Funds
Hedge Funds lost 1.53 per cent in February according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge, versus a 3.69 per cent decline in the S&P 500 Total Return Index. Year to date, the Barclay Index remains up 0.52 per cent, but lags the S&P which has gained 1.83 per cent.
“Reports of increasing wages, a strengthening economy, and job growth in the US stoked inflation fears and set the stage for the Dow’s decline of 1,175 points on 5 February, its worst ever single-day loss,” says Sol Waksman (pictured), founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Thirteen of Barclay’s 17 hedge
Since the trough of the recent sell-off, L/S Equity funds have outperformed other hedge fund strategies, according to the latest Weekly Brief from Lyxor’s Cross Asset Research team.
Their cautious stance since the end of January led them to partially catch up the rebound. Nonetheless, it allowed the most directional managers to alleviate the impact of the sell-off.
Relative Value Arbitrage managers demonstrated again their ability to perform well in a rising bond yields environment. Fixed Income and Credit managers were resilient to the market downturn in February, similar to that of credit markets. They also remained isolated from
SS&C Technologies Holdings is to acquire CACEIS North America, the fund administration business of CACEIS based in Toronto and New York. The acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018.
“We welcome the clients and skilled professionals of CACEIS North America. This acquisition further enhances the depth of our teams and our servicing capability in the Toronto and New York markets,” says Bill Stone (pictured), Chairman and CEO.
CACEIS is known for its leading fund administration services and support for complex investment strategies. The acquisition will add 65 employees,
Cowen Inc’s prime services division, Cowen Prime Services, has been named Best Global Prime Broker for the third consecutive year at the 2018 Hedgeweek Global Awards.
The award is based on a peer review system whereby Hedgeweek’s readers, including institutional and high net worth investors, as well as hedge fund managers and other industry professionals at fund administrators, prime brokers, custodians, and advisers, are invited to elect a ‘best in class’ in a series of categories via an online survey.
Jack D Seibald (pictured), Global Co-Head of Prime Brokerage Services, says: “It is gratifying to be recognised again by
2017 was an exceptional year for the European investment fund industry, with net assets of UCITS and AIF surpassing the EUR15 trillion mark, according to the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) latest Quarterly Statistical Release.
Net assets of UCITS increased by 12 per cent to EUR9,714 billion. Of the largest UCITS domiciles, Ireland recorded the largest net asset increases in 2017 (15.9 per cent), followed by Luxembourg (11.9 per cent), the UK (11.6 per cent), and France (9.8 per cent). Elsewhere in Europe, net asset growth greater than 20 per cent was recorded in Belgium, Bulgaria Cyprus, Czechia, Hungary, Malta, Poland and
Markov Processes International (MPI) has launched a hedge fund index business line that will aim to provide investors with improved benchmarks for measuring hedge fund performance.
MPI recently partnered with BarclayHedge to create the MPI Barclay Elite Systematic Traders Index (Bloomberg: MPBEST20), which seeks to capture the returns of the 20 largest systematic hedge funds reporting into BarclayHedge. The MPBEST20 is paired with the MPI BEST 20 Tracker Index (Bloomberg: MBEST20T). This index pair was launched on March 1.
“We are delighted to be working with MPI to launch the MPBEST20 Index,” says Sol Waksman, President at BarclayHedge. “We’ve
Following a strong start to the year, February has been challenging for CTAs, with all Societe Generale CTA Indices finishing the month in negative territory.
The Short-Term Traders Index was down 4.29 per cent but remains positive YTD, up 1.19 per cent. Conditions were particularly difficult for trend-followers which were down 8.96 per cent, the worst monthly return since 2003 and the third worst since the inception in 2000. The Trend Index outperformed the Trend Indicator by 2.30 per cent in February.
The upward trends in Equity indices experienced steep reversals, leading to losses of 5.47 per cent in
PostFinance, one of the leading retail financial institutions in Switzerland, is a new shareholder of SIX, the operator of the Swiss financial market infrastructure. SIX’s shareholder base of now includes 127 banks and all significant participants of the Swiss financial centre.
SIX operates the infrastructure of the Swiss financial centre, catering to a broad, international client base. The core business focus is on infrastructure services for shareholders and on the financial sector in the areas of securities, payment transactions and financial information.
SIX was formed in 2008 through the merger of SWX Group, SIS Group and Telekurs Group. The
Hedge fund performance fell in February as global equities declined, ending a streak of fifteen consecutive monthly gains for the broad-based HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index.
The HFRI FWC declined 1.8 per cent for the month, led by losses in quantitative, trend-following CTA strategies, though all main strategy areas experienced losses for the month, according to figures released by HFR.
The February decline was the largest since January 2016 and pares the Index Value to 14,134, ending a streak of fourteen consecutive record monthly index levels. Inclusive of the February performance, the HFRI FWC has gained 0.5 per cent
Ogier has assisted Bletchley Park Asset Management (BPAM) as legal counsel on the launch of its first cryptocurrency fund.
BPAM was founded by Lewis Fellas, a former portfolio manager at the Harvard Management Company, and Ronnie Potel, formerly an executive for Morgan Stanley.
The Fund, structured as a Cayman Islands master feeder fund structure and registered with CIMA, is credited with being one of the few institutional quality cryptocurrency funds at the time of its launch.
Ogier partners Kate Hodson (pictured), and Emily Haithwaite advised on the Cayman and Jersey law elements of the launch respectively.
Hodson and
