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Q&A with Frank Napolitani and Jaclyn Greco of EisnerAmper’s Financial Services Practice
Last year witnessed a number of notable billion dollar launches, including D1 Capital. How would you sum up 2018 in respect of US start-up activity, generally speaking?
It was the year of the big launch, with ExodusPoint, D1 Capital, Kirkoswald Capital and the relaunch of Point72 Asset Management (formerly SAC Capital) – all listed in the public domain. From what has been published, these firms gathered approximately USD20 billion-plus of new launch capital from leading global investors in 2018. Beyond these large launches, the new launch space is slower
In 2018, there were over 1200 publicly disclosed security breaches globally with the number of exposed records more than doubling from 197.6 million in 2017 to 446.5 million last year* as reported by Fortune. The number and scale of attacks has been rising year on year for the past decade and with general data protection regulation (GDPR) now in force in Europe, the number of reported breaches is likely to continue rising.
With the cloud environment becoming a ubiquitous feature of the fund management industry as managers seek to benefit from scale and efficiency gains, the migration into cyberspace
Much is written about the operational challenges that hedge fund managers face today but when it comes to data collection – ie reference data, pricing, portfolio valuations – and trade execution or standardised reporting, service providers and investors have to contend with plenty of pain points.
Of course, managers must stay on top of operations in the current regulatory and compliance environment, leading to focus more on the front-office. However, for investors, fund administrators and custodians, they are crying out for an industry-standard electronic data exchange for middle- and back-office tasks; one that delivers an automated efficient flow of fund data that
While hedge funds struggled in Q4, so did passive investments. Could higher volatility in 2019 help active stock pickers shine?
The fourth quarter of 2018 culminated in a substantial market correction. Everywhere one looked, it was a sea of red. Far from bringing festive cheer, on Christmas Eve both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 fell 2.5 per cent before a rapid rebound a couple of days later.
At one point the Dow was down 18.8 per cent from its October high, while the S&P had fallen 19.8 per cent.
Volatility is often the friend to hedge funds, historically, as
The market correction that ripped through Q4 2018 was perhaps a pre-cursor for increased volatility this year, and if that is the case, active fund managers – especially specialist sector-focused stock pickers and short specialists – could make substantial gains for their investors.
The volatility index (VIX), which some like to call the ‘fear and greed’ index, spiked above 36 on Christmas Eve while the Dow Jones crashed below 23,000 on 20th December: a 4,000 point decline from its October peak.
This shake-up was largely driven by macro factors and was, in many respects, a necessary event to release valuation
Alteralia Debt Fund FIL, a hedge fund investing in private debt, has topped the rankings for its category in 2018, according to data from the Spanish Association of Investment and Pension Funds (Inverco).
With an annual return of 6.43 per cent, the class C of Alteralia Debt Fund led the ranking in the Spanish hedge funds category last year. It was followed by class B and class A of Alteralia Debt Fund, which generated returns of 6.28 per cent and 6.13 per cent, respectively. The returns obtained by Alantra’s team are especially relevant in 2018’s difficult context for fixed income
Andre Flotron, a former precious metals trader for UBS AG, is to pay a USD100,000 civil monetary penalty for spoofing and engaging in a deceptive or manipulative scheme through his spoofing in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC Regulations.
The Order also imposes a one-year trading and registration ban.
James McDonald, CFTC Director of Enforcement, says: “This case reflects our continued commitment to preserving the integrity of our markets – like the precious metals markets at issue here – and to rooting out unlawful practices like spoofing. As this case shows, we will continue to work
Integral, a foreign exchange markets technology specialist for banks, brokers, and asset managers, has reported average daily volumes (ADV) across Integral platforms of USD34.7 billion in January 2019.
Though down slightly compared to the previous month, this represents an increase of 1 per cent relative to the same period in 2018.
“We’re committed to supporting our customers as they continue to capture share in their very competitive markets,” says Harpal Sandhu, CEO of Integral. “Integral’s leading-edge technology gives our customers an advantage that they are successfully leveraging.”
No other platform reaches as many, as varied, and as comprehensive a set of
Equitivo, a full-service fintech consultancy, has launched in London and Manchester, providing a range of services dedicated to assisting new and growing fintech organisations in the UK and Europe.
Founded by Andrew Holgate, the co-founder of one of Europe’s largest peer-to-peer lenders, Equitivo’s range of services has been developed to help ambitious fintech businesses navigate the challenges of the rapidly changing market landscape.
Equitivo will make use of Holgate’s 20 plus years of experience in banking and accountancy as well as establishing and growing fintech enterprises. He has also assembled a team of experts to provide a full advisory service
Following an initial positive run in the first few days of the year, all of Societe Generale Prime Services’ CTA Indices were in negative territory by the end of January.
The SG Trend Index was down by -3.25 per cent and the SG Short-Term Traders Index was down by -1.71 per cent. The SG CTA Index returned -1.99 per cent and was helped slightly by three non-trend following managers’ positive performance in the month.
The SG Trend Indicator attributed losses to equity markets and currencies. They were positioned short in risk assets, hence equity markets’ reversal and gains in
