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Towers Watson’s clients made over twice as many new investments in smart beta strategies during 2013, around USD11bn across over 180 portfolios, compared to the year before, according to global data from the company.
Towers Watson’s institutional investment clients globally have now allocated over USD32bn to smart beta strategies to almost 500 portfolios, across a range of asset classes.
Craig Baker, global head of investment research at Towers Watson, says: “It is no surprise to us that smart beta strategies are being implemented at this rate, given their inherent relevance for most institutional investors. Interestingly it has taken some
Neuberger Berman Group has launched the Neuberger Berman Unconstrained Bond Fund, an absolute return oriented global strategy that uses a broad set of tools to take advantage of market mispricing.
The fund provides investors with an alternative approach to traditional benchmark driven long only investing, responding to current market dynamics.
This flexibility provides the ability to express investment views and pursue extracting relative value through both long and short positioning. The full global credit and securitised spectrum will be used and the fund will have complete duration flexibility with the ability to have positive, negative or zero duration. The
Indus Valley Partners (IVP) has launched IVP RAPTOR cloud, enabling alternative asset managers to meet their global regulatory reporting needs from a purpose-built cloud platform.
IVP RAPTOR (Regulatory Analytics Portfolio Transparency Operational Reporting) includes coverage for all major regulatory filings required by US-based alternative asset managers, including Form PF, 13F/D/G, CPO-PQR, CTA PR, Form ADV, Form 3, 4, 5 and the upcoming AIFMD for Europe.
In addition to automating regulatory filings IVP RAPTOR supports risk and exposure reporting in the OPERA format for investors and fund allocators.
The technology is already implemented with over 25+ clients and supports
Wall Street Horizon has appointed Bob Aloisi as vice president of product management, Joseph Ranieri as director of client management and Gerry Berian as director of operations.
In addition, Bruce R Fador has joined the company’s executive advisory board.
Fador brings more than 25 years of industry experience including prominent executive posts as CEO of Thomson First Call, WorldStreet Corporation, Weiss Ratings and Financial Research Corporation.
“I am thrilled to be working closely with the Wall Street Horizon team as a hands-on advisor,” says Fador. “They have created one of the most compelling data businesses I have seen
Imagine Software has launched Imagine Risk Services, the next generation of its Imagine Financial Platform (IFP) and App Marketplace.
Financial institutions and third parties provide portfolio and risk analytics, drawing from Imagine’s risk and portfolio management analytics and data.
Imagine Risk Services addresses the challenge of providing users with the exact tools they need, anywhere and anytime, via a cost-effective cloud-based solution.
Increased demand from investment managers for the inclusion of risk analytics as a seamlessly integrated feature set has left service providers scrambling for suitable options. Imagine Risk Services answers the call for “a la carte” risk
Boston Partners, part of investment company Robeco Group, has launched the Robeco Boston Partners Global Long/Short Fund (BGLSX).
The new fund has a similar investment process to the Robeco Boston Partners Long/Short Research Fund (BPIRX/BPRRX) with a wider global opportunity set.
Managed by Jay Feeney and Christopher Hart, who manages the Boston Partners Global and International Equity funds (BPGIX and BPQIX), the Global Long/Short Fund will have least 40 per cent invested in undervalued international stocks.
Josh Jones, an associate portfolio manager, is also a co-manager of the fund.
The US stock version, the Robeco Boston Partners
Hedge funds lost 0.29 per cent in January, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
The index gained 11.11 per cent in 2013.
“After a rousing end to 2013, January bore witness to a complete reversal of key trends as investor sentiment turned defensive,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge. “Global equity markets sold off as emerging markets came under renewed pressure from slowing in China, political unrest in Thailand and Turkey, and currency devaluation in Argentina."
Overall performance by hedge fund sector was mixed in January. Twelve of Barclay’s 18 hedge fund
US money market funds (MMFs) reduced their exposure to European financial institutions by 18 per cent in December 2013, while Euro and Sterling MMFs reduced their exposures by eight per cent and six per cent respectively, according to Moody's Investors Service.
Due to year-end redemptions, European funds' combined AUM dropped by 6.5 per cent over Q4, and their maturity profiles shortened significantly, by seven days on average.
Despite the prolonged period of low interest rates and continuing uncertainty around regulation, US domiciled prime MMFs' AUM increased 2.9 per cent to USD677bn at the end of December from USD658bn at
US-based hedge fund administrator Gemini Hedge Fund Services has chosen SunGard’s Hedge360, a front-to-back office hedge fund investment management application suite, as its platform of choice.
Hedge360 will enable Gemini Hedge to increase operational efficiency to better service its clients through automating processes, simplifying workflows and reducing the risks associated with manual entries.
Gemini Hedge sought a solution that could help its portfolio managers customise their portfolio management, risk, IT and reporting requirements with a swift time-to-market.
“The ability to choose tailored components of the investment management suite to meet our specific automation requirements was a key element
The Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index finished down 0.29 per cent for the month of January, despite half of the ten sub-strategies recording positive returns.
Convertible arbitrage led the way with a return of 2.09 per cent, followed by multi-strategy (0.81 per cent), fixed income arbitrage (1.00 per cent), event driven (0.29 per cent), and equity market neutral (0.08 per cent).
Managed futures was the month’s biggest loser, down -3.42 per cent, while emerging markets (-2.27 per cent), dedicated short bias (-1.09 per cent), global macro (-1.05 per cent), and long/short equity (-0.08 per cent) also finished the month
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