Latest News
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has launched a first round of consultations to prepare for central clearing of OTC derivatives within the European Union.
The two consultation papers seek stakeholders’ views on draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) for the clearing of Interest Rate Swaps (IRS) and Credit Default Swaps (CDS) that ESMA has to develop under the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).
With the overarching objective of reducing systemic risk, EMIR introduces the obligation to clear certain classes of OTC derivatives in central clearing houses (CCPs) that have been authorised (European CCPs) or recognised (third-country CCPs) under
Atlanta-based TLC Capital Group is preparing the launch of a new option-hedged market neutral fund, the Salvus Hedged Yield Fund, which will employ the firm’s proprietary hedged yield strategy.
The strategy was developed by chief investment officer William J Taylor, a 30+ year veteran of the Chicago financial markets and original member of the CBOE.
The strategy employs the use of large- and mid-caps with historically increasing dividends and within tightly selected criterion, and utilises options combinations to mitigate downside, while employing defined leverage to achieve alpha, with liquidity and low volatility.
“The fund is designed for the
Eurex is set to extend its product range by introducing a listed variance future on 22 September 2014, based on the EURO STOXX 50, the most prominent equity index in Europe.
Variance futures replicate the pay-off profile of a variance swap using a daily-margined futures contract. Instead of a final settlement payment upon expiry the pay-off profile of a variance swap is calculated as the sum of all variation margin payments through the period the variance futures contract is held.
Variance futures are standardised instruments that are fully fungible and can be traded in a central order book. It
Rob Laible has joined Liquidnet as head of the firm’s global performance team.
Based in New York, Laible will work in close coordination with the sales, technology and product development teams across all regions with primary responsibility for leading and driving the marketing, sales, execution, and servicing of Liquidnet’s algorithmic trading services, execution desks and analytics as well as management of its liquidity partner relationships.
He will be a member of the leadership team reporting to Liquidnet’s chief operating officer, John Kelly.
“We continue to focus on integrating all of our solutions and identifying ways to drive institutional
Fund of funds specialist Titan Advisors has appointed Herman Laret, formerly of Credit Suisse, as a senior research analyst for the firm's manager research global macro team.
"Herman is a powerful addition to the firm's research team," says Tom Holliday, Titan chief investment officer. "His depth of experience and industry contacts will further enhance our capacity to source the hedge fund industry's most promising management talent."
With 24 years of experience in financial services, Laret joins Titan from Credit Suisse, where he was a managing director in global cross-asset macro product sales. He previously served as co-head of interest
Euronext has launched Spotlight Options on six companies listed on its Amsterdam market: Telegraaf Media Groep, Sligro Food Group, Exact Holding, Accell Group, Altice and BE Semiconductor Industries.
Spotlight Options give more visibility to underlying assets such as medium and smaller sized companies and newly listed stocks through a unique combination of liquidity provider support and strong promotion by sponsoring brokers.
Spotlight Options are a special segment on the Amsterdam and Brussels derivative markets of Euronext, dedicated to the development of new option classes requested by market participants.
The options will have short-term maturities of one, two and
Liquidnet saw record second quarter performance in Asia Pacific as the company benefited from strong demand across the region for safe access to block trading among large institutions.
Principal traded climbed to a record USD6 billion, marking a four per cent increase on the previous quarter which was also a record.
The region reported record average daily liquidity of USD11.6 billion, a nine per cent jump from Q1 2014.
The average trade size across the region during the quarter was around USD1.2 million, an increase of seven per cent over the first quarter.
Lee Porter, head of
Netagio, the UK-based digital currency broker, has launched the first British exchange enabling retail customers and institutional investors to trade gold, Bitcoins and GBP on a single peer-to-peer platform.
Customers from 114 countries around the world can now trade each asset class against each other on the exchange.
Netagio’s Bitcoin, gold and sterling exchange is designed for retail customers and institutional investors with an appetite for opportunity. For the first time, customers can build and trade a Bitcoin, gold and GBP portfolio, and trade in and out of Bitcoin vs gold vs GBP positions quickly and easily on a
Asian hedge funds returned an average of 1.69 per cent in June according to early estimates by index data provider Eurekahedge. That leaves the average Asian hedge fund up a modest 1.99 per cent for the year and a long way off achieving last year’s returns of +14.91 per cent.
CTA funds were fairly flat in June, up 0.09 per cent to leave them down-1.82 per cent for the first half of 2014. Fixed income returned +0.93 per cent, long/short equities returned +1.73 per cent, whilst event-driven funds returned +3.65 per cent. Fixed income and event-driven funds have delivered a
Global Advisors Jersey Limited (GAJL) has secured regulatory approval from the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) for a Bitcoin Investment fund.
The Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund (GABI), which will launch on 1 August 2014, will operate within the Collective Investment Funds (Jersey) Law 1998 as an Expert Fund.
Daniel Masters, director of GAJL, says: “Global Advisors is thrilled to be able to bring a robust Bitcoin fund product to the market. Our long experience in commodities means we are well placed to manage volatility and performance risks in this fast growing and opportunistic asset class.
“Jersey, rightly
