Managers
Salman Ahmed (pictured), Global strategist & Portfolio Manager at Lombard Odier Investment Managers, comments on the latest Greek bailout deal…
After numerous last-minute deadlines and several twist and turns including the missed IMF payment, we finally seem to be heading towards a resolution to the latest episode in the EZ debt crisis (once again centred around Greece). There is still some lingering uncertainty as the reforms agreed by Tsipras have yet to be put to parliamentary vote but indications are that after the referendum Tsipras is enjoying a stronger domestic position than just a couple of weeks ago.
Overall, we think
Flow Traders, a global technology-enabled liquidity provider that specialises in exchange traded products (ETPs), has listed on Euronext Amsterdam.
Flow Traders quotes bid and ask prices, enabling market participants to buy and sell ETPs efficiently and provides liquidity in over 4,000 ETP listings across the globe, tracking all underlying asset classes including equities, fixed income, commodities and currencies. Flow Traders is headquartered in Amsterdam with trading offices in Asia and the US covering all time zones.
The total offering of Flow Traders was valued at EUR521 million. After opening, the market price was EUR34.00 per share. Based on the
Ryan Caldwell, former Ivy Funds Portfolio Manager, has launched Chiron Investment Management, a boutique, actively managed investment management firm that will seek to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for its investors.
The firm will seek to utilise Caldwell’s proven, highly transparent approach to developing investment themes and positioning client portfolios. Chiron will have offices in Mission Woods, Kansas and New York City.
Caldwell will be the Chief Investment Officer of Chiron. He was most recently Co-Portfolio Manager of the Ivy Asset Strategy and Waddell & Reed Asset Strategy funds. These funds had generated top-tier investment performance versus their peers during his
All six of IndexIQ’s proprietary family of hedge fund replication and alternative beta indexes recorded negative performance in June.
The IQ Hedge Event Driven Index was the month’s biggest loser with a return of -2.14%, followed by the IQ Hedge Global Macro Index (-1.47%), the IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Index (-1.38%), the IQ Hedge Long/Short Index (-1.22%) and the IQ Merger Arbitrage Index (-1.05%).
The best performer for the month was the IQ Hedge Market Neutral Index with a return of -0.70%.
Designed as investable benchmarks that replicate the performance characteristics of sophisticated hedge fund strategies, the IQ Hedge indexes comprise
AST Fund Solutions, a provider of a complete suite of shareholder communication and recordkeeping services for mutual funds and closed-end funds, has launched a full-service intermediary oversight solution called AST Oversight.
AST Oversight was developed with Wheelhouse Analytics, a well-known technology provider in the space, to provide AST clients with the necessary tools to leverage disparate sources of data for streamlined data management and analytics. In today’s highly competitive distribution market, efficient management of multiple broker-dealer distribution relationships with unique individual revenue sharing expenses is critical for fund firms. Essential components of an intermediary oversight program include understanding effective rates
Hedge funds posted declines in June as Chinese equities fell sharply and uncertainty over the outcome of the Greece referendum contributed to losses in quantitative, trend-following, Macro CTA strategies, according to HFR.
The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index declined -1.3 per cent in June, the worst monthly decline since June 2013, paring gains for 1H15 to +2.4 per cent. Despite the June decline, the 1H15 HFRI gain still outperformed US equities as measured by the S&P 500 by over 200 basis points.
Macro hedge fund strategies led declines for the month, with losses across equity and currency exposures contributing to
The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index was down -1.9 per cent in June. None of the 12 Lyxor Indices ended the month in positive territory. The Lyxor Fixed Income Arbitrage Index (0 per cent), the Lyxor Convertible Arbitrage Index (-0.1 per cent), and the Lyxor Variable Bias Index (-0.8 per cent) were the best performers.
Another round of global steepening early June gave way to a sudden Greek-related risk aversion. A second phase of curve steepening started early June adding approximately 40bps to German 10Y yields and 30bps to UST. The Euro finished where it started, but with great volatility. Equity
Bitcoin analytics and security firm Elliptic and bitcoin derivatives exchange Crypto Facilities have launched a settlement and clearing mechanism that separates bitcoin custody from all other exchange functions.
Crypto Facilities’ client accounts are now hosted in Elliptic’s secure, KPMG-accredited vaults and are fully insured by an A-rated, Fortune 100 underwriter. Each client owns their own segregated, ring-fenced account which is settled on the blockchain every day. Any movement in the account is exposed to the client and can be independently verified on the blockchain.
The industry-first solution overcomes the traditional setup of bitcoin trading venues in which client assets are typically managed
SS&C Technologies Holdings has completed its acquisition of Advent Software, a provider of software and services for the global investment management industry.
Advent has more than 4,300 customers including asset managers, hedge funds, fund administrators, prime brokers, family offices and wealth management advisory firms, located across more than 50 countries worldwide. With more than 1,200 employees worldwide, Advent generated revenues of USD397 million for the 12 months ended 31 December, 2014.
Under the terms of the merger agreement, Advent stockholders will receive per share consideration of USD44.25. The merger consideration is approximately USD2.63 billion (including the assumption of Advent’s existing
New Mountain Vantage Advisors has launched its US equity long/short fund on the MontLake UCITS platform. MontLake provides investors with access to a range of liquid, transparent and regulated investment products domiciled in Dublin.
New Mountain Vantage is an affiliate of New Mountain Capital (NMC) a New York-based asset management firm with aggregate assets under management totalling more than USD15 billion.
New Mountain Vantage, founded in 2006, currently manages approximately USD2.9 billion across US long/short and benchmarked/long-only funds. The investment strategy is predominantly focused on bottom-up research, concentrating on mid and large-cap US companies.
The New Mountain Vantage
