Funds
Most Alternative UCITS funds are having a very solid 2019 so far with the LuxHedge Global Alternative UCITS Index posted a tiny gain of +0.06 per cent in October, bringing year-to-date results for the average fund up to +3.22 per cent.
Some 80 per cent of funds are able to post positive results so far in 2019.
Nearly every strategy index is doing well in 2019, with performance for Macro strategies standing out most. CTA’s gave back part of their YTD gains in October, but the LuxHedge CTA & Managed Futures Index remains at +8.86 per cent YTD. Equity
Alpha FMC, a provider of specialist consultancy services to the Asset and Wealth Management industry has completed the acquisition of Obsidian Solutions Limited, a financial services cloud-based SaaS business in the United Kingdom.
Obsidian brings a highly complementary suite of financial service software products including advanced business intelligence, client portals, reporting, and automated subscription/KYC management to Alpha FMC.
Alpha FMC is paying GBP5.7 million cash in two instalments to conclude the deal, the first instalment being payable on completion and the second after six months, plus a four-year, performance driven earn-out mechanism designed to maximise long-term recurring earnings
Euan Fraser,
Mizuho Americas’ investment banking subsidiary Mizuho Securities USA has become a new General Clearing Member (GCM) and as Trading Participant on the European Energy Exchange (EEX).
As a GCM, the bank is now authorised to provide clearing services for all customers of EEX Group’s clearing house as well as for all products and markets cleared by ECC.
“MSUSA” is a wholly owned investment banking subsidiary of Mizuho Americas LLC and indirect subsidiary of Mizuho Bank, based in Tokyo, Japan. MSUSA is a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant and SEC-registered broker dealer. It has memberships in, or access to, global futures exchanges
Following a challenging September, the Societe General CTA Index closed October at -2.41 per cent as difficult market conditions continued in October.
2019 year-to-date CTAs are still in positive territory at +5.98 per cent, helped by earlier gains from trend following strategies and an uptick from more fundamentally driven quantitative macro strategies in October. Trend followers suffered a dip in performance and were down by -4.16 per cent, meanwhile, short-term CTAs posted a marginally positive performance and were more reactive to market movements.
Attribution data from the SG Trend Indicator showed that whilst trend followers were down in October,
The hedge fund industry was in positive territory to begin the fourth quarter, extending industry-wide YTD gains with strong contributions from Healthcare, Quantitative Equity, Activist and Fundamental Value funds, according to data released today by HFR.
The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index advanced +0.4 per cent in October as equities recovered from early intra-month declines and as the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered interest rates. Performance gains across Equity Hedge, Event-Driven and Relative Value Arbitrage strategies were partially offset by declines in Macro strategies. The HFRI 500 Fund Weighted Composite Index, an investible index of 500 leading hedge funds, gained +0.5
Progressive Capital Partners (Progressive Capital), an independent Swiss investment boutique specialising in niche alternatives and managed futures strategies, is to acquire Vontobel Asset Management’s “Alternative Fund Solutions” unit.
Further to an existing mandate and a fund solution, their current team of four specialists will be joining Progressive Capital. More than 80 per cent of the assets under management within this unit originate from pension funds. The team of experienced alternative investment specialists have been developing investment solutions for institutional clients such as pension funds, insurance companies, trusts, and family offices for years.
Ilario Scasascia will head the Customised Solutions units, which
Resolute Investment Managers (Resolute), a diversified, multi-affiliate asset management platform with more than 40 affiliated and independent relationships, is to acquire a majority interest in National Investment Services (NIS), an asset manager specialising in fixed-income strategies.
With offices in Milwaukee, Chicago and Sarasota, NIS focuses on differentiated, taxable fixed-income strategies that seek to provide institutional investors with consistent performance and downside protection. NIS offers a wide variety of investment strategies, including traditional and alternative fixed-income options and dynamic fixed-income offerings tailored to meet a client’s investment objective or desired level of risk.
“NIS has established itself as a fixed-income leader
KRM22, a technology and software investment company that focuses on risk management for capital markets, has partnered with deltaconX, a provider of regulatory reporting services for European financial-, energy- and commodity trading organisations.
The deltaconX SaaS-based service, which will be available through KRM22’s Global Risk Platform, enables firms to meet regulatory reporting requirements including EMIR, FinfraG, SFTR, MiFIR and MiFID II, and REMIT. The application simplifies the reporting process through automation and dynamic error handling, minimising manual work and the likelihood of human error.
Saeed Patel, Director of Product Strategy at KRM22, says: “With a rise in the number
Institutional investors face a number of pressures driven by regulation, the market environment, the global economy and their own internal policies. The rise of factor investing can help ease some of these burdens by introducing new levels of transparency and systematic portfolio construction which then allow for a better deployment of the available risk budget.
Factor investing is not new and has not been discovered recently, however changes in the way the returns generated are accessed can offer additional value and innovative benefits to investors. This has been driven by significant advances in technology, data gathering and analysis witnessed in
PEGAS, the pan-European gas trading platform of EEX Group operated by Powernext, registered a total volume of 212.0 TWh traded on the platform in October 2019, up to 12 per cent compared to 2018.
With 121.8 TWh, the spot segment reported a 15 per cent growth compared to 2018 (October 2018: 103.3 TWh) and a record month for the Austrian CEGH VTP, which traded 9.71 TWh in October 2019 (previous record in January 2019: 9.67 TWh).
A total of 90.2 TWh were traded on the futures segments, which represents a 9 per cent raise year-on-year (October 2018: 82.8 TWh).
In
