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Salus Alpha’s strategies have delivered a good start to 2014 in terms of performance, according to a report by managed investment platform db Select.
The strategies delivered positive returns during the month of January, led by the Salus Alpha Directional Markets Strategy (DMXUSD) which was up 5.75 per cent and outperformed the world’s biggest CTA power houses by a positive margin of 6.5 per cent on average during the month.
In addition, the Salus Alpha Global Alpha Strategy (GAXUSD) was up by 2.08 per cent in January.
Both programmes enjoyed also positive performance in 2013 contrary to most
The London Metal Exchange (LME) is to introduce a new policy allowing clients of LME members to connect directly to the exchange’s electronic trading platform, LMEselect, for market data.
The change will be effective from 24 March 2014.
In response to user demand, the LME will enable market participants to connect to LMEselect directly to receive a data-only feed. Until now, clients have only been able to access data through members or independent software vendors (ISVs). The new policy is of particular interest to members’ clients pursuing an algorithmic trading strategy, as they can now trade with the benefit
Limmat Capital Alternative Investments has been appointed to manage a large balanced fund mandate with assets under management of EUR196m.
Limmat Capital is an independent FINMA regulated investment management firm in Zurich, Switzerland, specialising in liquid long/short equity and balanced fund strategies.


The addition of the new mandated strategy, which was launched in 2009, brings Limmat Capital's total assets under management to CHF360m.
The mandate's goal is the balancing of long-term returns across market cycles and the preservation of capital under difficult market circumstances.
Last year, Limmat Capital delivered profits to the investors for the ninth consecutive
Los Angeles-based Investment Diamond Exchange (IDX) has expanded its workforce to cater for an increasing number of hedge funds and other financial institutions acquiring rough diamonds for investment purposes.
“The favourable supply and demand fundamentals for rough diamonds along with some structural changes that have increased the transparency and efficiency of the diamond industry are a few of the primary reasons why the investment community has embraced rough diamonds as an investment,” says Kristopher Schellhas, managing partner at IDX.
According to Bain & Co, rough diamond prices have increased at a compounded annual rate of 13 per cent since
Saemor Capital has reported a strong start to 2014 for its Europe Alpha Fund with a return of 2.8 per cent in January, despite the volatility caused by a sell-off in emerging markets.
The fund was up 5.9 per cent in 2013 and is up 8.5 per cent on an annualised basis over the last three years.
According to Saemor, markets are currently in a consolidation phase, while European equities have re-rated 50 per cent in absolute P/E terms since mid 2012.
While investors may be awaiting an earnings recovery, dividend momentum is turning for the better which
Andrew Lowin, Technical Director of Consulting at Kinetic Partners, comments on the FCA’s decision to give UK AIFM’s a reprieve on capital requirements under the AIFMD…
The FCA has been working with the AIFM industry to better understand the impact of their Funds Under Management (FUM) definition. Unlike managers of traditional funds, the initial basis of establishing an AIF’s value, in terms of determining the minimum amount of Regulatory Capital the Manager must maintain on its own balance sheet, could have been as much as 25 times the AIF’s NAV and extremely volatile.
The reason for this is that,
Commodities increased in January due to supply worries in livestock and to weather fundamentals supporting the energy sector.
The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index Total Return performance was positive overall for the month, with nine out of 22 index constituents trading higher.
Livestock was the best performing sector, up 4.32 per cent, with both lean hogs and live cattle ending the month higher. The USDA's January livestock report revealed the number of cattle on feed at the start of the year was down 5.4 per cent compared to January 2013.
Energy ended the month 3.40 per cent higher, led
ETF flows are surging in credit, according to the latest Bank of America Merrill Lynch “Follow the Flow” global research report. So far this year, there has been USD4billion of inflows into investment grade credit compared to USD2.4billion for high-yield.
Investors seem to be reverting out of emerging market debt, with USD1.4billion of outflows recorded last week. The report notes that since last May, the cumulative outflow for EM debt funds has been almost USD44.5billion. Last week, high-grade funds attracted USD603million marking the eighth consecutive week of inflows. High-yield funds attracted USD291million last week. The report noted: “Credit flows were
Smart beta investing, efficient risk diversification, liability driven investment (LDI) strategies, infrastructure and fixed income investing are among the topics to be presented at the EDHEC-Risk Days Europe 2014.
The event will take place at The Mermaid Conference & Events Centre in Blackfriars, London on 25-26 March.
The conference will open with a roundtable involving leading industry representatives and regulators and will address the topic of index transparency and investor expectations. The session will include the presentation of a survey on the transparency and governance of international indices carried out by EDHEC-Risk Institute.
The conference will also feature
Societe Generale Securities Services (SGSS) has launched an Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) reporting package for asset managers and their funds.
It is designed to cater to the different needs of SGSS’s asset management clients, allowing them to concentrate on their core investment activities whilst ensuring they are fully compliant with AIFMD.
With transposition of AIFMD into law in EU member states currently underway, reporting requirements will be progressively reinforced throughout Europe. Asset managers will be required to provide regulators with detailed reports for their companies as well as for the funds they manage or promote. This involves
