Funds
The gross return of the SS&C GlobeOp Hedge Fund Performance Index for July 2019 measured 0.42 per cent.
Hedge fund flows as measured by the SS&C GlobeOp Capital Movement Index advanced 0.38 per cent in August.
“SS&C GlobeOp’s Capital Movement Index for August 2019 was 0.38 per cent, reflecting increased net inflows compared to 0.21 per cent net inflows for the same period a year ago,” says Bill Stone, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, SS&C Technologies. “The hedge fund sector’s ability to attract and retain assets in the current highly volatile market environment is truly impressive.”
Startup Covalent has launched crypto indexes allowing investors to purchase a diversified portfolio of crypto currencies using the Covalent Bot.
The company says this lowers the barrier to entry by reducing the need for investors to research hundreds of tokens in order to make an educated investment decision.
“Educated investors in traditional markets often purchase ETFs or indexes to reduce risk. Until now, this has not been readily available in the crypto markets. Covalent allows investors to invest in the crypto sector via a diversified portfolio by simply activating the Covalent Bot,” says Tomer Bariach, Cofounder of Covalent. “Unfortunately, until now, many
Hedge funds around the world generally continued delivering positive returns in July, starting off the second half of 2019 in the green with aggregate industry performance at +0.73 per cent, according to the latest eVestment hedge fund performance figures.
July’s results bring year-to-date (YTD) aggregate performance to +7.67 per cent.
Managed Futures funds were among the performance leaders in July, returning an average of +2.29 per cent in July, with YTD performance hitting +8.60 per cent. The 10 largest funds in the Managed Futures group performed even better, returning +4.62 per cent in July and +12.24 per cent YTD.
Sprott Asset Management (SAM) is to acquire Tocqueville Asset Management’s gold strategy asset management business, with Tocqueville gold investment team comprised of Senior Portfolio Manager John Hathaway and Portfolio Managers Douglas Groh and Ryan McIntyre will join Sprott Asset Management on closing.
“We are pleased to be acquiring Tocqueville’s gold strategy asset management business,” says Whitney George, President of Sprott. “John Hathaway and his team are among the world’s most respected gold equities managers and we have enjoyed an excellent working relationship during the planning and launch of our joint venture over the past year. This transaction is a natural
Electronic marketplace operator Tradeweb has reported a new quarterly record for average daily volume (ADV) of USD753.8 billion, representing an increase of 39.6 per cent.
The company also saw new quarterly records for ADV in interest rate swaps and mortgages and US high-grade credit which accounted for 12.4 per cent of TRACE volume.
Gross revenue increased 11.4 per cent (13.2 per cent on a constant currency basis) to a record USD190.5 million for the second quarter of 2019 from USD171.0 million for the second quarter of 2018. Net income decreased to USD24.8 million for the second quarter of 2019 from
Pictet Asset Management has added a new fixed income strategy to its USD10 billion actively managed total return franchise – the Pictet TR-Sirius fund. The strategy employed by Sirius is liquid global macro emerging market (EM) long-short fixed income.
Pictet TR-Sirius invests in a wide range of EM sovereign bonds, interest rates and currencies, with the aim of generating alpha in all market conditions. It intends to minimise directional bias to beta or carry and avoid downside risk. The fund has no benchmark constraints and aims to exceed the LIBOR overnight rate by 6-8 per cent gross return, with an
Assured Guaranty’s subsidiary Assured Guaranty US Holdings (AGUS) is to acquire all of the outstanding equity interests in BlueMountain Capital Management (BlueMountain) and its associated entities for a purchase price of approximately USD160 million, subject to certain adjustments.
BlueMountain is an alternative asset management firm with USD19.3 billion in assets under management (AUM).The acquisition is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2019, subject to certain customary closing conditions, including the receipt of consents and regulatory approval. As part of the agreement, BlueMountain’s co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Andrew Feldstein, intends to join Assured Guaranty
The rise in popularity of ETFs in recent years, as well as the continuing appeal of mutual funds has seemingly given index-based products the upper hand in the old passive versus active investment debate. But could active management be posed for a comeback? Tanzeel Akhtar investigates…
Whenever the active versus passive investment debate rears its head, discussions about fees and performance are never far away. While index-based funds are cheaper, the performance potential of hedge funds and other active investments is greater, so the argument goes. The truth of the matter though, is not so clear-cut.
Trip Miller, managing partner
Following a strong June, CTAs continued to make gains and reported positive performance in July too, according to the lates performance figures from Societe Generale Prime Services for the SG CTA Indices.
The SG CTA Index was up +3.53 per cent, adding to gains of +8.49 per cent YTD. Trend followers continued to lead performance, as the SG Trend Index was up +4.84 per cent and now stands in double digits at +12.63 per cent YTD. In fact, it has been in positive territory for five out of seven months this year.
Trend followers continued to benefit from upwards
iBoxx TRS notional volumes hit a new all-time high of USD23.9 billion in June, surpassing the previous record high of USD19.3 billion set in March, and nearly three-times the volumes recorded in June 2015.
Increases in iBoxx TRS volumes on leveraged loans and investment grade corporates in both USD and EUR have been significant drivers of volume growth for H1 2019.
The exposure of iBoxx TRS is identical to a diversified bond portfolio that has credit and interest rate risk. iBoxx TRS give asset managers another tool to wield when choosing the most suitable tradable product for a given scenario.
