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The third quarter of 2014 was the best quarter for Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) funds since Q4 2010, according to Preqin, and CTAs have now delivered six months of positive gains for the first time since 2008/09.
Preqin’s Q3 2014 Hedge Fund Quarterly Update report reveals that CTA returns of 5.52% in Q3 on top of 1.60% in Q2 have sent the benchmark to 2014 year-to-date returns of 7.13%.
The recent strong performance posted by CTAs though contrasts with poor performance delivered by long/short and event driven hedge funds, mirroring trends seen in Q2 2012 and Q3 2011.
According to the report,
The TCW Group has appointed William Lloyd and Joseph Quinn to the firm’s alternatives team, as Managing Director and Head of Alternatives Marketing, and Senior Vice President of Alternatives Marketing, respectively.
Both are based in TCW’s New York office and are focused on further strengthening the distribution of TCW’s alternative products to investors.
“Alternative investment products are an increasingly important area of focus for investors, and TCW continues to expand our offering to meet the evolving needs of clients,” says Jess Ravich, Head of Alternative Products. “The addition of Will and Joe to the team, with their decades of experience
AllianceBernstein has launched three new liquid alternative mutual funds, Credit Long/Short (ALASX), Multi-Manager Alternative Strategies Fund (ALATX) and Long/Short Multi-Manager Fund (LSAMX).
These three new mutual funds join AllianceBernstein's fast-growing USD19 billion alternatives platform.
"Our liquid alternative strategies are resonating with investors because we're providing them access to highly specialised funds run by leading institutional managers, yet with daily liquidity, transparency and risk management," says Robert Keith, Head of AllianceBernstein's Client Group. "We launched Credit Long/Short and our Multi-Manager strategies to respond to our clients' demand for services that offer diversification from traditional stocks and bonds, while reducing sensitivity to
Confluence is collaborating with Fundsquare to provide secure delivery of AIFMD Transparency Reporting to all National Competent Authorities (NCAs) across Europe.
The Confluence SaaS-based technology-enabled Unity NXT AIFMD Transparency Reporting aims to ensure completeness, accuracy and control over the entire AIFMD reporting process — from the collection of data, the calculation of answers, the approval of the report form contents, to the transmission of the filing. By incorporating Fundsquare into the solution, asset managers need only upload files once for them to be disseminated to multiple NCAs in the format required by each to ensure accuracy and timeliness of filings
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), in collaboration with the financial services industry, has formed an industry steering committee to drive the implantation of two-day settlement cycle (T+2) in the US.
DTCC has teamed up with an industry working group to facilitate the move to shorten the settlement cycle in the US for trades in equities, corporate and municipal bonds, and unit investment trusts (UITs).
The move from the current three-day settlement cycle (T+3) to a T+2 cycle will reduce operational and systemic risk by limiting exposure and creating greater efficiencies in trade processing.
Co-chaired by Kathleen
The SEC has sanctioned a high frequency trading firm for placing a large number of rapid-fire trades in the final two seconds of trading each day to manipulate the closing prices of NASDAQ-listed stocks.
This marks the first high frequency trading manipulation case.
An SEC investigation found that Athena Capital Research used an algorithm that was code-named Gravy to engage in a practice known as “marking the close” in which stocks are bought or sold near the close of trading to affect the closing price. The massive volumes of Athena’s last-second trades allowed Athena to overwhelm the market’s available liquidity
Lombard Risk Management has released its latest version of COLLINE — the company's award-winning collateral management, clearing, inventory management and optimisation solution.
Lombard Risk's COLLINE enables firms to move away from managing collateral in business silos by supporting multiple business lines on a single platform therefore enabling firms to significantly better manage their collateral inventory and optimise to ensure the best use of it — addressing the issues of limited liquidity and lower capital charges. COLLINE version 13 enhancements and new functionality includes:
• Regulatory Enhancements – supporting clients in meeting their IOSCO and Basel III regulatory commitments.
• User-definable
Liquidnet, the global institutional trading network, has further strengthened its fixed income team in Europe with the appointment of Jonathan Gray as Head of Fixed Income Sales.
Reporting directly to Mark Pumfrey (pictured), CEO Liquidnet Europe and Constantinos Antoniades, Global Head of Fixed Income, Gray will be responsible for expanding the number of buy side institutions on the platform adding additional liquidity and supporting growth through the introduction of new asset classes.
Liquidnet spearheaded its expansion into fixed income with the acquisition of Vega-Chi in March 2014 which has already built an efficient way to trade high yield and
The London Metal Exchange (LME) has been appointed by the London Platinum and Palladium Fixing Company Limited (LPPFCL) to be the new provider of London platinum and palladium prices.
The LME’s custom-built electronic solution, LMEbullion, will provide a pricing methodology that fully meets the administrative and regulatory needs of market participants including the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks. LMEbullion is already at an advanced stage of development and will be ready in advance of the anticipated go-live of 1 December 2014.
“We are delighted to have been appointed by the LPPFCL and precious metals market participants to be the
Despite infrastructure fundraising showing signs of growth, achieving a successful fundraise is more difficult than ever in such a competitive market. Preqin examines which funds are more likely to achieve their target size and the key factors for fundraising success.
As Q3 2014 draws to a close, the unlisted infrastructure market appears to show slight signs of improvement, with the USD25bn raised by 26 funds reaching a final close this year so far exceeding the capital raised from Q1 to Q3 2013, when USD23bn was raised by 41 funds closing. Additionally, unlisted infrastructure funds are increasingly exceeding their target sizes,
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