Managers
Research and analytics firm MPI has published an assessment of Ivy League endowments’ 2016 FY Performance. The firm writes that asset allocation remains the largest determining factor in endowment performance.
“Commodities and Emerging Markets, each of which suffered respective losses due to continued declining oil prices or political turmoil, were a significant drag on Ivy League funds’ returns. Despite FY 2015’s stellar performance by Venture Capital and marginally positive returns by Hedge Funds, both asset classes posted negative returns in FY 2016. Real Estate, US Equities and Bonds were the highest performers in FY 2016.
“Yale continued its strong performance.
Paul-Georges Moucan, Portfolio Manager at hedge fund Quadra Capital Partners, comments on China’s September activity data…
China’s September activity data was largely in line with market expectations but in our view showed tentative signs of momentum losing steam. Low global Chinese demand was a drag but domestic demand was resilient and the fact that the rise in investment was led by property, may raise some concerns. Credit growth was above expectations but remains well below target.
Q3’s resilient growth appears to have been underpinned by post-flood reconstruction, the overheated property market and fading base effects from last year’s stock market
Natixis Global Asset Management has strengthened its European SICAV range with the launch of a managed futures fund from one of its affiliates focused on alternatives, AlphaSimplex Group.
AlphaSimplex’s Managed Futures Fund will invest in futures and forward contracts across a broad range of markets including equities, fixed income and currencies and aims to profit from current trends in the markets, taking long positions in assets in a rising price trend and short positions in those that are in a falling price trend. The fund also has indirect exposure to commodity markets.
The new fund will be quantitatively driven
HFR reports that total hedge fund industry capital rose to a record level in 3Q16, as performance gains offset continued asset outflows which were concentrated in many of the industry’s largest and most well-established managers.
Hedge fund assets rose to USD2.972 trillion, an increase of USD73.5 billion from the prior quarter. The 3Q16 hedge fund asset level eclipses the previous record of USD2.969 trillion set in 2Q15. The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index gained +2.9 per cent in 3Q, concluding the quarter with its seventh consecutive monthly gain, and bringing YTD performance to +4.2 per cent.
HFR reports that
Preqin’s latest hedge fund report finds that although hedge funds are under sustained investor scrutiny, the third quarter of 2016 saw continued improvement in the performance of the asset class, marking seven consecutive months of positive returns for the industry.
The firm writes that this is the longest stretch of positive monthly returns since the second half of 2012. Fees and performance remain at the top of the list of investors’ concerns for the industry in 2016 according to Preqin Investor Outlook: Alternative Assets, H2 2016, yet this solid run of positive returns may assuage some of these concerns.
Preqin says
ETX Capital has launched the US Election News Sentiment Index, a tool that displays the quantity and tonality of media coverage towards the presidential elections.
Harnessing the power of big data using technological advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP), the index draws on the same capabilities exploited by their other online news sentiment tools, which offers their traders insight into how the global investment community is feeling towards their favourite tradable assets.
News sentiment has been widely integrated in to professional trading rooms over the past five years although it is still a relatively new adoption for online brokers
The October 2016 Eurekahedge Report finds that over September 2016 hedge funds recorded their fifth month of investor redemptions pushing net investor allocations into the red for the year with USD8.7 billion outflows.
As of September 2016 year-to-date, this has been the steepest year-to-date redemptions since 2009. Nonetheless, investors have been selective in their allocations across strategies with CTA/managed futures and multi-strategy hedge funds seeing stronger subscriptions.
The USD207.5 billion event driven hedge fund space has seen USD14.0 billion investor redemptions over the past nine months, the strategy’s steepest YTD outflows on record and up from USD1.5 billion outflows
The value of assets invested in alternative UCITS funds has increased by 26 per cent annually since the financial crisis of 2008, according to Deutsche Bank Global Prime Finance’s 2016 Alternative UCITS Survey.
In this year’s survey, 130 institutional investors which collectively manage and/or advise on over USD700 billion in hedge fund assets and USD150 billion in alternative UCITS assets, share insights into their current allocation plans and investment preferences for alternative UCITS funds.
“Total assets managed by alternative UCITS funds have grown by 26 per cent annually since the 2008 global financial crisis to reach close to EUR400
Front Street Capital is to sell Jemekk Capital Management to J2 Capital Management, a newly created corporation controlled by Gerard Ferguson.
J2 Capital will be assigned the investment management and portfolio advisory agreements relating to the Jemekk Total Return Fund and the Jemekk Long/Short Fund, subject to J2 Capital obtaining registration under applicable securities legislation.
The transaction is expected to close on or prior to 15 November 2016.
In connection with the closing of the transaction, Ferguson (pictured) will be leaving Front Street Capital and will continue to manage the Jemekk funds through J2 Capital. In addition, it
Man Group plc has acquired Aalto Invest Holding AG and launched a new ‘private markets offering’, Man Global Private Markets, designed to offer longer term investments and complement their existing products. Man defines private markets as real estate, credit and infrastructure.
Founded in 2010 by Mikko Syrjänen and Petteri Barman, USD1.7 billion Aalto specialises in the management of real estate equity and debt strategies including direct investments in single family homes in the US and lending to commercial and residential real estate in Europe and the US. Man writes that Aalto has a strong track record across its differentiated product
