Funds
Both new hedge fund launches and liquidations declined through mid-year 2015 as financial market volatility increased and HFRI performance topped equity markets through 1H15.
New hedge fund launches totalled 252 in 2Q15, a narrow decline from 264 in the prior quarter but a slight YoY increase over the 2Q14 launch total of 240 new funds, according to the latest HFR Market Microstructure Report. With a total of 516 funds launched in 1H15, the number of new launches is on pace for its lowest level since 2010. As previously reported by HFR, total global hedge fund capital increased to a record
Drawing on data compiled for the recently-released 2015 Preqin Alternative Assets Performance Monitor, Preqin has created league tables of hedge funds that have most consistently delivered strong, stable performance. The league tables do not seek in any way to endorse these funds, but rather to illustrate those that have performed the most consistently over the period June 2010 – June 2015. Seven top-level strategies are represented – Equity, Macro, Event Driven, Credit, Relative Value, Multi-Strategy, and CTA – with all of the top 10 equity strategies funds scoring over 90 out of 100 across all metrics.
To identify the
The SS&C GlobeOp Forward Redemption Indicator for September 2015 measured 3.79 per cent, up from 3.46 per cent in August.
“SS&C GlobeOp's Forward Redemption Indicator of 3.79 per cent for September of 2015 is an increase compared to both prior month and year over year figures,” says Bill Stone (pictured), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, SS&C Technologies. “The bulk of the increase was in longer term planned redemptions, with some concentrated activity among certain funds, so it is too early to say whether this is a change in recent trends which have been relatively stable despite market volatility.”
The
Since the withdrawal of PaCRe Lt.’s financial strength rating and issuer credit rating at the company’s request, there has been considerable speculation in the market as to AM Best’s view on these hedge fund-sponsored reinsurers.
AM Best remains committed to rating these types of structures, which differ from a traditional reinsurance company primarily as a result of the investment strategy pursued and how that is balanced with the risks associated with underwriting activities.
Currently, AM Best maintains interactive ratings with six hedge fund reinsurers (HFRs). The rating process for these structures remains in accordance with Best’s Credit Rating Methodology,
Hedge funds lost 2.45 per cent in August, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge. The Index remains up 0.23 per cent year to date.
“A surprise currency devaluation by the People’s Bank of China on August 11 was interpreted by investors as an indication of a weakening economy, and sparked a global sell-off of risk assets,” says Sol Waksman (pictured), founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Fifteen of Barclay’s 18 hedge fund indices had losses in August. The Emerging Markets Index dropped 5.39 per cent, its largest loss since May of 2012 when it dropped 5.39 per
By Donald A Steinbrugge (pictured), CFA, Managing Partner, Agecroft Partners – Reinsurance is one of the few hedge fund strategies that has almost no correlation to the stock or bond markets and has the potential to generate high single digit to low double digit returns on average over the next 5 to 10 years, regardless of the direction of the capital markets.
It is important for investors to stress test their overall portfolio for major market selloffs, because most hedge fund strategies’ correlations to the capital markets are dynamic and rise dramatically during market selloffs as we saw in the
Berenberg Capital Markets has launched a US Equity trading desk in its New York office, with the ability to execute institutional equity trades in the US & Canada, including ADRs, as well as European securities via Berenberg Bank.
Led by industry veteran Scott Duxbury, BCM’s trading desk team brings a wealth of experience that will provide high quality service and execution to the company’s institutional client base. Duxbury, who has over 25 years industry experience, joined from Jones Trading in December 2014, and previously held senior roles at Rencap Securities and Merrill Lynch where he worked in Australia, London and
Markets were on standby mode ahead of the Fed’s meeting last week. Hedge funds were flat and there was little dispersion in returns across the managers (see chart). Event-Driven outperformed as equity volatility edged lower. Meanwhile, Fixed Income strategies underperformed as sovereign bond yields moved higher.
Hotspot, a leading institutional foreign exchange (FX) market owned and operated by BATS Global Markets (BATS), launched its new London-area matching engine on 14 September, with USD1.2 billion traded (single-count) in the first full week of operation.
The new venue will target Europe and Asia and specific FX currency pairs that dominate the European and Asian trading hours. To incentivise customers, all trading for all transactions that take place on the London matching engine will be free until the end of the year.
Chris Concannon, BATS CEO, says: “Exactly six months after acquiring Hotspot, we have demonstrated our commitment to
OppenheimerFunds has announced a strategic partnership, whereby Apollo Credit Management, an affiliate of Apollo Global Management, will serve as sub-sub-advisor to the Oppenheimer Global Strategic Income Fund (GSIF).
"As a progressive money manager, OppenheimerFunds consistently strives to add value for our clients. Apollo Credit Management offers a wide range of alternative investment credit strategies that complement our strong in-house fixed income capabilities, which will help us continue to deliver a very compelling offering," says Art Steinmetz (pictured), Chairman, CEO and President of OppenheimerFunds. "Continuing the fund's history of innovation, we wanted a quality partner in terms of performance, investment team
