Funds
AlphaClone has launched of the AlphaClone International Downside Hedged Index, which is designed to give investors access to the investment ideas of the world’s most established hedge funds, while simultaneously hedging against protracted market downturns.
The index follows the same proprietary Clone Score methodology used by AlphaClone’s flagship AlphaClone Hedge Fund Downside Hedged Index, which has approximately USD170 million in assets currently tracking the index, and has returned an average of 14.35 per cent per year versus 12.40 per cent for the S&P 500 Total Return Index over the three-year period ending 9/30/2015.
Earlier in the year, the firm
Risk solutions provider NetOTC has launched NetOTC Bilateral, an end-to-end bilateral market infrastructure for the margining of non-cleared OTC derivatives.
NetOTC Bilateral is connecting to Euroclear’s Collateral Highway in an effort to answer the market demand for greater transparency, resilience and addressing the market need for funding, capital and operational cost efficiencies.
From September 2016, the mandatory exchange of Initial Margin (IM) comes into effect. NetOTC Bilateral is a sophisticated IM solution that goes beyond the calculation and calling of standard two-way margining.
NetOTC Bilateral is offered as a dedicated service that works with existing service providers. Robust collateral segregation,
Average daily volume (ADV) at the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) was down 28 per cent from September 2015 and 44 per cent from October 2014's record-setting volume totals.
However, on a year-to-date basis through October, volume was up 2 per cent, compared with the same period last year.
Total volume in futures on the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX Index) for October was 4.0 million contracts, down 24 per cent from September 2015 and down 46 per cent from October 2014, when VIX Index futures set monthly and daily volume records. October VIX futures' ADV was 181,562 contracts.
Exchange-wide ADV at
Digital Realty Trust is partnering with Aqua Comms Limited to deploy its new transatlantic fibre optic system, America Europe Connect (AEConnect).
Spanning more than 5,400 kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean, between Long Island and the west coast of Ireland, with stubbed branching units for future landings, AEConnect is currently expected to be available in Digital Realty’s data centre at 32 Avenue of the Americas by the end of 2015, and the company plans to expand availability to its two other New York facilities at 111 8th Avenue and 60 Hudson Street as well. The subsea cable features the latest technology of
KPMG has acquired from G2 FinTech (G2), a boutique tax technology firm that specialises in tax analysis and compliance software for the investment management community, all of its United States tax software and intellectual property, including G2’s flagship product, TaxGopher.
G2 will remain a separate entity with a continuing business post-closing. A majority of G2’s development team will join KPMG’s Tax Transformation and Technology Practice, enabling KPMG to enhance its capabilities to assist hedge funds with their tax compliance needs.
A majority of G2’s development team will join KPMG’s Tax Transformation and Technology practice, enabling the firm to enhance
Cordium, a provider of compliance consulting and software solutions to the financial services industry, has launched a new electronic communications review service.
As technology advances and communication channels become the new standard, electronic communication oversight and document retention has become broader and more closely scrutinised. It is now necessary for both RIAs and Broker Dealers to monitor emails, instant messages, and other means of office communication in order to adhere to numerous regulatory requirements and stay consistent with a culture of compliance. Cordium’s electronic communications review service offers a streamlined solution for investment firms.
The new service offers a
Law firm Simmons & Simmons has launched a new practical online tool for its clients in the financial institutions and asset management sectors to help guide them through the steps that need to be taken for MiFID2/MiFIR compliance.
Simmons & Simmons MiFID2 Manager sets out key information on how a particular MiFID2/MiFIR requirement applies to different types of firms, to what services or activities, and to different client types. It focuses on the EU Level 1, 2 and 3 text as well as local implementation/gold plating issues in the UK and other key EU jurisdictions. There will be different versions
Man AHL, Man Group’s diversified quantitative investment manager, has launched the Man AHL Coder Prize, a coding competition for students aged 16 and over with a top prize of GBP5,000.
The first ever Man AHL Coder Prize will launch on 1 December, and is open to UK & Ireland residents in full-time education. Entrants will be tasked with writing code, using the Python programming language, to control a player for the classic game Hexplode. Python is a widely used programming language, which Man AHL utilises for its systematic models.
To encourage a diverse range of entrants, including those attempting
October saw hedge funds delivering returns close to 2 per cent on the back of a renewed sense of market optimism. Event-Driven and Global Macro strategies outperformed, up 2.5 and 3 per cent respectively. CTAs, which were up 2.7 per cent last week, underperformed for the full month of October as they failed to capture the market rebound.
Fund performance and industry dry powder is analysed in this extract from the Preqin Quarterly Update: Private Debt, Q3 2015.
Fig 1 displays the median proportions of committed capital called up by the end of the first and second investment years, among all private debt funds for vintage years 2006-2014. It shows that post-2008, the median proportion of capital called up during the first two years of investment is lower than before the financial crisis. This could be explained by recent fundraising success pushing up dry powder levels at a faster rate than available deals in a competitive marketplace.
