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Managed futures lost 0.68 per cent in August, according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
The index is down 2.41 per cent year to date.
“Many CTAs were long equity indices and got hurt in August as fears of military intervention in Syria and uncertainty over Fed tapering had a negative impact on prices,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Six of Barclay’s eight CTA indices lost ground in August. The Diversified Traders Index was down 0.99 per cent, Systematic Traders gave up 0.82 per cent, Currency Traders lost 0.48 per cent, and
Carey Olsen has appointed Michael Makridakis as partner and head of litigation in the firm’s Cayman Islands office.
Makridakis will assume responsibility for developing the firm’s litigation practice in the jurisdiction and specialises in insolvency, restructuring and commercial litigation with an emphasis on litigation involving distressed funds.
Makridakis’ appointment brings the partner numbers for Carey Olsen in the Cayman Islands to five with five associates.
Makridakis says: “Carey Olsen prides itself on providing the highest level of legal advice to clients and, as a result, the firm enjoys an outstanding reputation for offshore legal services globally. I
Convergence, a provider of data, tools and models to asset managers, investors and service providers, has launched a new website – www.convergencellc.us.
Convergence was formed to work with alternative and traditional asset managers to achieve optimal performance across their infrastructure platform.
The firm’s management team has significant experience implementing highly efficient infrastructure at a number of leading asset managers. Convergence uses proprietary benchmark data, combined with analytical tools and models to identify opportunities to reduce management company and fund expenses, and also has an advisory and solutions practice which can develop, implement and manage flexible service models including
The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched enforcement actions against 23 firms for short selling violations.
The agency is increasing its focus on preventing firms from improperly participating in public stock offerings after selling short those same stocks. Such violations typically result in illicit profits for the firms.
The enforcement actions are being settled by 22 of the 23 firms charged, resulting in more than USD14.4 million in monetary sanctions.
The SEC’s Rule 105 of Regulation M prohibits the short sale of an equity security during a restricted period – generally five business days before a public offering – and the
Law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan has appointed Tram N Nguyen as a partner in the firm’s private funds practice group.
Nguyen is resident in Stroock’s DC office, where she joins Robert E Plaze who before founding that office as a partner was the deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s division of investment management.
Nguyen joins Stroock from the Securities and Exchange Commission, where most recently she was chief of the private funds branch of the SEC’s division of investment management. While in that capacity, she led rulemaking and related initiatives affecting private fund advisers,
Towers Watson has produced a thematic-based secular outlook designed to set out its Global Investment Committee’s (GIC) long-run expectations for global economic growth.
The publication, entitled Secular Outlook 2013, expounds the merits of thematic investment relative to more traditional asset class-based investment frameworks and provides a new perspective on generating return and understanding risk. In addition, it encourages institutional investors to better exploit what should be one of their main competitive advantage: the length of their time horizon.
Robert Brown (pictured), chairman of the Global Investment Committee at Towers Watson, says: “We believe institutions with long time horizons
Omgeo and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) are to establish a user-governed global repository to store and communicate the “golden copy” of standing settlement instructions (SSIs).
This undertaking is part of an overall effort to standardise and centralise key client reference data functions and place them under user governance.
Omgeo ALERT, a web-based database for the maintenance and communication of SSIs, will serve as the foundation for this service. ALERT will be the industry-wide SSI repository and communication hub, coordinating and distributing SSIs between trade counterparties and supporting settlement across all markets and asset classes globally.
Harmonic Capital has appointed Robert B Fitzpatrick as managing director of North American distribution.
Harmonic Capital, based in Massachusetts, is a recently established US affiliate of Harmonic Capital Partners, a UK-based quantitative hedge fund manager providing global macro and currency products to institutional investors.
Fitzpatrick will be responsible for leading the development of Harmonic’s institutional business in the region, with a particular focus on public and corporate pension plans. Bringing more than 20 years’ financial services experience, Fitzpatrick joins from First Quadrant where he held the role of director, global consultant relations and business development. Over the course
BNP Paribas has made several key appointments to strengthen its Securities Services franchise in Asia Pacific as it continues its expansion in the region.
Mostapha Tahiri has been promoted to the head of BNP Paribas Securities Services Singapore, replacing Arnaud Claudon who has been promoted to the newly created role of global head of Depotbank and Fiduciary Services based in Paris.
Tahiri joined the Singapore office in 2009 as the head of asset and fund services for Asia and has been at the forefront of the bank’s drive to grow the business in the region. He will
GAIN Capital, a provider of online trading services, has appointed Jason Emerson as its chief financial officer effective 1 October 2013.
“Jason is an accomplished executive who brings the right mix of strategic insight, industry experience, and financial acumen to the CFO position,” says Glenn Stevens, chief executive of GAIN Capital. “I am confident Jason will be an excellent addition to GAIN’s leadership team.”
Emerson was most recently managing director and business manager of KCG’s global execution services division, responsible for all financial and operational aspects of the business. Previously, he served as KCG’s director of financial operations.
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