Funds
It’s fair to say that Optima Fund Management has seen a lot of change in the hedge fund industry, given that it is preparing to celebrate its 30th anniversary; an achievement few hedge fund firms can lay claim to.
Since Dixon Boardman founded the New York-based firm in 1988, it has steered a steady course. It has continued to evolve in line with market trends so as to unearth the best hedge fund talent, which feature in a range of multi-manager funds, the first of which, a long/short equity FoFs, has been running since the year of Optima’s inception.
“Despite all
Euronext has expanded its ‘Federal model’ with the acquisition of 100 per cent of the shares and voting rights of The Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) for EUR137 million.
The acquisition is in line with Euronext’s long term strategy, and sees Ireland become its sixth core European country. Euronext intends to position ISE as centre of excellence for the Group in the listing of debt, funds and ETFs.
Stéphane Boujnah (pictured), Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Managing Board of Euronext, says: “The Irish Stock Exchange joining Euronext represents a major milestone in the expansion of Euronext’s federal model since its IPO.
The Boston Partners Global Long/Short Strategy, a diversified equity fund that seeks long-term growth of capital while minimising exposure to general equity market risk, has now been added to Goldman Sachs’ Serviced Platform SICAV (UCITS).
The Fund takes long positions in undervalued stocks and short positions in names identified as being overvalued.
The fund is managed by Senior Portfolio Manager Christopher Hart and Portfolio Manager Joshua Jones. Hart oversees all of Boston Partners’ Global Equity and International Equity products, while Jones leads the Boston Partners investment team operating from the firm’s London office.
“Boston Partners has nearly two
The State Street Investor Confidence Index (ICI) for November 2017 decreased to 97.1, down 1.0 point from October’s revised reading of 98.1.
The minor decline in global sentiment was driven largely by a 12.0 point drop in the European ICI to 81.0. By contrast, the North American ICI rose by 3.7 points to 102.6 and the Asian ICI increased by 1.0 point to 97.5.
The Investor Confidence Index was developed by Kenneth Froot (pictured), and Paul O’Connell at State Street Associates, State Street Global Exchange’s research and advisory services business. It measures investor confidence or risk appetite quantitatively by
Pricing volatility in currency and energy markets has created a challenging performance environment for CTAs in 2017 so far, according to data released by Preqin.
As at the end of September, the Preqin All-Strategies CTA benchmark has recorded year-to-date losses of 0.04 per cent, compared to gains of 8.04 per cent for the All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark. Trend followers, which represent the largest group of CTAs, have lost 1.62 per cent YTD .
In contrast, option writing CTAs, which represent one in 10 active funds, have gained 7.63 per cent through the year so far. Similarly, systematic CTAs have
Harvest Capital Strategies, the asset management subsidiary of investment banking and alternative asset management firm JMP Group, has made a minority investment in Astor Investment Management, a Chicago-based registered investment advisor with USD1.9 billion of assets under management.
Astor’s approach to asset allocation is driven by macroeconomic theory, utilising a broad range of asset classes with low correlation to the broader market. The firm offers its products through a variety of channels, including mutual funds, separately managed accounts and universal managed accounts.
“We are very optimistic about our long-term partnership with the team at Astor,” says KC Lynch, president
Key findings from Swiss exchange SIX’s survey of Traders include the fact that 88 per cent of traders have seen a shift from active towards passive investing and 72 per cent expect the level of passive investing to rise further next year.
The exchange says that cost pressures and increased regulation continue to fuel the rise of passive investing. More than 85 per cent of traders expect a rise in passive investing could provoke change in global markets, but only 40 per cent see this development as positive for their companies.
Regulation, such as MiFID II, will be by far
After a string of strong performances this year, some hedge fund investors may be doing a bit of profit-taking, with redemptions of -USD2.9 billion from hedge funds in October, according to the eVestment October 2017 Hedge Fund Asset Flows Report.
However, performance gains continued pushing industry assets under management (AUM) up, with industry AUM at a record USD3.253 trillion according to the new report.
The proportion of funds losing assets in October was similar to the proportion seen in September, roughly 54 per cent. Both levels are higher than any other month of 2017, but again net redemptions were
The latest Weekly Brief from Lyxor’s Cross Asset team takes a look at how hedge funds view the current state of Brexit negotiations, and as with just about everything to do with the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the picture is less than clear.
Lyxor writes: “Amid intensifying negotiations on Brexit, we assessed hedge funds’ views on UK assets. The sixth round of negotiations ended with limited progress. The EU and the UK have yet to agree on the exit terms before negotiating the future trade relationship. The multiple fractures in the UK (across political forces, business interests, regional powers)
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) has published the calendar for the auctioning of EU emission allowances (EUA) for 2018 in coordination with the European Commission and the participating member states as well as with the competent German authorities.
EEX will carry out EUA auctions on behalf of 25 member states on three days per week in the framework of the common EU auction platform. These auctions are scheduled to take place on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays during the period of 8 January to 17 December 2018.
In its capacity as the auction platform appointed by the Federal Republic of
