Funds
Boutique Investment Firm Assured Capital Partners has re-opened its most successful fund to date to a limited number of new investors in an expanded offering. Only accredited investors may participate.
The firm’s ‘Balanced Growth’ fund, which has beaten the S&P substantially the last three years running, had previously been closed to new participants but was re-opened due to client demand. According to Christopher Harris, investment manager of the fund, the firm expects growth in excess of 20 per cent this year.
The fundraising comes at a time when investors have a greater number of options than ever before. Yet
Assets invested in ETFs and ETPs listed globally amounted to USD4.82 trillion at the end of Q4 2018, following net inflows of USD164.84 billion and market moves during the period, according to ETFGI’s Q4 2018 Global ETF and ETP industry landscape insights report, an annual paid-for research subscription service. 
During the same period, the Global Hedge Fund industry saw assets fall to USD3.11 trillion, with net outflows of USD22.5 billion during the quarter.
According to analysis by ETFGI, USD4.82 trillion was invested in 7,620 ETFs/ETPs listed globally at the end of 2018, representing growth in assets of -0.49 per
PEGAS, the pan-European gas trading platform operated by Powernext, kicked off the new year with one of its best spot monthly volumes by reaching 124.9 TWh in January.
This strong showing was supported by monthly volume records on TTF with 46.5 TWh (previous record: 42.1 TWh in November 2018), on CEGH VTP with 9.7 TWh (previous record: 9.5 TWh in March 2018) and on ETF with 3.4 TWh (previous record: 2.7 TWh in February 2018). The total volume traded in January amounted to 178.0 TWh , including 53.0 TWh on the futures and 161.3 GWh on the options segments, which
Catalyst Funds, an alternative-focussed mutual fund company, has launched the Catalyst Enhanced Income Strategy Fund (EIXIX), which employs an income-focused strategy that invests in a variety of non-traditional income asset classes.
EIXIX invests primarily in agency and non-agency residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) as well as other asset-backed income securities, including securities backed by aircraft, automobiles, credit card receivables, and student loans. Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest over 25 per cent of its assets in agency and non-agency RMBS and will diversify geographically and among the servicing institutions that service or originate these securities. The Fund’s objective is
IPM, a Stockholm-based systematic asset manager, has completed the transfer of the sub-fund MS IPM Systematic Macro UCITS Fund from the Morgan Stanley FundLogic Alternative UCITS platform to the new IPM UCITS Umbrella ICAV (IPM UCITS ICAV), following Morgan Stanley’s decision to discontinue the FundLogic Alternatives umbrella last year.
Morgan Stanley has overseen and facilitated the transition of the fund to the IPM UCITS ICAV and will remain one of the key trading counterparties of the new fund.
The IPM UCITS ICAV has retained the services of Northern Trust who remain as Custodian, Transfer Agent and Administrator, maintaining continuity
Hedge fund strategies that suffered in December rebounded last month (L/S Equity, Relative Value Arbitrage), while those resilient at the end of 2018 (CTAs) lagged behind, according to the latest Weekly Brief from Lyxor’s Cross Asset Research team.
Looking at performance over the past two months, Event-Driven stands out as the outperforming strategy and Macro/ CTAs as the underperforming one, according to broad benchmarks. CTAs suffered from the trend reversal in equities at the turn of the year, down 2.6 per cent in January after a dismal year in 2018. Their long positioning on bonds is now at risk if
Digital asset exchange Kraken has acquired Crypto Facilities, a regulated cryptocurrency trading platform and index provider. The combination creates a specialist in cryptocurrency spot and futures trading.
London-based Crypto Facilities offers individuals and institutions transparent, secure, 24/7 trading on a range of cryptocurrency derivatives. A pioneer in the industry, the firm was the first regulated entity to list futures on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple XRP, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. The firm is also the leading cryptocurrency index provider, calculating the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate that powers the CME Group’s Bitcoin futures. Users value the high integrity, low latency marketplace that
Private equity firm GTCR has completed the previously announced acquisitions of Ultimus Fund Solutions and The Gemini Companies in a strategic combination.
The combined company, which will operate as Ultimus Fund Solutions, is a provider of full service fund administration, accounting and investor solutions to traditional and alternative fund managers. On behalf of its clients, the combined company services approximately USD150 billion of assets under administration and over 840 total funds.
Ultimus and Gemini have both been innovators in comprehensive and customised middle and back-office solutions that help fund managers and investors. The companies’ solutions are differentiated by proficiencies
Nordea Asset Management (NAM) has expanded its ESG fixed income offering with the launch of the Nordea 1 – Emerging Stars Bond Fund.
Building on the success of NAM’s Stars fund range in the equities space, the asset manager has added a second fixed income solution, the Nordea 1 – Emerging Stars Bond Fund. It follows the recent launch of the Nordea 1 – European Corporate Stars Bond Fund.
Fixed income funds with true ESG implementation represent a relatively new approach to responsible investment. The market is beginning to take notice, with growing recognition among EM investors that ESG
Far fewer active fund managers outperformed their benchmarks in 2018, according to an analysis of 15 key equity and bond fund segments by Scope. In fact, under a quarter of active equity funds beat benchmarks in 2018 and just 16 per cent of bond funds outperformed.
Scope’s study, which covered nearly 2,000 equity funds (UCITS) authorised for distributing in Germany, found that the proportion that outperformed their benchmark fell year-over-year by over half from 53 per cent in 2017 to 24 per cent last year. All eight equity segments saw their ratios worsen from 2017 to 2018.
‘Equity Germany’
