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By James Williams – Technology vendors are constantly looking for ways to support increased activity in systematic trading. Trading firms, of which high frequency traders (HFTs) are but a sub-sect, are applying high precision engineering to shave millionths of a second off their latency profile.
One such firm, Solarflare, provides low latency software and 10GbE network solutions for precision time synchronisation for application servers in co-locations at the world’s major trading centres. It has installations in all the banks and exchanges, and many trading firms.
“For example, we power the networks at Cboe, Deutsche Boerse, Nasdaq, and the NYSE, just
Drooms has launched AIFMD/command, a virtual data room solution for the large number of fund managers who are lacking the resources to comply with the incoming reporting obligations under the Alternative Investment Fund Management Directive.
AIFMD/command enables documentation to be centrally stored and managed for reporting to regulators, investors and stakeholders and allows owners of complex fixed assets to be transaction ready at any time.
According to a recent survey by KPMG, 50 per cent of fund managers feel unprepared for AIFMD and are lagging in preparations to meet the recommended implementation date in July 2013 before AIFMD takes
Average daily volume (ADV), total volume and single-day volume in futures on the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) reached all-time highs during February 2013.
The same records were also set for total exchange-wide trading.
Average daily volume in VIX futures during February reached an all-time high of 161,176 contracts. This record ADV topped the 66,924 contracts per day in February 2012 by 141 per cent and January’s ADV of 137,988 contracts, the previous record, by 17 per cent. VIX futures experienced its two most-active trading days on consecutive days during the month: 302,278 contracts on 25 February – the first time
Order book turnover on Xetra, the Xetra Frankfurt Specialist trading and Tradegate stood at EUR93bn in February (February 2012: EUR105.8bn).
Of the EUR93.0bn, EUR85.2bn were attributable to Xetra (February 2012: EUR96.4bn). EUR4.5bn were attributable to the Xetra Frankfurt Specialist trading (February 2012: EUR5.6bn).
Order book turnover on Tradegate Exchange totalled approximately EUR3.3bn in February (February 2012: EUR3.7bn).
In equities, turnover reached EUR79.1bn on Deutsche Börse’s cash markets (Xetra: EUR74.2bn, Xetra Frankfurt Specialist trading: EUR1.9bn, Tradegate Exchange: EUR2.9bn).
Turnover in bonds was EUR1.3bn, and in structured products on Scoach EUR1.3bn. Order book turnover in ETFs/ETCs/ETNs amounted to EUR11.0bn.
A total of
Napier Park Global Capital, an alternative asset management firm, has completed its spinout from Citigroup.
Napier Park has approximately USD6.8bn in assets under management, a four-year operational track record and more than 100 employees in offices in New York and London.
Napier Park Global Capital is now majority-owned by the firm’s employees and has a diversified product mix including hedge funds, single investor accounts, CLOs and private investing. The same investment and executive management teams that have run the business over the past four years will continue to make all operational and investment decisions for Napier Park Global Capital.
“We
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has added New York-based manager Van Eck to its dedicated UCITS compliant fund platform, Merrill Lynch Investment Solutions (MLIS).
The new vehicle is called the Van Eck Commodities Long-Short Equity Ucits Fund. Van Eck is an industry stalwart having been founded way back in 1955. It specializes in natural resource equities and commodities, as well as emerging markets. The firm presently has over 150 employees, with offices in Germany, Switzerland, China and Colombia. 
 

The fund seeks to leverage Van Eck’s hard assets investment team’s knowledge of the natural resources sector – including experience as geologists
Ogier Cayman announced has been named ‘Best Offshore Regulatory Advisory Firm’ under the 2013 Hedgeweek Global Awards programme. The honour was announced at a luncheon in London held on 1 March 2013.
“As a firm we take great pride in the depth and breadth of our expertise in helping clients understand and navigate the regulatory environment for hedge funds,” says Giorgio Subiotto, partner, Ogier Cayman and head of the firm’s global investment funds practice. “This award is a validation of our capabilities in this area and carries particular weight because it is based on the opinions and votes of the
The fourth edition of the Hedgeweek Awards, presented today in London’s Mayfair and sponsored by Lyxor Asset Management, brought together the leading names in the global hedge funds industry to celebrate the achievements of the best performing managers and service providers in 2012.
With 2013 starting positively for many hedge fund sectors, the industry is reaping the benefits of responding positively to growing regulatory demands while focusing on generating results for investors.
The awards were determined by the votes of Hedgeweek’s 41,000 subscribers, who include institutional investors, wealth managers, fund managers and other industry professionals at firms including fund administrators,
Wells Fargo Global Fund Services, the unit of Wells Fargo that provides fund administration and operations services to hedge funds and other alternative investment funds, has launched its new client technology solution, RealSTP.
This initial release of RealSTP will offer real-time, intra-day visibility of trade data, confirmation status, settlement activity, and cash and collateral movements to hedge fund clients of Wells Fargo’s middle-office and operations service.
It also includes an enhanced investor portal for all clients, allowing investors in funds serviced by Wells Fargo to have improved online access to their information.
Additional releases, scheduled throughout the remainder of
2013 has seen further positive performance for funds of hedge funds, with these vehicles generating returns of 2.10 per cent in January 2013, according to the latest edition of Preqin’s Hedge Fund Spotlight.
In 2012, funds of hedge funds generated returns of 4.63 per cent, with those in the top performance quartile posting net returns in excess of seven per cent, and the most successful vehicle making gains of more than 24 per cent.
Despite this improvement, returns for funds of hedge funds remain low over the longer term, with the annualised returns of funds of hedge funds over the
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