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Financial research firm Fitch Ratings has awarded the GBP2.5bn Ignis Absolute Return Government Bond Fund a “Strong” Fund Quality Rating following a recent fund review.
Fitch Ratings says the fund has benefitted from a differentiated investment approach, coupled with consistent outperformance and adherence to the funds philosophy since launch in March 2011.
Fitch says: “The 'Strong' Fund Quality Rating reflects the Ignis Absolute Return Government Bond Fund’s differentiated investment approach, which exploits seven different and uncorrelated sources of alpha and is supported by advanced proprietary technology.
“Fitch's review reflects the fund's consistent outperformance, the diversification benefits of effectively
Regulatory change is second only to market volatility as an executive issue for financial services firms, according to research by SunGard.
With many new regulations taking effect during the course of 2014, in some cases it is even considered the number one strategic risk.
Senior executives are now concerned that regulatory change is distracting attention from core business activities and potentially hindering companies’ ability to grow.
Adapting to new regulations is also causing financial services firms to rethink their approach to compliance and restructure their organisations accordingly. Many, however, still do not feel ready for the changes taking
Online precious metals trading platform GoldMoney has seen an increase in new gold purchases being stored in its Asian vaults, but a slowing down in the movement of gold from its western vaults to those in the east.
GoldMoney’s head of dealing, Roland Khounlivong, says: “We are still seeing a continuation of last week’s buying spree, especially for gold which represents around 92 per cent of the precious metals sold – although it has slowed compared to last week.
“What is different is that the demand is turning more global and although most of the metal is being stored
January proved to be a mixed bag in terms of strategy performance within the alternative UCITS universe. According to the UAI Global index, provided by Alix Capital, the average fund lost -0.38 per cent last month.
Eight of the eleven strategy indices ended the month in negative territory. Equity market neutral was the strongest performer, returning 0.51 per cent, followed by gains of 0.25 per cent within the UAI Fixed Income index and 0.12 per cent within the UAI Event-Driven index. The worst performing strategy was the UAI CTA index, ending the month with losses of -2.30 per cent, closely
Singapore Exchange (SGX) is revising the fee structure for its securities market to make trading more cost-efficient and to facilitate market making and improve liquidity.
The revisions to clearing and depository fees will be rolled out from 2 May 2014.
The change will encourage on-exchange trading, thereby enhancing liquidity, transparency and price discovery on the market.
The clearing fee will be reduced by one-fifth from 0.04 per cent to 0.0325 per cent of contract value. The cap of USD600 on this fee for contracts of USD1.5m or more will be removed.
Transfers and onward settlement fees, which
The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index was down only 0.4 per cent in January, outperforming the MSCI World Index, which was down 3.8 per cent.
Eight Lyxor Strategy Indices out of 12 ended the month in positive territory, led by the Lyxor Fixed Income Arbitrage Index (+1.74 per cent), the Lyxor Merger Arbitrage Index (+0.92 per cent) and the Lyxor L/S Equity Market Neutral Index (+0.83 per cent).
Following three weeks of tactical retracement to digest the year-end rally, multiple events in emerging contributed to unsettle EM and DM markets – in particular global equities, USD-JPY, and weaker US LT
TABB Group expects algorithmic trading in futures markets to continue expanding faster over the next two years, with a 96 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2011 to 2015.
According to a report published by TABB, “Algos in Futures Markets: Shifting into High Gear,” written by senior analyst Matt Simon, this is occurring as institutional buy-side firms are shifting from traditional voice-based or direct market access (DMA) order-execution methods to algorithms with greater levels of sophistication.
Buy-side traders are beginning to realise that a simple algo is not sufficient for all order types. In order to achieve
The majority (77 per cent) of millionaire investors say they own real estate while 35 per cent say they own a related investment, real estate investment trusts (REITs).
This is a key finding of the Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Investor Pulse Poll, a periodic survey of US high net worth investors, including a subset of households with a million dollars or more in financial assets. Questions about investments in alternative asset classes were posed only to the millionaire sample.
The survey found that investors who received advice from a financial advisor are much more likely to say they were
RMB Capital has appointed Kerry Jordan as director of business development for Iron Road Capital Partners, the firm’s alternative investment platform.
“We continue to expand our team in an effort to support the spectrum of alternative investments we provide,” says Blair Haarlow, managing principal of Chicago-based Iron Road. “Kerry brings significant expertise in building relationships with institutional investors, so we are excited about the contributions she’ll be able to make to our growing business. In addition, Kerry has long-standing involvement in the Chicago financial community with leadership roles at CFA Society Chicago and Econ Illinois.”
In her role, Jordan
First Derivatives, a provider of software and consulting services to global investment banks, brokers, hedge funds and exchanges, has opened a Singapore office.
The new Asian office consolidates First Derivatives’ offering of products and services in liquidity and data management for Asia, according to country head Martin Haines.
“We help our clients fulfil regulatory obligations for on-exchange and OTC trading, as well as addressing the ‘big data’ challenges facing capital markets participants,” he says. “Our new team here in Singapore complements the existing office in Sydney and rounds out our capabilities in Asia as demand from new and existing
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