It looks like the market has reacted with some cheer to the news that Silvio Berlusconi has stepped down as Italian Prime Minister with his successor Mario Monti asked to form a new government following approval of a reform package by the Italian parliament on Saturday, says Anthony Gillham (pictured), portfolio manager at Skandia Investment Group (SIG)… Italian 10 year government bond yields had hit around 7.5% last week, levels that were said to have triggered bail outs in other peripheral European markets, but on Friday dropped to around 6.5%. Risk assets are firmer as a result. While the cheer

Compensation levels for investment professionals in 2011 are expected to be flat to modestly higher than those reported in 2010, according to a new report released jointly by Greenwich Associates and Johnson Associates. Within traditional asset management organisations, compensation for 2011 is projected to be flat from 2010 levels to 5% lower for equity professionals and flat to 5% higher in fixed income. Within hedge funds, year-end  compensation is expected to vary widely based on company performance for both equity and fixed-income professionals, with some down and others flat or up versus 2010.   “These expectations are bullish compared with

The Blue Ink Composite (BIC), which tracks the performance of around 100 Hedge Funds in South Africa, reported a steady increase of 0.9% for the third quarter of 2011. The BIC outperformed the JSE All Share Total Return Index (ALSI) by more than 6%, which returned -5.39% over the same period. According to Eben Karsten (pictured), portfolio manager at Blue Ink Investments, the third quarter of 2011 was another difficult quarter for the local equity market. “The Rand depreciated by as much as 13% as foreigners liquidated risk positions, in particular in equities. In US dollar terms, the ALSI was

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the investment management business of State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT) has launched two new fixed income strategies based on alternative-weighted indices that are designed to forecast a company’s financial strength. They also exclude debt issued by private companies and subordinated debt. The SSgA US Issuer Scored Corporate Bond Index strategy and the SSgA Euro Issuer Scored Corporate Bond Index strategy both seek to track a new and innovative benchmark index design. These indices use financial factors to weight the allocation to corporate bond issuers based on profitability, operational efficiency, leverage and liquidity. This is achieved by focusing

In light of the current fiscal and monetary concerns that are gripping the minds of investors around the world, Institutional Asset Manager asked the heads of some of the world’s leading asset managers to share their thinking on portfolio management trends post-Lehman and beyond 2011 in concise fashion. Nick Gartside (pictured), International CIO for Fixed Income, JP Morgan Asset Management, responds: "2009 to 2010 was about capturing the generational opportunity in fixed income credit; both investment grade and high yield bonds sold off to very attractive levels. Many institutional investors grabbed this opportunity. "2011 has been characterised by an anaemic economic

After four straight months of gains, managed futures lost 1.50% in October according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge. Year-to-date, the Index is down 2.30%. “A revival of animal spirits sparked by an improving economic picture and the appearance of a solution for Euro zone sovereign debt problems spawned trend reversals in many of the major futures sectors,” says Sol Waksman (pictured), founder and president of BarclayHedge. Six of Barclay’s eight CTA indices had negative returns in October. The Diversified Traders Index lost 2.69%, Systematic Traders were down 2.15%, Financial & Metal Traders lost 0.68%, and Currency Traders