Funds
Purdue University's Center for Commercial Agriculture and the derivatives marketplace CME Group are partnering to produce the Purdue/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer, a monthly nationwide measure of the health of the US agricultural economy.
The introduction of this new economic indicator underscores the importance of the agricultural economy and its participants – food producers and agribusinesses – to the overall US and global economies, Purdue and CME Group said Tuesday (May 3) in announcing the partnership.
"Agriculture is a critical component of the global economy and has been the cornerstone of CME Group's business for nearly 170 years," says CME
Hatteras Funds, a provider of alternative investment solutions for Financial Advisors and their clients, has restructured its Managed Futures Strategies Fund (HMFIX) to provide greater transparency and reduce overall fund expenses for investors.
Hatteras has cut fees by 20 per cent bringing the total overall expense ratio to 1.99 per cent for the I shares.
The Hatteras Managed Futures Strategies Fund (HMFIX) is a multi-manager solution that offers Financial Advisors and their clients a portfolio diversification tool with the benefits of low correlation to traditional stocks and bonds. The Fund provides access to two experienced investment managers, ROW Asset Management
One year after launch, the RWC Nissay Japan Focus Fund has delivered significant outperformance versus the index generating +7.2 per cent for its investors versus the TOPIX’s decline of -11.7 per cent, making it the third best performing fund out of 265 within the Lipper Japan UCITS peer group.
The fund is an actively managed portfolio of Japanese equities with a strong focus on active engagement with those companies. Through positive and constructive shareholder engagement, the team aims to help boards unlock value and so generate alpha within the fund.
Management teams in Japan are seeing increased scrutiny on
CME Group’s April 2016 volume averaged 13.8 million contracts per day, up 21 per cent from April 2015.
CME Group April 2016 options volume averaged 2.6 million contracts per day, up 15 per cent versus April 2015, with electronic options averaging 1.6 million contracts per day, up 31 per cent over the same period last year. Total open interest at the end of April was 110 million contracts, up 20 per cent from year-end 2015.
Interest rate volume averaged 5.5 million contracts per day in April 2016, up 8 per cent from April 2015, while equity index volume averaged
Three out of six of the MVIS suite of investable Long/Short Equity Indices recorded positive performance in April.
Each index is constructed using transparent, liquid ETFs and US Treasury securities to produce hedge fund-style returns without hedge fund pricing, opaqueness and redemption restrictions.
The MVIS Global Event Long/Short Equity Index led the way with a return of 0.42 per cent, followed by the MVIS Western Europe Long/Short Equity Index (0.39 per cent) and the MVIS Emerging Markets Long/Short Equity Index (0.31 per cent).
The month’s biggest loser was the MVIS Global Long/Short Equity Index with a return of -0.51 per
Nir Regev’s Regev Group, which is based in Missouri, has joined DFPG Investments, a national independent broker-dealer and RIA.
"We are very pleased that Nir identified the fit with our firm," says DFPG's CEO, Mike Bendix. "Nir brings a lot of value to DFPG, not the least of which is his stellar reputation and respect from so many industry peers and partners."
Nir Regev (pictured) says: "Part of the draw to DFPG was the established expertise they provide relating to alternative products, which I consider important to my practice. But the tipping point for me was DFPG's people. I recognised
CME Group is to collaborate with Crypto Facilities Ltd, a digital assets trading platform, to develop the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR), which will provide a final settlement price in US dollars at 4 pm London time on each trading day, and CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index (RTI), which will allow users real-time access to bitcoin prices.
Both new products are expected to launch in the fourth quarter of 2016.
The BRR will aggregate the trade flow of major bitcoin spot exchanges during a specific calculation window into a once-a-day, transparent reference rate of the US dollar price
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued two Opinions proposing amendments to its draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTSs) under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and Regulation (MiFIR).
ESMA proposes to revise the RTS on non-equity transparency – which includes requirements in respect of bonds, structured finance products, emission allowances and derivatives – and the RTS on the methodology for the calculation and application of position limits for commodity derivatives. The Opinions were produced in response to proposed amendments by the European Commission to these draft RTSs.
MiFID II will extend transparency requirements to
UnaVista, London Stock Exchange Group’s global regulatory reporting platform, has partnered with regulatory reporting testing and compliance firm, Kaizen Reporting giving UnaVista clients access to Kaizen Reporting’s ReportShield service, which offers quality assurance testing of MiFID transaction reports at a field level,
as well as governance training and consultancy. UnaVista’s market leading Approved Reporting Mechanism (ARM) already provides clients with advanced validation checks to ensure submitted data is valid. Kaizen Reporting’s ReportShield testing service, combined with UnaVista’s Reconciliation service, will allow firms to test the quality of their source data for valid but incorrect information. Firms can then correct the
Up to 50 per cent of remaining investor assets will likely leave US prime money market funds ahead of major regulatory reforms in October, says Moody's Investors Service. However, demand for euro prime funds is expected to be resilient despite record low yields.
Total assets in the ten largest Moody's-rated offshore US Dollar prime funds fell 10 per cent in 1Q 2016 as investors sought out higher yielding opportunities for their cash following year-end.
"We expect US prime fund managers to limit investments in securities with maturities past October as they proceed cautiously in anticipation of the switch to floating
