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The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Market Oversight (DMO) has issued an Advisory regarding the treatment of bona fide hedging transactions and positions under Commission Regulations 1.3(z), 1.47, and 1.48 as they existed prior to the adoption of the final rule addressing Position Limits for Futures and Swaps.
The Division issued the Advisory at this time to remind market participants that regulations 1.3(z) and 1.48 will continue to apply to position limits under the Commission’s part 150 regulations until 60 days after the Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) jointly publish a rule or rules
Last Monday saw New York-based GSB Podium Advisors launch a UCITS version of its global market neutral equity long/short strategy, prior to which it had been running solely in the form of three managed accounts. The GSB Equity Market Neutral (UCITS) Fund has been designed to replicate the systematic strategy whose genesis dates back to 1997 when GSB founder Shengbei Guo ran Deutsche Bank’s equity statistical arbitrage trading desk.
It wasn’t until 2005 that the strategy first appeared as a fund – the Statistical Arbitrage Fund. That same year Guo’s prop desk decided to spin out of Deutsche Bank in
Man Group, the alternative investment manager, has launched Clarus, an online portal for investors in managed accounts to obtain greater transparency in their underlying investments.
The financial crisis and subsequent shocks in markets have emphasised the need for visibility of the risks and liquidity in portfolios.
Man has developed Clarus to share investment insights with clients and provide more data and analysis than historical performance-based reporting. It allows clients to visualise their exposure to underlying risk factors in both their managed accounts and aggregated as part of their wider portfolio.
Eric Burl, Man’s Head of Managed Accounts, says:
All eyes will be on former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont (pictured) and Economics Editor and Broadcaster Stephanie Flanders as they debate the future of the financial markets at the Guernsey Funds Forum 2012.
The event, titled ‘Shaken not stirred’, will be held at the Grange St Paul’s Hotel in London on Wednesday 2 May. It will comprise three sessions, culminating in a keynote debate featuring Lord Lamont and Stephanie Flanders where the audience will have the opportunity to cross-examine the pair in a ‘Question Time’ format. The debate and the preceding panel sessions will all be moderated
Don Steinbrugge, managing member of third-party marketing firm Agecroft Partners, says that in a highly competitive marketplace with more than 2,000 funds of hedge funds, firms can defy current industry headwinds and raise assets successfully by identifying a market niche within three areas: strategy focus, fund structure and investor segment.
The fund of hedge funds marketplace has experienced net redemptions four years in a row. This trend is expected to continue in 2012, but Agecroft Partners has observed that some funds of hedge funds have thrived during this time period by focusing on a specific niche in the marketplace.
There
Global alternative asset management group Gottex Fund Management Holdings Limited (Gottex) returned to operating profitability in 2011, according to the group’s annual results for the year ended 31 December.
Financial performance was in-line with current expectations with gross revenues of USD 58.6 million (2010: USD 63.8 million) and substantially reduced overall operational cost of USD 48.2 million (2010: USD 58.1 million) resulted in an operating profit of USD 0.7 million (2010: USD 5.0 million loss). Diluted EPS losses of USD -0.09 (2010: USD -0.10) were generated due to the impact of financial investments and certain impairment charges.
Gottex continued Continued
Hedge funds, as measured by the Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index, finished February up 1.61%, with 9 out of 10 strategies in positive territory.
In total, the industry saw estimated inflows of approximately USD3.25 billion in February, bringing overall assets under management for the industry to approximately USD1.75 trillion; February experience the first month of asset inflows since August 2011.
The Convertible Arbitrage and Managed Futures sectors experienced the largest asset inflows on a percentage basis in February, with inflows of 0.97% and 0.64% from January 2012 levels, respectively.
Directional strategies, such as Long/Short Equity, experienced positive performance
GLG’s Pierre Lagrange first came up with the idea to monitor brokers’ ideas back in 2005. The European equity long-only strategy ran internally before a Sovereign Wealth Fund decided to commit approximately USD500million to the strategy in a managed account mandate towards the end of 2007.
Then, in January 2011, Man Systematic Strategies (MSS) partnered up with independent ETF provider Source to launch the Man GLG Europe Plus Source ETF. In just over 12 months the ETF has attracted USD530million, taking net assets in the strategy to USD1.2billion.
Last week, Hedgeweek met with Khalil Mohammed (pictured), a member of the
The Securities and Exchange Commission has established comprehensive arrangements with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) as part of a long-term strategy to improve the oversight of regulated entities that operate across national borders.
The two memoranda of understanding (MOUs) reached this month follow on a similar supervisory arrangement that the SEC concluded with the Quebec Autorité des marchés financiers and the Ontario Securities Commission in 2010 and expanded to include the Alberta Securities Commission and the British Columbia Securities Commission last September.
The SEC’s latest supervisory cooperation arrangements will enhance SEC
The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index has gained 2% year-to-date (+0.7% in February), illustrating a strong come-back from Hedge Fund strategies in a “risk on” environment. Eleven hedge fund strategies out of 16 posted a positive return in February and 9 were above +1%, lead by L/S Equity and Event-Driven strategies.
Markets remained on a very solid footing in February, extending the already strong January gains. World equities flirted with double digit year-to-date performances. Directional segments thus continued to lead. L/S Equity strategies recorded strong performances with +3.2% for the L/S Equity – Long Bias Index (+6.3% YTD) for instance. Emerging
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