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Institutional investors are increasingly turning to alternative assets to diversify portfolios as they navigate an environment characterised by low yields, geopolitical concerns and a growing set of investment risks, finds Allianz Global Investors, one of the world’s leading active investment managers, in its annual RiskMonitor survey.
Consisting of 755 institutional investors, representing USD34.2 trillion in AUM across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, the RiskMonitor survey found that seven out of 10 respondents said they now invest in alternative asset classes. Diversification is the No1 reason for these allocations, cited by nearly one-third (31 per cent) of investors – the most
By Dr Laurence Wormald (pictured), Head of research and quants, asset management, FIS – After almost a decade of weak inflation and low or even negative interest rates, some of the world’s central banks are actively pursuing a return to conventional monetary policy. With macroeconomic change, however, will come tests that may no longer feel familiar. Could 2018 be the year to revise approaches to risk management?
A brief history of risk
For the first time since the global financial crisis, interest rates and inflation are slowly starting to rise. The great quantitative easing experiment, credited with driving up asset
Richard “Dickie” Hodges, Manager of the Nomura Global Dynamic Bond Fund, provides his view of the fixed income market environment over the coming months…
As we approach year end, we have increased hedging of our risk assets and interest rate exposures. Exposures remain to Financials, some of the holdings deeply subordinated and (in our view) protected by the necessity for the ECB to step in once more if there is further instability in the European financial system.
We still hold substantial allocations to both Portuguese bonds and Indian “masala” bonds, and we are concerned over the economic situation in Australia
Jean-Philippe Desmartin, Head of Responsible Investment at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, on what to expect from Emmanuel Macron at this week’s climate change summit in Paris…
The COP23 has set the tone. At the climate change summit in Paris on 12 December , Emmanuel Macon will want to make his voice heard even if Europe is currently showing no clear leadership. Last month in Bonn, the French President said the situation was so urgent that not dealing with it would mean facing up to serious financial challenges. One particularly alarming sign is that carbon emissions have started to rise
Fulcrum Asset Management (Fulcrum) has appointed Matthew Roberts as a Partner. He will be responsible for the creation of a new Alternatives Group that will invest in real assets and credit.
Matthew joins from Willis Towers Watson where he was a portfolio manager for the Towers Watson Partners Fund and related strategies amounting to USD10 billion. Prior to this he ran its multi-asset and multi-strategy hedge fund research teams.
Commenting on the appointment, Andrew Stevens, Fulcrum’s Chief Executive said: “Given our macro focus, clients are increasingly asking us for help with their real asset and credit allocations. These asset classes
Man Group has launched its first onshore investment strategy for qualified investors in China. The new investment strategy will leverage the experience of Man AHL, Man Group’s diversified quantitative investment management business, to harness market trends across a range of liquid markets in China.
The new investment strategy is systematic trend following in its approach, and aims to be uncorrelated with traditional portfolios. Managed by Man AHL’s Shanghai-based investment professionals, the strategy seeks to identify and capture market trends across diverse liquid onshore markets, focusing initially on listed futures including agricultural commodities, industrial commodities, bonds, metals, energy and stock indices.
Cboe Global Markets’ new Cboe bitcoin futures (XBT) began trading exactly as planned at 5:00 pm CT on Sunday, 10 December, 2017, at the start of Global Trading Hours.
The opening price for XBT was USD15,000 and 890 contracts were traded by 7:15 pm CT. Monday, 11 December, will be the first full day of trading. Cboe previously announced that all transaction fees will be waived throughout the month of December.
Over the last five years, the total value of all bitcoin outstanding (ie, “market capitalisation”) has grown from less than USD1 billion to over USD262 billion with daily notional
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has exempted certain multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) and organised trading facilities (OTFs) authorised within the European Union (EU) from the requirement to register with the CFTC as swap execution facilities (SEFs).
The order will become effective on 3 January, 2018.
“Today’s announcement by the CFTC of a registration exemption for EU-authorised trading venues, combined with Tuesday’s announcement by the European Commission of an equivalence decision for CFTC-authorised trading venues, represents the third time in two years that the CFTC and the European Union have been able to work together to defer to each
Gresham House, a specialist alternative asset manager, has launched a new online investor portal aimed at providing the firm’s clients with a co-investment service, greater visibility into their holdings and a level of transparency on underlying private assets that is typically only seen in the public markets.
The portal will enable clients to access deal by deal co-investment opportunities in a structured and simple manner. Users will have access to information on the underlying assets, including appraisal and investment papers where available, allowing them the discretion to increase their investment into the regions, sectors or deals specific to their interests.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is delaying the implementation of rules requiring large mutual funds to submit monthly details of their portfolio holdings to the Commission while it improves the security of its EDGAR filing system which was hacked in 2016.
For the first nine months after the original Form N-PORT compliance date of 1 June, 2018, larger fund groups will maintain the required information in their records and make it available to the Commission upon request instead. Smaller fund groups will have to comply with the requirements one year after larger fund groups begin filing the form.
The
