Managers
Shorter-term managed futures strategies are gearing up for further episodic spikes in volatility in the coming months, leading to more opportunities to capitalise on continued market unpredictability.
Trend followers largely withstood March’s market turmoil, notching up generally positive returns as other hedge fund strategies fell by the wayside amid growing Covid-19 pandemic fears.
But while CTA performance on the whole was somewhat mixed – the SocGen CTA Index closed the month at 0.09 per cent as medium-term managers’ gains in bonds and currencies was offset by equity losses – it was shorter-term strategies who soared amid the carnage.
Short-term CTAs
Dispersion reigned among different hedge fund strategies during a turbulent March, with global macro and trend-following funds posting positive returns while equity-focused managers tumbled sharply. A deepening of Covid-19 fears across the global economy sparked unprecedented losses in markets and dramatically reversed last year’s buoyant risk-on environment.
CME Group achieved record international average daily volume (ADV) of 7.2 million contracts in Q1 2020, up 57 per cent year on year, and surpassing the previous quarterly record of 5.3 million contracts traded during the second quarter of 2019. This record, reflecting all trading done outside North America, was driven largely by growth in Equity and Interest Rate products, up 152 per cent and 46 per cent respectively.
In Q1 2020, Europe, Middle East and Africa ADV hit a record 5.4 million contracts, up 54 per cent from Q1 2019. This was due to a strong performance in Equity and
RISE Wealth Technologies announces best ever monthly performance for its flagship systematic strategy: Volatility Special Opportunities Program (VSOP)While major financial markets have dropped, RISE Wealth Technologies, a Munich-based AI investment technology firm, has reported the best ever monthly performance for its flagship Volatility Special Opportunities Program (VSOP) strategy.
Up in March by 23.21 per cent and up by 18.83 per cent for the year, VSOP entails a systematic multi-strategy approach in the S&P 500 index volatility market with a real-money track record dating back to July 2016. Specifically, it is composed of a Balanced Portfolio consisting of S&P 500
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) has successfully completed the 100 per cent acquisition of UK based software company, KB Tech Ltd (KB Tech). Co-Founded in 2005 by David Briggs and Paul Kemp, KB Tech specialises in providing data management services and products to the trading, pension and financial markets. The Company’s propriety software delivers a range of modular, connected services providing functions for managing real-time data within and around the trading, price delivery and transactional environments.
Speaking on the acquisition, Dr Tobias Paulun, Chief Strategy Officer at EEX, says: “KB Tech and EEX Group have been working together in close partnership
CTA strategies posted positive returns during March as markets were roiled during the sustained economic turbulence, new data from Société Générale shows.
Each of SocGen’s CTA indices notched up gains last month, pushing their year-to-date performance into positive territory, while, in contrast, many equities markets suffered their worst quarter in recent history as fears of the Covid-19 outbreak gripped markets from February onwards.
The SocGen CTA Index – which tracks the daily performance of a select pool of the largest trend-following managers – closed the month in positive territory, at 0.09 per cent. Meanwhile, the SG Trend Index added 1.82 per
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) achieved another milestone in its Freight business by gaining the majority share of the open interest (OI) in the total Freight market (Futures and Options combined), thereby overtaking the market leader for the first time and setting a new record for the business. In total, EEX now holds a 52 per cent share of Open Interest, (a key indicator of liquidity), of the combined Freight market. In Futures, EEX has increased its share significantly to hold a 56 per cent share of the Open Interest. While in Options, EEX continues to make consistent gains, resulting in
Credit-focused strategies are emerging as a key area of focus for investors, as managers rush to seize on the “incredible” opportunities being thrown up by the recent widespread market turmoil.
Sussex Partners, the independent global hedge fund investment advisor, says hedge funds focused on this market are zeroing in on a raft of trades spanning corporate credit, structured credit and risk arbitrage, while Man GLG, the discretionary hedge fund unit of Man Group, is now “materially bullish” on long-term trades in high yield assets.
“Every time you have a dislocation like this it creates opportunities,” says Patrick Ghali, managing partner
Ironshield Capital Management, the London-based long/short event driven hedge fund that trades stressed and distressed European corporate credit, has launched its Ironshield Credit Fund on the MontLake UCITS Platform, with the aim of capitalising on recent credit market dislocations.
The strategy, managed by Ironshield CIO and managing partner David Nazar, targets high absolute returns by trading event driven, stressed and distressed European high yield credits across the capital structure and ratings spectrum.
Nazar – who managed proprietary credit portfolios for Deutsche Bank and Bank of America before founding Ironshield in 2007 – said the fund’s UCITS format launches as the
Pico, a provider of technology services for the financial markets community, has launched a new managed co-location facility for Japan Exchange Group (JPX).
