in China.
Alternative asset manager Canyon Partners has marked the five-year anniversary of the River Canyon Total Return Bond Fund (RCTIX). Since inception in 2014, the fund has consistently outperformed its benchmark, the Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Index, and its fund category on an annualised basis by 3.19 per cent and 2.40 per cent respectively. The fund has a 5-Star overall Morningstar Rating.
“The growth and performance of the Fund is reflective of Canyon’s research process, focus on security selection, and our long history of generating strong absolute and risk-adjusted returns in structured credit sectors,” says George Jikovski, Senior Portfolio Manager and Head
