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A former managing director at Standard Chartered and derivatives trader Yiming Liang, and the former chief investment officer of China&r
Gibraltar could benefit from a change to Luxembourg law, which has slowed down the launch of specialised investment funds in the Grand Duchy.
On 6 March 2012, the Luxembourg parliament passed a bill of law amending the Luxembourg law of 13 February 2007 on specialised investment funds (SIF). It is now no longer possible to launch SIF prior to the approval of Luxembourg Supervisory Commission of Financial Sector making launch of a fund slower.


James Lasry (pictured), Head of Funds at Hassans, International Law Firm in Gibraltar, says: "As a result of the new Luxembourg law that removes the possibility
Hedge funds posted their strongest start to a calendar year since 2000, with significant contributions from strategy areas which underperformed in 2011, according to data released today by HFR.
The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index gained 2.14 per cent in February, bringing performance through the first two months of 2012 to nearly five per cent. The recent gains have nearly recovered the -5.26 per cent decline from 2011, a year in which total hedge fund industry capital rose by 3 per cent to $2.02 Trillion.
Equity Hedge funds have had the most significant contribution to HFRI performance in 2012,
Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff & Cohen has appointed Howard Mulligan as Of Counsel in the Corporate Department. Mulligan is an experienced corporate and securities attorney who practices in the areas of structured finance and business restructurings.
Mulligan previously practiced in the New York offices of law firms McDermott Will & Emery, Dewey Ballantine LLP, and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP.
Mulligan brings 17 years of experience in the areas of structured finance, securitisation, derivatives and mergers and acquisitions involving structured products, workouts and restructurings, and entertainment law. At Kleinberg Kaplan, Mulligan will work collaboratively with attorneys across the firm’s
Newedge has made three senior appointments in the Alternative Investment Solutions (AIS) division of its Prime Clearing Services (PCS) team.
James Shekerdemian has been named Head of Origination and Structuring for the AIS division in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, reporting directly to Jonathan Gane, Global Head of Origination & Structuring – AIS. In this role, Shekerdemian will be responsible for driving further growth in the AIS business and overseeing the continued build-out of Newedge’s equity franchise in the region. He brings to Newedge more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, the last
Agecroft Partners, the hedge fund consulting and third party marketing firm, was recognized by Hedgeweek as the winner of the “2012 Best Third Party Marketing Firm in North America” at their global Hedge Fund Awards ceremony held in London on 2 March.
Winners were selected based on a survey Hedgeweek performed of their reader base. This marked the 5th year in a row that Agecroft Partners has received the third party marketer of the year award by a major industry organisation. In addition, Agecroft Partners recently received the most votes among North American third party marketers in a survey of
Merchant Capital, the independent corporate finance and investment management firm, has migrated its UCITS umbrella to Point Nine’s Circle.2 platform of live middle and back office services.
The firm chose Point Nine’s Circle platform for the launch of its UCITS umbrella last year. A new release, Circle.2, provides live and cloud-enabled trade reconciliation and settlements reporting for the first time, allowing fund managers to view key information such as counterparty exposures and settlement reports in real-time. Point Nine has also supported Merchant Capital’s recent move to a new fund administrator.
Chris Day, Director of Merchant Capital, says: “Having
The Gargoyle Group has launched a new fund it believes to be the industry’s first market neutral fund to hedge with a continually-monitored index options overlay.
The Fund attempts to produce superior long-term investment returns with low correlation to the US stock market. The Fund uses many of the components of the proprietary methodology employed successfully by its flagship fund for the last 12 years.
The underlying equity portfolio is selected from among the top 2000 capitalised US-listed companies. The options overlay portfolio typically sells near-term call options on indexes that are highly correlated to the underlying stock portfolio. The
ITG, a leading agency research broker and financial technology firm, has released the new ITG Dynamic Open Algorithm, designed to allow traders to tap the liquidity available in the NYSE and NASDAQ opening auctions while minimising price impact from over-participation.
ITG Dynamic Open is the first algorithm specifically tailored to the processes of each exchange, intelligently participating in auctions by employing data from the real-time imbalance feeds.
“The uncertainties and complexity of the opening auctions have made some traders reluctant to use the open,” says Jeff Bacidore (pictured), ITG Managing Director and Head of Algorithmic Trading. “ITG Dynamic Open
Qatar Exchange (QE) has launched a number of new equity indices to complement the existing QE Index. The new indices will be live from 1 April 2012.
A total return version of the QE index will be disseminated in real-time; measuring price performance and income from dividends, thus representing the total return earned in a portfolio tracking the underlying price index. QE will also introduce All Share and sector indices, a series that provides investors with an overall market benchmark and enhanced tools to evaluate sector performance in real-time.
In line with the industry sector indices, statistical and trading
