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In value terms, gold demand in 2012 was USD236.4bn – an all-time high, according to figures released by the World Gold Council.
Gold demand in value terms for the final quarter of the year was six per cent higher year-on-year at USD66.2bn, marking the highest ever Q4 total.
Global gold demand in Q4 2012 was 1,195.9 tonnes(t), up four per cent on the same quarter in 2011. In Q4 2012, the average gold price reached a record level of USD1,721.8/oz, up one per cent on the previous record average price in Q3 2011. The average price during 2012 was USD1,669.0/oz,
FIX Protocol Ltd (FPL), a non-profit, industry standards organisation for the global electronic trading community, has published recommended best practices and accompanying implementation guidelines for the electronic trading of bonds.
These recommendations will enable bond market participants to benefit from cost effective and efficient connectivity to the growing number of bond trading platforms emerging across the US and European markets.
Regulatory efforts to increase capital requirements and enhance transparency, in this traditionally voice traded asset class, have led to market structure changes, creating an increasingly automated and venue-driven trading environment. The best practices and implementation guidelines provide recommendations to both
Cayman Finance chief executive Gonzalo Jalles has welcomed recent news that Moody’s credit ratings agency has affirmed its Aa3 sovereign rating for the Cayman Islands, viewing the outlook on the country as “stable”.
“At a time when the global economic recovery remains uncertain and most countries around the world face serious challenges, it is pleasing to note that Moody’s recognises the strength of the Cayman economy and the long term prospects for the Cayman Islands remain very strong in the eyes of economic experts," says Jalles (pictured).
He says the decision to maintain Cayman’s current high ratings shows the
By Martin Kremenstein – Getting the execution right when managing a commodity ETF, irrespective of the underlying index it is tracking, is fundamentally important. It’s something that Martin Kremenstein (pictured), CEO and CIO, Deutsche Bank Commodity Services LLC, and his team are fully focused on, particularly given the size of the firm’s flagship commodity ETF: DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC), which, with USD 7 billion in AUM, makes it the largest broad-based commodities ETF in the world.
“When you’re running a large product versus an index you have to be careful that the fund’s activities don’t start to distort
By James Williams – Last year net new assets into commodity ETPs were USD23.1billion, up from USD15.1billion the year before according to the London-based exchange traded funds consulting firm ETFGI.
The vast majority of those inflows went into precious metals, taking in a whopping USD20.3billion, with broad-based commodities taking in USD2.8billion and energy around USD1.1billion.
Within Europe, the story was much the same. “Of the USD8.9billion in net new inflows into commodity ETPs (up from USD6.4billion in 2011), USD7.8billion went into precious metals. The top five commodity products in Europe in terms of net inflows were all gold ETPs,” confirms
Interview with Nicholas Brooks – “I would argue that some of the higher beta sectors will perform best in the near-term: within commodities, those that we like best are those with a tight supply/demand balance and that can benefit from a pick-up in US and Chinese growth. Platinum, palladium, copper, and to a lesser degree crude oil, could all benefit this year,” suggests Nicholas Brooks (pictured), head of research and investment strategy at ETF Securities.
With both the US and Chinese economies expected to grow over the coming months, there is cautious optimism to believe that the global economy should
Interview with Stefan Garcia – “I’ve been speaking with a lot of our big investors and most are holding their current gold position, which they’ve been building up for the last five or six years, but in addition they might start looking for opportunities in platinum and palladium” explains Stefan Garcia (pictured), managing director at Source, a leading European ETP provider with over USD13.5 billion in total assets.
Over the last three years gold has accounted for 80 per cent of total net inflows into commodity ETPs in Europe. In 2012, precious metals accounted for USD7.8billion of those inflows, of
Interview with David Donora – “Brent/WTI crude was a key contributor to performance in 2011 as well as 2012. Another significant position for 2012 was an underweight in natural gas versus a maximum overweight in gasoline. We also held a maximum overweight position in gas oil: across the energy sector that was our most significant contributor to outperformance last year,” confirms David Donora (pictured), who co-manages the Enhanced Commodities Fund at Threadneedle with Nicholas Robin.
The long-only fund trades between 20 and 25 commodities. Each position, be it underweight or overweight, has an upper limit of 7 per cent of
By James Williams – Commodity hedge funds have been in the doldrums somewhat, as the macroeconomic climate continues to make life difficult for managers. Performance, in effect, just hasn’t stacked up, leading to some institutional investors heading for the exit. As the Financial Times reported on 6 February 2013, industry executives estimate that overall AUM in the commodity hedge fund sector has fallen “by at least 20 per cent in the past year, and perhaps by more than a third”.
Stalwarts of the industry, such as Michael Coleman’s Singapore-based Merchant Commodity fund, had, by last summer, lost two thirds of
The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index finished up 2.07 per cent for the month of January, with nine of the 10 sub-strategies recording gains.
Long/short equity led the way with a return of 3.54 per cent for the month followed by emerging markets (3.45 per cent), managed futures (2.67 per cent) and event driven (2.15 per cent).
Dedicated short bias was the only sub-strategy to finish the month in negative territory with a return of -5.22 per cent.
The following funds were dropped from the Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index in January: NWI Explorer Global Master Fund,
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