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MSCI Inc has appointed Man Group Chief Investment Officer Sandy Rattray as an independent director on the company’s Board.
Read the full story at Institutional Asset Manager…
Asia-Pacific region broker Straits Financial Services is now providing prime-of-prime (PoP) brokerage services to Spotex, a developer of modular, technology systems for foreign exchange brokers and institutional ECN operator. The agreement enables clients to access institutional FX liquidity via Straits Financial and provides a gateway for brokers to deploy Spotex’s modular technology solutions.
Straits Financial will now provide credit intermediation and liquidity to broker and fund manager clients as a Spotex PoP. This includes Straits Financial’s proprietary institutional liquidity accessed via a dedicated Spotex Broker Liquidity Hub and from Spotex’s institutional ECN.
Straits Financial will also deploy Spotex technology
Digital asset trading platform Bitfinex has launched margin trading for Tether Gold, enabling traders to execute more advanced strategies on the metal in a digital form. Margin trading for Tether Gold with US dollar, tether, and bitcoin, began on 30 January. These pairs can be traded with an initial equity of 20 per cent and a maximum leverage of 5x. Furthermore, the maximum leverage for BTC/USD has been increased from 3.3x to 5x.
“The launch of margin trading on Tether Gold will allow more advanced trading strategies, enabling a more sophisticated means of hedging exposure and managing risk,” says Paolo
Liquidnet, a global institutional investment network, has appointed Vicky Sanders as Global Head of Investment Analytics.In this newly created role, Sanders will lead the team for the company’s new business vertical, Liquidnet Investment Analytics (IA). The new business leverages the artificial intelligence capabilities of Liquidnet’s recent acquisitions of OTAS Technologies and Prattle, pairing them with one of the largest online marketplaces and aggregators of research through Liquidnet’s acquisition of RSRCHXchange. It will run alongside Liquidnet’s existing equity execution and fixed-income businesses. The Liquidnet IA app, designed to support information discovery and decision making for institutional investment teams, will be the
By Frank Napolitani (pictured), Constellation Advisors – Given today’s challenging capital raising environment, it is more important than ever to ensure that key, non-investment functions of an investment management firm are being addressed and managed properly. Operational Due Diligence (ODD) plays an integral role in the allocation of institutional capital.
According to the 2019 JP Morgan Institutional Investor Survey which collected responses from 227 allocators with a combined USD706 billion in capital invested across hedge funds globally, 33 per cent of investors stated they had chosen not to allocate to a specific manager because that manager did not pass ODD. Once
Emerging hedge fund managers looking to succeed in the industry should consider what is most important to their firm and the vision they have for their fund. Then, with this set, the fund should partner with a managed service provider to build the technology infrastructure needed to secure it. Hedge funds can then find the technology components that best suit their business rather than pouring time and money into a complex structure which may not fit their purpose.
When considering hedge funds to invest in, asset allocators place a high value on controls around cyber security, information security and compliance. Therefore, startup hedge funds need to ensure they not only deliver on their investment promises but also that the technology systems underpinning their business are robust.
Every day we wake up to news about trade wars, terrorism, natural disasters and major political events that all greatly affect our personal lives and the investment world. There are also serious issues facing the fund governance industry which cannot be avoided but can be managed by the funds industry. Change cannot be escaped and within the funds industry, change must occur sooner rather than later for it to thrive.
Karl O’Reilly (pictured), fund director at IMS discusses the independence of fund directors, which is a key consideration when selecting independent directors of Cayman Islands funds.
“Last year, I spoke
Smart, repeatable and “hands off” technology plays an ever-growing role in the delivery of fund administration services. Two primary drivers of a fund administrator’s success are automation and straight-through processing (“STP”).
“Most funds would agree that their experience with a fund administrator primarily comes down to client service, accurate and timely delivery of services and cost,” says Jorge Hendrickson, SVP Head of Sales and Marketing at Opus Fund Services. “Automation and Straight-through-processing (“STP”) are what allows, or prevents, these from happening.”
Opus Fund Services is focused on scaling its proprietary technology to achieve these requirements and doing so in a
Despite hedge funds having a good year in 2019, returning over 9 per cent on average, the task of launching a hedge fund remains a challenge.
“Until we have a major correction, it will continue to be difficult for emerging managers to raise capital,” says Jeffrey Rosenthal (pictured), Partner–in-Charge of Anchin’s Financial Services Practice at Anchin Block & Anchin LLP, a full-service accounting, tax and advisory firm.
“Some managers lose conviction and may second-guess themselves if the fund starts losing money early on. They worry about retaining capital if they have one or two down months. My advice to startups
