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Just one of IndexIQ’s proprietary family of hedge fund replication and alternative beta indexes recorded positive performance in December.
The IQ Hedge Global Macro Beta Index returned 0.79% for the month while the other six indexes all saw negative returns.
The IQ Hedge Event-Driven Beta Index was the worst performer with a return of -1.52%, followed by the IQ Hedge Emerging Markets Beta Index (-1.06%), the IQ Hedge Long/Short Beta Index (-0.94%), the IQ Hedge Composite Beta Index (-0.62%), the IQ Hedge Fixed Income Arbitrage Beta Index (-0.53%) and the IQ Hedge Fixed Income Arbitrage Beta Index (-0.47%).
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The amount of catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities (ILS) issued reached a record level in 2014, according to Artemis.bm.
Artemis.bm recorded USD8.8 billion of new catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities issuance in 2014 in its Deal Directory, the highest level recorded in a single year since the cat bond and ILS market emerged in the mid-1990's. Artemis has published a new market report providing details on this issuance.
As well as achieving a new annual record for issuance of new catastrophe bond and ILS risk capital, the outstanding market of in-force cat bond and ILS transactions reached another new record,
Societe Generale Securities Services (SGSS) has appointed Christophe Baurand as Global Head of Commercial, Marketing and Liquidity Management.
Based in Paris, he reports to Bruno Prigent, Head of SGSS, and joins the SGSS Executive Committee. Baurand replaces Massimo Cotella, who has left Societe Generale to pursue other opportunities outside the group. His appointment took effect on 1st January 2015.
Baurand is responsible for the commercial development and marketing strategy of SGSS, as well as for implementing the different commercial initiatives in the SGSS development and competitiveness plan that was launched in 2014.
“With his experience in Societe Generale group,
Each year Agecroft Partners leverages its contact with more than two thousand institutional investors and hundreds of hedge fund organisations to predict the top hedge fund industry trends for the coming twelve months.
Because the hedge fund industry is very dynamic and constantly changing, it is important for firms to anticipate what changes are likely to occur. Those who effectively evolve with the industry will succeed, while stagnant firms will be left behind. Here Agecroft’s managing partners Donald A Steinbrugge makes his predictions for the biggest trends in the hedge fund industry 2015…
1. Greater Alpha Due to Decreased Correlations &
DW Partners has assumed the role of manager for two hedge funds previously managed by Brevan Howard, totalling more than USD5 billion in assets, effective 1 January, 2015.
DW served as the investment manager for the vehicles with responsibility for all investment decisions for the Funds since their inception.
DW, a credit-focused multi-strategy asset manager, oversees in excess of USD6 billion in hedge fund assets, focusing predominately on corporate, structured and asset-backed investments. The firm has a team of 50 investment and operational professionals, and is headquartered in New York City.
The assumption of management by DW was overwhelmingly
Nearly two thirds (64%) of investors believe that the European Central Bank will implement quantitative easing before the end of next year, with more than a quarter (27%) expecting it to take place in Q1 2015.
That’s according to the latest findings from ING Investment Management’s Risk Rotation Survey.
On a regional level, European investors are most confident that this will be avoided, with one in five (22%) believing that a Sovereign QE programme will not be required at all, compared to just 8% of those in North America and 13% based elsewhere in the world.
The future of Europe
IS Prime, the new foreign exchange brokerage service launched in late 2014, has hired two former Sucden Financial employees, Andrew Biggs and Jean Claude Francois.
An Biggs’ role will focus on delivering tailor-made solutions for IS Prime’s institutional client base, with responsibility for electronic trading solutions, client coverage and analytics; while Francois will be the lead contact for client on-boarding, reporting and front-to-back MT4 set-ups.
Biggs’ career has focused on e-FX and CFD sales and execution. His introduction to the industry was at a successful retail brokerage where he swiftly rose to head the European sales and coverage team
Global Prime Partners, a provider of prime brokerage and trading services to hedge funds, asset managers, family offices and professional traders, has appointed Andrew Bole as Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Bole joins Global Prime Partners from IG Group Holdings where he was Chief Risk Officer and a key member of their senior management team. He brings more than 15 years of management experience in the industry.
Julian Parker CEO at Global Prime Partners, says: “The Board recognises the increasing emphasis on regulation and risk management across the financial sector. Andrew will be instrumental in managing business processes and improvements
During the last two weeks of December, hedge funds erased the bulk of the losses recorded earlier in December, when risk aversion was elevated. CTAs were again the best performers, in a remake of the patterns observed throughout the year (+4.7%from 16 December to 30 December). The good news came from Event Driven managers, up +3.1% during the same period. Yet, December was overall a mixed month, the Lyxor Hedge Fund Index being down 0.2% on the back of the underperformance of Fixed Income strategies (-3.1%). Their poor showing was related to the sharp high yield spread widening recorded earlier in the month, when liquidity issues emerged
One of the inherent risks to investing in hedge funds is the inherent volatility of performance. A top fund today might be the worst tomorrow. In Preqin’s latest November Hedge Fund Spotlight report, which looks at this year’s top 100 performing hedge funds, only three funds feature on the list from 2013.
To qualify, only those funds with USD100m or more in AuM were considered. The sample period was October 2013 through September 2014.
What is clear from the list is that the top performing funds over the past 12 months are more volatile. Whereas year-on-year only three funds made
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