Funds
Hedge funds were off to a good start in the first month of 2018, with the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index up 2.26 per cent in January. Among volatility-focused hedge funds though, short volatility hedge funds posted the worst performance in January 2018, down 3.30 per cent, their biggest loss since August 2015.
Long volatility and relative value hedge funds meanwhile, gained a modest 0.01 per cent and 0.16 per cent over the same period.
Underlying markets as represented by the MSCI AC World Index (Local) gained 3.78 per cent over the same period.
As the global risk on
The Lyxor CTA index underperformed last week, losing 3.9 per cent, according to the latest Weekly Brief from Lyxor’s Cross Asset Research team. But several managers had already started to cut leverage ahead of last week’s market turmoil and managed to limit losses.
The performance of a sample ranges from -2 per cent to -15 per cent since early February. Most funds are now in negative territory YTD. L/S Equity funds also suffered a 2.2 per cent drawdown last week.
Lyxor writes: “On a positive note, merger arbitrage fared very well and matched expectations regarding their ability to deliver
LRI Group, an independent investment services company, has partnered with M17 Capital Management, a Swiss based investment company, to launch its European Market Neutral UCITS Fund.
Following several pension funds and institutions as anchor investors, the fund is aimed at institutional investors, pension funds, family offices and high-net worth individuals (HNWI) predominantly in Germany, Switzerland, UK and Scandinavia. To date, the fund has obtained investor commitments of close to EUR191 million.
The fund invests with a fundamental approach in a market neutral concentrated portfolio of 30-60 positions with a European bias and targets a return of 10-15 per cent
Cboe Global Markets has reported a record week of trading activity with several single-day records across the company’s exchanges and products set between 2 February 8 February.
Trading of options on the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) at Cboe Options Exchange set three single-day volume records within the week, with a new all-time high of 4.34 million contracts on Friday, 2 February, 2018, followed by 4.19 million contracts on 6 February and 3.55 million contracts on 5 February . These records surpass the previous single-day record of 3.1 million contracts on 1 December, 2017.
Trading of VIX futures at Cboe
Total Singapore Exchange securities market value was at SGD29.4 billion in January, up 53 per cent month-on-month (m-o-m) and up 40 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), over 22 trading days. There were 20 trading days in December 2017 and 20 in January 2017.
Securities daily average value (SDAV) was SGD1.3 billion, up 39 per cent m-o-m and up 28 per cent y-o-y.
Market turnover value of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) meanwhile, was SGD253 million, up 27 per cent m-o-m and down 13 per cent y-o-y, while market turnover value of structured warrants and Daily Leveraged Certificates (DLCs) was SGD1.4 billion,
NextWave Ventures, a venture-capital firm specialising in the commercialisation of early-stage technologies, today formed Apical Technology, a portfolio of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
Advanced by Ron St Onge and Jim St Onge, Apical is the result of nearly 20 years of research in optimising AI-based solutions to non-linear systems. With significant real-world predictive results in market behaviour, NextWave Ventures identified an initial opportunity to use the Apical AI-based software platform for equities trading. Apical’s strategies utilise AI and machine learning to generate superior risk-adjusted returns that are non-correlated to both major asset classes and other hedge fund strategies.
“Apical
RMB Asset Management, in partnership with Mendon Capital, has launched a new global long/short financial strategy.
The new strategy requires a minimum investment of USD250,000 and is an extension of Mendon’s current US financial strategy, which is also offered in two mutual fund vehicles. Anton Schutz and Russell Echlov will serve as co-portfolio managers on the new global long/short strategy.
“The timing of this launch is deliberate. The rest of the world has been much slower to recover from the financial crisis than the US, but we’re now seeing a synchronised uptick in global growth,” says Richard M Burridge,
Hedge funds surged at the start of 2018 as equity markets turned in the strongest January since 1997, despite equity, currency and fixed income market volatility building into month-end.
The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index gained 2.8 per cent for the month, the strongest monthly return since December 2010 and the best January return since 2006. The gain extended the streak of consecutive monthly gains to 15 and lifted the record Index Value to 14,465, according to data released today by HFR, the established global leader in the indexation, analysis and research of the global hedge fund industry.
While
Ocorian, a global provider of specialist financial services backed by private equity firm Inflexion, is to acquire ABAX, an advisory, corporate and business services provider based in Mauritius.
The acquisition will significantly extend Ocorian’s service range and delivery capability into Africa, Asia and the Middle East and swell its international team to 700 plus staff – including additional representation in Côte d’Ivoire, Dubai, Mauritius, Singapore and South Africa.
In turn, ABAX clients will now be able to access a much wider range of specialist alternative investment, corporate and private client services, across both onshore and offshore locations in Europe
The European Energy Exchange (EEX), Saxo Bank and PZEM Energy have partnered to offer German Power CFDs (Contracts for Differences) on Saxo’s fully integrated trading and risk management platform, SaxoTraderGO.
Saxo’s new German Power CFD will be linked exclusively to prices established in EEX’s Phelix-DE orderbook and will cover both Phelix-DE Base and Peak Futures with monthly, quarterly and yearly expiries.
Through the cooperation with Saxo Bank and PZEM Energy (who will act as market maker for the German Power CFD’s on the Saxo platform), a new and broader range of potential trading participants will now have access to EEX’s
