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Athena International Management, an independent directorship services provider in the Cayman Islands, has expanded its team and its geographic reach to include New York.
Daniel Strachman, a financial services expert with more than 17 years of Wall Street experience, has joined Athena to provide corporate governance services to the alternative investment fund industry.
Throughout his extensive career in financial services, Strachman has worked with both traditional and alternative investment funds in product development, marketing, institutional brokerage and investment management at firms including Cantor Fitzgerald & Company, Morgan Stanley & Company and The Orbitex Group of Funds.
“Athena
Hedge funds rose an average of 1.7 per cent in September, ending the third quarter up 2.4 per cent, and have returned an average of 5.7 per cent through the first nine months of 2013, according to eVestment’s September hedge fund performance report.
On an annualised basis the industry is on pace to return 7.7 per cent in 2013, slightly ahead of 2012’s 7.2 per cent increase.
Long/short equity is on pace for their best year since 2009 and second best since 2006. In both those prior years the universe beat the S&P 500.
Performance in September
Ignis Asset Management has launched its latest absolute return strategy – the Ignis Global Macro Government Bond Fund.
The fund, which has been seeded with GBP25m, has been registered in Luxembourg as a Specialised Investment Fund (SIF) and is suitable for eligible institutional investors only.
The Ignis Global Macro Government Bond Fund is a non-UCITS version of the GBP1.5bn UCITS compliant Ignis Absolute Return Government Bond Fund. The Ignis Absolute Return Government Bond Fund has delivered a total return of 18.5 per cent and an annualized return of seven per cent since launch. Most importantly, the fund has
On 3 October over 170 professionals from the Dutch financial alternatives community came together to show their support for the fundraising initiative of the Alternatives 4 Children foundation.
During the third charity gala the foundation raised more than EUR108,000 (net of costs) for the year to support five charity projects all around the world.
This support will enable Alternatives 4 Children to contribute to the running costs of a number of small projects like the Edelweiss school in a slum in Bangalore, India and a project by Tiny Miracles in Mumbai.
“I am impressed with the efforts
Asia Pacific market analysts are more effective at providing accurate price forecasts than their US and European counterparts.
In a paper entitled “Where are the World’s Best Analysts?”, Man GLG, the world’s second largest hedge fund, found that Asia ex-Japan analysts were able to generate excess returns (short-term alpha) of 4.06 per cent over a 90-day period, while Japan analysts were able to generate 2.37 per cent. In comparison, UK analysts generated 1.49 per cent and US analysts 1.71 per cent.
The results were based on IBES data provided by Thomson Reuters spanning the period 2005 to 2012.
Chicago Board Options Exchange’s (CBOE) Volatility Index (VIX index) has set an all-time, single-day volume record, with options volume totalling an estimated 1,782,329 contracts.
This easily surpassed the previous record of 1,399,867, contracts traded on 15 April 2013.
Year to date through September, VIX options average daily volume (ADV) was 565,040 contracts, a 32 per cent increase over the same period a year ago. VIX futures ADV year to date through September was nearly 160,000 contracts, an 86 per cent increase over the same period a year ago.
Aquis Exchange, the proposed pan-European equities trading exchange, has entered into agreements with EMCF, LCH.Clearnet and SIX x-clear for them to provide it with central counterparty (CCP) services.
Aquis Exchange is set to introduce subscription pricing for European stock trading when it launches. It is currently awaiting approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.
These CCP agreements mean that Aquis Exchange will be able to offer its members high quality counterparty risk protection, settlement netting facilities and post-trade anonymity.
EMCF, LCH.Clearnet and SIX x-clear together account for the majority of the current European equities clearing market.
Sapient Global Markets has launched a suite of software and services to help companies meet the new requirements of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
Designed to help firms consolidate and streamline the labour-intensive back-office identification and reporting activities now required of US Withholding Agents (USWA) and Foreign (non-US) Financial Institutions (FFIs) under FATCA, Sapient Global Markets’ new offerings provide business consulting around systems and processes. Specifically, engineered technology solutions will reduce the burden on firms needing to identify, report and withhold against relevant customer accounts and transactions.
“The first priority for any FATCA compliance project
The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global hedge fund industry association, has updated its Guide to Sound Practices for Hedge Fund Valuation.
The new edition of the guide takes account of recent regulatory reforms, including a summary of valuation requirements under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD).
The guide also reflects changes in accounting standards since the previous edition was published in 2007, such as the introduction of new international guidance on and disclosures of fair value accounting.
In total, the guide contains 16 recommendations that reflect industry sound practices within the areas of governance;
Despite encouraging comments by the IMF, Bank of England Governor, Carney, is right to be cautious about the ‘sugar rush’ recovery so far, and keep all his stimulus options on the table, argues Neil Williams (pictured), Chief Economist for Hermes’ Global Government & Inflation Bonds…
While the UK’s 0.7%qoq on Q2 GDP was its best for over two years and the G7’s joint fastest after Japan (0.9%), the UK still has the lowest base to spring back from.
Markets are so far giving the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) the benefit of the doubt that inflation-control remains a primary aim,
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