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Gravitas, a co-sourcing platform providing cloud technology, collaborative outsourcing, risk analytics and research support to the alternative investment industry, has chosen the IBM Risk Analytics engine to provide Risk-as-a-Service for emerging and mid-sized hedge funds.
As part of its Risk Reporting Plus and Risk Co-Sourcing services, Gravitas risk analysts will use IBM’s risk technology to offer advanced analytics, modelling and custom reporting to help hedge funds meet regulatory requirements, support better investment decisions, and assist with the mitigation of unintended sector-industry concentration and secondary risks at both the fund and enterprise level.
Through Gravitas’s risk service, hedge funds can
Hedge funds were up 0.7 per cent for May and 4.6 per cent year-to-date, as measured by the HFRX Global Hedge Fund index.
Anthony Lawler, portfolio manager at GAM, says: “April was a tough month for bond holders with the Barclays Global Aggregate Bond index down 3.0 per cent for the month and 3.7 per cent for the year. This generated concern for the average traditional or balanced portfolio that is not getting the yield nor the capital protection expected from bond allocations.”
On hedge fund strategy and trade performance, Lawler says: “It was a positive month for equity
MarketAxess has reported total monthly trading volume for May 2013 of USD62.5bn on its electronic trading platform.
The total consists of USD39.0bn in US high-grade volume, USD15.8bn in other credit volume, and USD7.7bn in liquid products volume.
Monthly volume updates are posted in the Investor Relations section of the MarketAxess website on or before the tenth business day of each month. The data provide current month and historical volume totals on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.
Advent Software has launched new releases of its portfolio management software, Advent Portfolio Exchange (APX), and Moxy, the firm’s trade order management system, and the associated solutions including Advent Rules Manager, Advent Revenue Center and Tradex.
This release supports Advent’s commitment to deliver functionally rich solutions that are easy for asset and wealth managers to implement, adopt and own.
The new releases provide a number of key benefits to users, including:
• Simplified reporting processes in APX as well as a more efficient upgrade experience with new data management tools
• Enhanced customization options in Moxy
The Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA) believes that plan sponsors should consider the use of “alternative” investment structures that provide better risk balance in an attempt to reduce the volatility experienced by the typical plan participant.
A newly released DCIIA paper, “Is It Time to Diversify DC Risk with Alternative Investments?” explores the potential for greater inclusion of alternative investments in DC plans.
Lew Minsky (pictured), DCIIA’s executive director, says: “DCIIA’s interest in exploring this topic stems from the potential diversification and performance benefits offered by non-traditional asset classes and alternative strategies to a participant’s asset allocation.”
The Credit Suisse Liquid Alternative Beta (LAB) Index was flat in May, according to Dr Jordan Drachman, head of alternative beta strategies at Credit Suisse.
The merger arbitrage strategy was the strongest performer for the month, finishing up 1.25 per cent in May.
Two of the six strategies finished the month in negative territory – managed futures and global strategies – down 0.43 per cent and 0.21 per cent respectively.
RealTick Data is now available in Eze Software Group’s Eze OMS and the Tradar PMS.
Through this integration, RealTick Data is able to provide cross-asset class market data to any of Eze Software’s core products.
Clients can leverage global market data and options analytics provided by RealTick Data to power market data-dependent features of the Eze OMS and Tradar PMS including P&L and cash balance analysis, portfolio modelling, and order valuation and impact calculation.
"We are excited to extend the proven success and capabilities of our RealTick Data solution to all Eze Software clients," says Daniel Rooney,
Fifty three per cent of capital markets respondents are not ready to centrally clear interest rate and credit default swaps, according to a poll conducted by SimCorp.
The survey, conducted in March, surveyed the views of nearly 60 executives from 34 capital market firms from around the world.
With regulations like Dodd-Frank and EMIR aiming to increase transparency and market efficiency in over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trading, the poll asked respondents whether or not their firms are ready to centrally clear interest rate swaps (IRS) and credit default swaps (CDS). While 41 per cent answered yes, a 53 per
More Italian corporations, including midsize companies, could issue debt on the capital markets over the coming years owing to changing funding conditions, according to a report from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services.
At present Italian companies source about 90 per cent of their long- and short-term funding needs from banks, but this source is becoming less readily available as Italy’s financial institutions embark on a long deleveraging path.
This, alongside loosened corporate and tax legislation for midsize companies introduced in Italy will likely encourage companies to issue more bonds, the report says. Already last year, Italian companies issued
Research by Sapient Global Markets into how new central clearing mandates will impact investment performance for buy-side firms has revealed a significant drag on portfolio returns in the new regulatory environment.
The drop in return ranges from between −0.20 per cent to −0.62 per cent for cleared hedges, up to almost 1.00 per cent for traditional uncleared bilateral over-the-counter (OTC) trades.
The Sapient Global Markets “Cost of Clearing: A Buy-Side Investigation” study quantifies and compares the costs of a typical buy-side portfolio hedging strategy in terms of drag on portfolio returns. The study compares the overall portfolio performance
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