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By James Williams – Dark pools exist in a variety of forms to serve a variety of clients. In the US they are referred to as an alternative trading system (ATS). In Europe they include multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) – alternative trading venues that sprang out of MiFID regulation in 2007 – broker-owned pools called Broker Crossing Networks (BCNs) or “internalisers”. Not to mention independent dark pool operators like Liquidnet that connect buy-side to buy-side institutions.
The number of dark pool venues that now exist has risen considerably: it is estimated that there are some 45 such venues in the
AmBank Berhad, part of Malaysia’s AmBank Group, has gone live with the latest version of Murex’s MX.3 Market Risk Solution.
This new market risk implementation enables the bank to enhance oversight of its risk management activities across all fixed income businesses and strengthens the bank’s ability to meet increased domestic regulatory and reporting requirements.
“A thorough due diligence and proof of concept preceded our decision to shift away from our former system to Murex whose capabilities we were already familiar with. Besides the benefits of leveraging current installations, we wanted to make sure this new risk installation will
All seven of IndexIQ’s hedge fund and alternative beta replication indices saw negative performance in May.
Designed as investable benchmarks that replicate the performance characteristics of sophisticated hedge fund strategies, the IQ Hedge benchmark indexes underlie a variety of investment products globally including ETFs, mutual funds, and institutional accounts.
The IQ Hedge Emerging Markets Beta Index was the biggest loser last month, down 1.97 per cent, followed by IQ Hedge Market Neutral Beta Index (-1.38 per cent), IQ Hedge Composite Beta Index (-1.06 per cent), IQ Hedge Event-Driven Beta Index and IQ Hedge Global Macro Beta Index (both −1.04
KPMG, the US audit, tax and advisory firm, is adding more depth to its alternative investments practice by hiring Constance Hunter, an economic thought leader and former portfolio manager, as its chief economist, alternative investments.
In this newly created position, Hunter (pictured), who is based in New York, will work with the firm’s global alternative investments leadership team to play a key role in economic forecasting, planning and strategy, and client relationship development.
"Many financial services companies are struggling to understand the impact that current economic and geo-political developments will have on their businesses and their customers," says
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.
