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Options, a provider of cloud-enabled managed services to the global capital markets, has secured a significant growth investment from Abry Partners, a Boston-based sector focused private equity firm. The transaction will enable the firm’s executive team to significantly accelerate its growth strategy, pursue strategic M&A targets, invest further in the firm’s technology platform and expand Options’ reach in key financial centres globally. No further terms of the transaction were disclosed.
Options, founded in 1993 as a hedge fund technology services provider, has expanded rapidly in recent years and now finds itself as an established market leader in outsourced financial technology and managed
Invast Global is to donate all trading commissions earned on 31 January to the NSW Rural Fire Services to support the volunteer firefighters and the victims of the ongoing bushfire crisis in Australia. 
Australia is currently experiencing its worst ever bushfire season. The blazes first ignited in September 2019 and have continued to burn throughout the Christmas and New Year period. Experts forecast that the fires are likely to devastate the east coast of Australia for another two months.

A total if 25 people and over 400 million animals have been killed by the fires which have burned about 14.5
The Managed Funds Association (MFA), the trade association for the global hedge fund industry, has named Bryan N Corbett as its new President and CEO. Corbett succeeds Richard H Baker, who has served in the position since 2008. Corbett begins his new role on 21 January, 2020 and will be based in Washington DC.
Corbett comes to MFA from The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm, where he was a Partner and Managing Director. Corbett led Carlyle’s efforts to create value for portfolio companies by deploying the firm’s network of global resources and relationships. For the first five years of
QMA, the quantitative equity and multi-asset solutions specialist of PGIM, has strengthened its Europe-based team with the appointment of Paul Lambert to the role of client portfolio manager for its QMA Wadhwani (QMAW) investment platform.London-based Lambert reports to QMAW’s chief investment officer, Dr. Sushil Wadhwani, CBE, and started the role on 6 January, 2020. PGIM acquired London-based QMA Wadhwani LLP (f/k/a Wadhwani Asset Management LLP) in January 2019. PGIM is the USD1.3 trillion global investment management business of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU).
Lambert was previously at Insight Asset Management, where he was head of currency for seven years, and
Semper Capital Management’s Semper Short Duration Fund (SEMIX, SEMRX) has surpassed USD500 million in assets under management as a result of strong performance and investor demand since inception in December 2010. The Fund has a 5-Star Overall Morningstar Rating out of 161 ultrashort bond funds as of 31 December, 2019.
The Fund’s primary objective is to provide a high level of current income while maintaining a focus on preservation of capital. The Fund employs an ultrashort fixed income strategy offering low correlation to short and core fixed income, with current yield, low interest rate sensitivity, and seeking to limit downside volatility.
OptionMetrics, an options database and analytics provider for international institutional investors, including quant traders and hedge fund managers, as well as academic researchers, has made significant updates to its IvyDB US options database, offering even greater accuracy across a broader range of data points.The industry standard for comprehensive historical option pricing, IvyDB US provides clean and reliable historical data on over 10,000 underlying stocks and indices for every day since January 1996. It enables quants, hedge fund managers, and others to back-test trading strategies, evaluate risk models, and perform sophisticated research on derivatives trading.
New updates in IvyDB US 4.0 include:
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Truss Edge, a specialist technology platform for ETF and hedge fund operations, has announced the latest update to its Safari platform.Safari grew out of the operational and reporting needs of a large macro hedge fund, and now serves the middle and back office automation requirements of both hedge funds and ETFs.
The new release for Safari includes a number of features that will improve the efficiency and user experience for fund managers.
Managing oversight reporting requires that Safari sends information to recipients on a regular and often continuous basis. The new feature continues to improve the flexibility for
Buzzacott has appointed Antoine Housden as Head of Financial Services Tax.Housden joins Buzzacott from EY, where he worked as a director in the Wealth and Asset Management Tax Practice. Over the past 15 years, Housden has also worked at PwC and Kinetic Partners (now Duff & Phelps), in the UK and Switzerland, providing tax structuring advice to private equity funds, hedge funds and asset management businesses. His appointment reflects Buzzacott’s growing reputation in the alternative fund management sector and a commitment to tax consultancy services.
Housden says: “I am excited to be joining an energetic and growing family at
The oil price surge following the deadly US airstrike against Iranian general Qassem Suleimani is unlikely to be sustained, commodities-focused hedge fund managers have told Hedgeweek.
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) has successfully integrated Powernext and Gaspoint Nordic as of 1 January 2020. All required approvals have been received to integrate the natural gas spot and derivatives markets into EEX. The integration also includes registry services, which will now be operated by EEX, apart from the exchange activities.
“This is an important step for EEX Group and for our customers for which we want to offer a wide range of products and markets on one platform, providing a one-stop-shop for energy and commodity products. In line with our ambition of becoming the preferred global commodity exchange,
