Funds
The Preqin All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark generated 2.18 per cent in January. This is the strongest start to a calendar year since 2013 (+3.49 per cent) and the highest return in a single calendar month since July 2016 (+2.24 per cent).
All top level strategies, trading styles, and geographical focuses posted positive monthly returns, demonstrating a superb month for hedge funds.
Equity strategies continued to lead the pack in January (+2.78 per cent) taking the 12 month return of the strategy to 16.20 per cent, significantly outstripping that of other top level strategies by over five percentage points.
In line with the broader hedge fund market, Alternative UCITS funds profited from the rising volatility in fixed income and equity markets towards the end of the month. The LuxHedge Global Alternative UCITS index advanced with +0.93 per cent, the largest monthly gain since October of 2015.
January is an especially interesting month to look at asset flows since most large institutions revise their strategic asset allocations. With fixed income yields at historical lows and elevated equity valuations, investors are increasingly looking for alternative return streams. Allocations to Alternative UCITS funds grew considerably and Assets under Management for the total
The flash estimate for the Barclay CTA Index, compiled by BarclayHedge, indicates a 2.61 per cent gain in January. All of Barclay’s CTA indices enjoyed a positive return in January.
“A seemingly nonstop rally in US equities that extended into its fifteenth consecutive month, coupled with continued price increases in gold, crude oil, and US Treasury yields provided a favourable trading environment for trend-following funds in January,” says Sol Waksman (pictured), founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Diversified Traders gained 4.14 per cent to start the year, Systematic Traders were up 3.28 per cent, Financials/Metals Traders gained 2.21 per cent,
A growing number of Jersey-registered fund managers are opting to future-proof their strategies and market into Europe through national private placement regimes (NPPRs) under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), according to the latest figures from Jersey’s regulator, the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC).
As at December 2017, 149 alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) had been authorised in Jersey to market into Europe through NPPRs, up 17 per cent compared to December 2016, clearly highlighting that the use of private placement continues to work well as a means of marketing funds into the EU.
Over the same period,
Cryptocurrencies have been a hot button topic among investors over the last 12 months but amid all the hype, the key question is: Is this a de facto asset class? Or merely an exotic star that will burn brightly only to end in a spectacular supernova? Just look at what has happened to the price of bitcoin in recent days.
It is a subject that generates differing opinions and will feature at next month’s Amsterdam Investor Forum, a leading forum for institutional investors and alternative investment managers in the EMEA region, which will be held on 6 and 7 March 2018 in
All Societe Generale CTA indices posted positive performance in January. In fact, this has been the best start to a year since 2016, with 80 per cent of the CTA index constituents in positive territory. The strong performance has been led by trend followers.
The Trend Index was up 5.85 per cent, the best month return for the index since November 2014. Short term strategies also made large gains; January was recorded as the best month ever for the Short-Term Traders Index, which was up 5.77 per cent.
Trend followers continued to ride on the upward trends in equities
Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO) has launched PAAMCO Alternative Beta, the latest tool in the firm’s suite of institutional liquid alpha solutions.
PAAMCO Alternative Beta offers a portfolio of alternative risk premia diversified across strategies, asset classes and implementations. It aims to have little directionality to traditional markets at a lower cost than traditional hedge fund investments. PAAMCO views PAAMCO Alt Beta as building on the firm’s long experience in assessing systematic drivers of hedge fund returns and we believe it leverages the firm’s risk modelling capabilities.
Lisa Fridman, CFA, CQF and Philippe Jorion, PhD are Co-Heads of PAAMCO
LRI Group, an independent investment services company, has partnered with QC Partners to launch its VolatilityIncome fund.
QC Partners, a Frankfurt based asset management company, has launched the fund in response to the current market environment, with derivative markets signalling increasing volatility on the stock market.
The fund will generate interest payments on bonds and will principally focus on attractive returns by collecting option premiums. It seeks a long-term earnings target of 8-10 per cent per year. Through the specialisation in derivatives and volatility strategies, the company more than doubled its assets under management over the past 24 months
The gross return of the SS&C GlobeOp Hedge Fund Performance Index for January 2018 measured 2.99 per cent.
Hedge fund flows as measured by the SS&C GlobeOp Capital Movement Index meanwhile, advanced 0.92 per cent in February.
“SS&C GlobeOp’s Capital Movement Index for February 2018 showed net flows of 0.92 per cent, an increase from the 0.51 per cent gain reported for the same period a year ago for February 2017,” says Bill Stone (pictured), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, SS&C Technologies. “This favourable result is consistent with other recent indicators showing that 2018 is off to a strong start for the hedge fund
Asian hedge funds posted strong gains in 2017, with the HFRI China Index topping the Shanghai Composite Index by the widest margin in a calendar year since Index inception in 2008, according to the latest HFR Asian Hedge Fund Industry Report.
The HFRI China Index gained 31.1 per cent in 2017 versus 6.6 per cent for the Shanghai Composite. That strong outperformance carried over into January 2018, as the HFRI China Index vaulted 7.3 per cent, versus the +5.3 per cent return of the Shanghai Composite. By way of comparison, the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index, which includes hedge fund
