Funds
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) is to expand trading in dairy products with a Liquid Milk Future, on 15 August 2018, becoming the first exchange in Europe to offer such a product in the process.
So far, EEX offers trading with futures on butter, skimmed milk powder and whey powder.
The contract volume is 25,000 kilogrammes. For the financial settlement of the new product EEX uses the “EEX European Liquid Milk Index”. This index is equally composed of milk prices from Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland. The prices are based on the European Commission’s “Milk Market Observatory” in
The flash estimate for the Barclay CTA Index, compiled by BarclayHedge, indicates a 0.34 per cent loss in March. Year to date, the Index is down 1.71 per cent.
“Concerns of a US/China trade war and a data hacking scandal at Facebook helped fuel a second month of declines in global equities and a flight to quality that drove fixed income yields lower,” says Sol Waksman (pictured), founder and president of BarclayHedge.
The Financials and Metals Traders Index was down 0.71 per cent in March, Diversified Traders lost 0.55 per cent, and Systematic Traders gave up 0.50 per cent.
Neudata has secured a new USD600,000 round of financing from a consortium of investors which includes all of the firm’s previous investors, as well as new investors, including the founder of a hedge fund research and data business.
Dr Robert Benson, investor, says: “I’m delighted to follow on my investment in Neudata, Neudata has developed at a rapid rate over the last 18 months, carving out its leading position within the alternative data space. This new investment round will enable the company to continue developing its well-respected existing product offerings, while creating important new services.”
Rado Lipuš (pictured), Founder
Hedge funds were down 0.13 per cent at the end of Q1 2018 – their worst quarterly showing since Q1 2016, according to the April 2018 Eurekahedge Report.
Industry assets meanwhile expanded by USD31.1 billion over the quarter, largely on account of investor subscriptions which stand at USD31.8 billion since the start of 2018.
The USD256.0 billion CTA/managed futures mandated hedge fund industry has seen its asset base contract by USD13.5 billion year-to-date, with managers witnessing the highest performance-based losses of USD12.6 billion among strategic mandates for Q1 2018, while investor redemptions stood at USD0.9 billion over the same
SS&C Technologies Holdings, a provider of financial services software and software-enabled services, has completed the acquisition of DST Systems, a global strategic advisory, technology, and operations outsourcing company.
The addition of DST’s financial services and healthcare businesses provides SS&C with additional scale and breadth across institutional, alternative, wealth management and healthcare segments. SS&C will manage approximately 13,000 global clients and delivered pro forma 2017 revenue of approximately USD3.9 billion.
“We are pleased to move forward as one company following the combination of two highly complementary market leaders,” says Bill Stone (pictured), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SS&C. “Our
The market rebound supported the hedge fund industry last week, according to the latest Weekly Brief from Lyxor’s Cross Asset Research team, with CTAs recovering strongly thanks to the rise in oil prices and US Treasury bond yields.
Overall, models remained moderately exposed to major asset classes amid depressed trend-following conditions. They now hold neutral exposures to equities.
L/S Market Neutral funds also delivered healthy returns last week as momentum stocks recovered. The outperformance of growth vs value stocks helped the strategy outperform year-to-date. Directional strategies such as Special Situations are also up month-to-date, while Merger Arbitrage funds were
IHS Markit, a specialist in information, analytics and solutions, has acquired DeriveXperts, a provider of valuation services for OTC derivatives and other complex financial securities.
The acquisition complements and enhances the existing derivatives data and valuations businesses at IHS Markit.
“IHS Markit strives to be the best source of independent valuations of OTC derivatives and other complex financial assets and this expansion shows our commitment to providing customers with exceptional coverage and quality,” says Gianluca Biagini, managing director for derivatives data and valuation services at IHS Markit. “DeriveXperts brings us a skilled team and a high-quality service that extends
The Saemor Europe Alpha Fund was up 3.0 per cent in March, lifting the year-to-date returns to 1.5 per cent.
Saemor says gains were broad-based as its defensive positioning worked well in the risk-off environment.
“Factor clusters where we had added weight through our slowdown stance since mid-February performed well. Earnings Momentum, Profitability and Stability all showed attractive return spreads, while our key underweight in Cyclical Value fared poorly,” writes Saemor. “After an initial market correction in February, where high-risk stocks held up well, investors gradually started positioning themselves for more volatility, with Low versus High Beta the best
The Berens Capital Management team and their funds are to become become part of Alternative Investment Group on 1 June. Berens Capital Management is a global asset manager known for its high-quality research and focus on emerging and frontier markets.
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
The transaction will position the combined team as a leader in emerging markets multi-manager investing, with Berens Capital Management’s emerging and frontier markets expertise complementing Alternative Investment Group’s longstanding strengths in US and international long/short equity, credit, mortgages, event-driven and sustainability/ESG strategies. The transaction will increase Alternative Investment Group’s assets under management
The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Index, which provides a representative baseline for how the broad liquid alternative investment category performs, returned 0.40 per cent in March, and -0.99 per cent for the first quarter in 2018.
Both returns underperformed the -0.98 per cent monthly return and -1.02 per cent quarterly return of the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index.
The Wilshire Liquid Alternative Index family is a joint offering between Wilshire Funds Management, the global investment management business unit of Wilshire Associates Incorporated, and Wilshire Analytics, creator of the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index.
“With a significant increase in volatility,
