Funds
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
The average daily transaction value on the Euronext cash order book stood at EUR7,773 million in January 2018, up 20.4 per cent compared to January 2017, and stable from the previous month.
The average daily transaction value on ETFs order book was EUR286 million, up +16.9 per cent compared to January 2017 and up +5.6 per cent from the previous month. At the end of January 2018, 808 ETFs were listed on Euronext compared to 804 at the end of 2017.
From January 2018, volumes on ETFs are only measured on order book activity due to low revenue-impact of off-book
EEX Group outlined a programme of innovations for the energy and commodity markets of the future at the E-world energy & water conference in Essen.
Four of the Group’s Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) took part in the press event discussing how EEX Group’s series of innovative projects meets the challenges and opportunities posed by the increasing importance of decarbonisation, digitalisation and decentralisation.

“As EEX Group we are committed to providing our customers with tailor-made solutions that help to shape the future. Our series of innovations is shaped by the major trends of decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitalisation, which will undoubtedly transform
Cboe FX saw record spot average daily volume (ADV) of USD42.6 billion in January, surpassing its previous record of USD38.2 billion ADV set in September 2014. Cboe FX’s London matching engine reached record ADV of USD9.1 billion in January, up 263 per cent from January 2017.
In addition, the Cboe Periodic Auctions book reported a record month of volume, trading more than EUR6.5 billion during January. Cboe LIS, a European large-in-scale block trading platform powered by BIDS technology, reported another record month in January with more than EUR4.5 billion traded on the platform.
Trading of options on the Cboe
GCM Grosvenor has completed the final close of its Secondary Opportunities Fund II (GSF II) with USD700 million in committed capital. GSF II, which held its first close in May of 2017, reached its hard cap.
Fund investors include public and Taft-Hartley pension plans, financial institutions, healthcare systems and endowments, in the US, Europe and Asia.
GSF II will acquire interests in private funds through secondary market transactions, with a focus on transactions of less than USD50 million average deal size. GSF II will target funds oriented toward small and middle market buyout, special situation, growth equity, infrastructure and real
PhaseCapital, the new York-based quantitative investment firm backed by Jim Pallotta, has launched its first mutual fund offering, PhaseCapital Dynamic Multi-Asset Growth Fund (PHDIX).
The new fund follows the firm’s existing strategy, and primarily seeks to create long-term capital growth for advisors and their investors while at the same time providing protection for capital during periods of extreme market stress.
Combining advanced technology and innovative data analytics with proven financial market expertise, the PhaseCapital Dynamic Multi-Asset Growth Fund invests across global equity, commodities, government bond and corporate credit markets with its exposure to these asset classes achieved primarily through
The Lyxor HFI receded this week, mainly due to CTAs and Global Macro funds, according to the latest Weekly Brief from Lyxor’s Cross Asset Research team. They were dragged by their long in equities and energy, though their losses were mitigated by other buckets.
By contrast, L/S Neutral funds were resilient, as well as the Event Driven funds which were little impacted by the equity correction.
L/S Equity Neutral funds were in positive territories, they were not caught in the multiple sector rotations that unfolded.
These turned out to be rather sector than factor driven. Long momentum stock
By Don Steinbrugge (pictured), Agecroft Partners – On Friday the Dow Jones Industrial average fell 665 points causing many investors to wonder if the nine-year bull market has come to an end. History has proven that most investors are terrible at predicting the direction of the market. To do so successfully requires two correct decisions: when to get out and when to get back in. Investors’ emotions often drive their investment decisions. As a result, they typically buy near market peaks and exit near market bottoms.
Major corrections in the capital markets are a risk that investors must always consider. Experience shows
