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NexPoint Credit Strategies Fund has appointed James Dondero as portfolio manager.
Dondero has over 25 years of experience in the credit markets.
In addition to his role at NexPoint, Dondero is the president of Highland Capital Management, which he co-founded in 1993.
Prior to founding Highland, Dondero served as chief investment officer of Protective Life’s GIC subsidiary and helped grow the business from concept to over USD2bn between 1989 and 1993.
His portfolio management experience includes mortgage-backed securities, investment grade corporates, leveraged bank loans, high-yield bonds, emerging market debt, derivatives, and equity securities.
Asset management firm Attalus Capita has appointed Joshua Silva as senior portfolio strategist.
In this newly created role, Silva will work with Attalus’ trading and risk management teams to enhance the cost and benefit characteristics of Attalus’ risk calibration and benchmark replication for use with traditional and alternative investment strategies.
Silva will also work with Attalus’ clients to evaluate and construct customised solutions for their unique portfolio challenges. The development of Attalus’ proprietary investment platform addresses the growing demand for customised investment solutions such as risk exposure aggregation, calibration, inflation protection and tail hedging among the firm’s institutional clients.
Institutional investors are looking to alternative investments to improve performance and lower risk over the long term, according to a survey by Natixis Global Asset Management.
Seven in 10 (69 per cent) of institutional investors believe it is essential to invest in alternative investments – such as hedge funds, private equity or venture capital – to diversify portfolio risk. A similar percentage (63 per cent) believes it is essential to invest in alternative assets to outperform the broad market. US investors (with 73 per cent in agreement) are most likely to say alternatives are necessary to beat market returns.
Among
Investors attracted to Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs) should think twice before investing due to the risk of a price deterioration in the coming years, according to the Ronnie Armist (pictured), executive director at Stonehage Investment Partners…
Japan’s debt-to-GDP ratio at 220%, is almost double that of Italy. Yet the Japanese bond market has not behaved in the same way as in Europe, as domestic investors continue to prop up the country’s bond market.
Anticipation among investors of a transition to a more externally-funded system has prompted many investors over the years to consider “shorting” JGBs, yet prices have continued
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed a notice of intent to revoke the registrations of Victor E Cilli and Progressive Investment Funds (PIF).
PIF, based in Hackensack, New Jersey, is a registered commodity pool operator. Cilli is a New Jersey resident registered as an associated person of PIF and is PIF’s sole principal.
The CFTC notice, filed on 21 September 2012, alleges that Cilli and PIF are subject to statutory disqualification from CFTC registration based on a consent order for permanent injunction entered by the US District Court for the District of New Jersey on 29 May 2012
Torstone Technology has secured a new contract for the provision of Inferno for post-trade securities processing and trade accounting at London-based Daiwa Capital Markets Europe.
The four year deal, negotiated with Daiwa Institute of Research – the global systems integration and research arm of Daiwa Securities Group – will involve the ongoing use of Torstone’s Inferno for convertible bonds and associated equity/hedge products, and for FX/MM treasury functions.
The firm’s cash equity business will also move to the system by the end of 2012 and fixed income securities will follow in 2013. Inferno will then become the sole back office
100 Women in Hedge Funds (100WHF), Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO) and the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Foundation have announced the 10 recipients of the second annual 100WHF/CAIA scholarships.
The scholarship programme, administered by the CAIA Foundation, was established in collaboration with the 100 Women in Hedge Funds Institute and is underwritten by PAAMCO to support women seeking to earn the CAIA Charter, the benchmark in alternative investment education.
Each scholarship covers enrolment and registration fees for CAIA Level I and Level II exams, the CAIA Knowledge Series textbooks, the Schweser CAIA Level I Premium Instruction Study Solution,
By James Tinworth (pictured), partner in the hedge funds practice, Stephenson Harwood – On 28 June 2012, ESMA released a consultation paper on its guidelines on sound remuneration policies under the AIFMD. ESMA will consider all comments received by 27 September 2012.
In 2009, the combination of the release of the first draft of the AIFMD and the confirmation that the top income tax rate would be increased from 40p to 50p prompted many existing and prospective hedge fund managers to question the attractiveness of London (or any other city in the EU) as the base for their management business.
In response to increased demand for outsourced compliance services in the marketplace, Avalon Lake Partners has recruited Harris Bogner, an attorney and compliance expert, to head its compliance services group.
Bogner’s role at Avalon Lake Partners will be to work directly with clients to ensure they develop a strong understanding of their compliance obligations while providing them with practical, cost-effective solutions.
Avalon Lake Partners recently spun-out from WTP Advisors to focus on providing a comprehensive set of advisory services to the alternative asset management industry, namely hedge funds, private equity firms and family offices.
“Finding someone of Harris’ experience
State Street Corporation is to provide custody, transfer agency and Luxemburg fund administration services to Danish investment firm Maj Invest’s newly launched sinAl fund, a long-short equity fund.
The “stock market investing Artificial Intelligence” Fund (sinAI Fund), was launched in June in Luxembourg as a SICAV fund and currently has approximately USD215 million in assets under management. All investments in the fund are made using a sophisticated proprietary AI system that selects long as well as short positions in the US equity market. The system ranks these potential opportunities according to their risk-reward profiles.
Carsten Hoegh, head of Investor Relations, Maj
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