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The European Central Bank’s “whatever it takes” promise has substantially reduced tail risks, according to Lyxor.
Risk premiums that have remained abnormally high since the outset of the financial crisis should diminish over time. The road to normalization will probably be long and bumpy, however.
While policy uncertainties persist in the Eurozone, they are mounting in the US which is facing the so-called “fiscal cliff”. But the aggressive monetary policies across the world mean that the trough in the economic cycle could occur earlier than we previously had in mind.
Strategically, Lyxor continues to favour US assets but has tactically
Contrary to recent articles in the main stream media, pension funds will continue to increase their allocation to hedge funds despite the recent poor performance within the hedge fund industry, says Don Steinbrugge of Agecroft Partners.
This is being driven by the fact that pensions funds are forward looking in their investment return assumptions when determining their asset allocation. Recent relative performance of a particular asset class has little relevance in their decision making process.
Typically, pension fund boards of directors, investment committees, and internal staff meet annually, often along with their investment consultant, to determine what their asset
Sturgeon Capital has launched the Sturgeon Central Asia Equities Fund, a Ucits hedge fund that will invest primarily in equity securities of companies listed on regulated markets but which have a substantial exposure to Central Asia and the supporting regional macro growth dynamics.
"We have been investing in regional equities, both locally and internationally listed, since the firm was founded. Investors have often asked us to create an equity-only strategy focused on Central Asia and we have always considered doing so since 2006. We have been watching local stocks and markets for over 12 months with a view to launching
Daryl Flint’s Double Haven Capital Management (Hong Kong) Limited this week announced the acquisition of hedge fund platform, DragonBack Capital Limited. The hedge fund had previously been using the platform to outsource its risk management and other back office functions.
Consequently, these functions will now be managed in-house with the same team joining Double Haven. Flint, CEO and CIO of Double Haven, will continue to focus on Asia credit strategies with his team, and with good reason. Through September 2012 the Double Haven Asia Absolute Bond Fund has returned 16.8 per cent. Even though Asia’s credit markets have developed significantly
The current low yield environment has created greater interest in non-conventional segments of the credit market.
This was demonstrated by boutique investment bank Dexion Capital’s inaugural conference exploring “Opportunities across the credit spectrum”, held at the London Stock Exchange.
Investment managers who presented at the conference included Neuberger Berman, Alcentra, GSO Capital, Axa IM, DRC Capital, Gravis Capital Partners, Boussard & Gavaudan and CQS.
The keynote speaker at the conference was Edward Eyerman, head of European leveraged finance at Fitch Ratings, who gave an overview of European credit markets. The presentation noted the structural changes to several parts of
Vega-Chi US has launched the only high-yield bond trading platform solely for institutional investors.
The electronic marketplace is initially being supported by over 40 buy-side participants with more than 60 firms in the pipeline to join within the first few months of trading.
The platform is currently focused on high yield and distressed securities only.
The Vega-Chi trading platform offers institutional investors the ability to trade directly with each other in an “exchange-like” electronic setting without the need for intermediation by a broker-dealer and therefore enables the buy-side trading community to achieve better pricing for and control over their trades.
The ONS’ preliminary estimate of Q3 GDP showed the economy grew by a huge 1.0%, ending the UK’s longest double-dip recession since the Second World War in sensational style, says Azad Zangana, European Economist at Schroders…
Year on year growth rose from -0.5% to flat. The results are significantly stronger than the 0.6% consensus estimates, and our own estimate of 0.5%.
Within the details, the service sector made the biggest positive contribution growing by 1.3% following a decrease of 0.1% in the previous quarter. The production sector also posted an impressive 1.1% gain, although the construction sector continues to be
Newscape Capital Group has launched its second Ucits fund, the Newscape Diversified Growth Fund.
Following a genuine multi-asset strategy, the fund aims to achieve a consistent double-digit return with single-digit volatility over the longer term, and has an annualised benchmark hurdle of seven per cent.
The fund uses the same portfolio construction and risk management processes employed in Newscape’s Model Portfolio Service (MPS) that has been run by the firm for wealth managers and corporate pensions since September 2009.
While based on the same target risk concept, the fund composes a broad universe of single stocks, bonds, currency
Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisors (CFIA) plans to assume the investment management responsibilities for the fund of hedge funds products of Coast Asset Management.
CFIA is currently performing investment management services pursuant to a sub-advisory arrangement with Coast Asset Management.
Upon completion of the process of transitioning client service and portfolio management responsibilities and customary closing conditions, including receipt of all necessary consents and approvals, CFIA will become investment advisor to the Coast Diversified Funds and other Coast multi-manager fund of hedge fund products.
Shawn P Matthews (pictured), chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald, says: "We look forward to working with
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) is supporting the Clearing Connectivity Standard (CCS), an industry standard that helps improve over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives reporting and communication for asset managers, futures commission merchants (FCMs), central counterparties (CCPs) and custodians.
To further the development of this work, ISDA will work with Sapient Global Markets, which initially developed the standard in collaboration with the largest custodian banks and leading FCMs, to provide programme management, governance and industry oversight.
The CCS, a standardised connectivity format, will simplify integration with data systems and automate reconciliation in order to improve the communication and reporting of
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