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Buyside firms, sellside firms and technology vendors do not all agree on what constitutes best execution, reveals a new report by capital markets consultancy GreySpark Partners.
“Best Execution: the State of Play”, the third in a series of research reports from the London based consultancy, involved canvassing over 70 buyside, sellside and technology vendors to deliver a review of the different perspectives on best execution. The work dispels traditional assumptions surrounding best execution, and re-positions these in today’s context. It is published in association with Best Execution magazine.
GreySpark’s research shows that for the buyside, the main emphasis is
The international derivatives exchanges of Eurex Group recorded an average daily volume of 10.7 million contracts in October (October 2010: 9.2 million). Of those, 7.3 million were Eurex Exchange contracts (October 2010: 6.3 million), and 3.4 million contracts (October 2010: 2.9 million) were traded at the US-based International Securities Exchange (ISE).
The growth of 17 per cent y-o-y is due to stronger hedging need of market participants driven by uncertainty resulting from the European sovereign debt crisis, which led to an increasing use of exchange-traded and centrally cleared derivatives in the current market environment. In total, 153.9 million contracts were
BNY Mellon has been appointed by Oddo Asset Management (Oddo AM) to provide fund administration and custody services for its new hedge fund, Orsay Merger Arbitrage.
Oddo AM, the asset management branch of French financial services group Oddo & Cie, launched the merger arbitrage fund in June 2011 with EUR100 million seed capital, following its acquisition of Banque D’Orsay in October 2010.
Pierre Baudard (pictured), Chief Operating Officer of Oddo Asset Management, says: “Orsay Merger Arbitrage is the flagship product of our new alternatives business and BNY Mellon’s combined expertise in fund administration and custody will be a
Boutique investment management law firm Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP, has appointed Aisha Hunt as a Partner to head its news Alternative Mutual Fund Practice in San Francisco.
Hunt has represented some of the most prominent investment managers and mutual fund families in the United States, including the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds and the Dodge & Cox Funds.
With Hunt’s appointment, the firm now offers clients a broader suite of investment management legal services, including a ’40 Act practice focused on alternative mutual funds. She has extensive legal experience counselilng emerging and established investment managers to separate accounts, hedge funds, UCITS
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a civil injunctive action against Drake Asset Management, LLC (Drake), of Glen Head, NY, and Oliver R Grace, Jr, of Hobe Sound, FL, for conducting a scheme to evade the group purchase limits of the public offerings of seven banks that were converting from mutual to stock ownership.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that, from 2003 through 2007, Grace knowingly or recklessly failed to disclose his association with certain entities, including hedge funds managed by Drake, which participated in the offerings alongside Grace.
Under Grace’s direction, Drake also knowingly or recklessly failed to disclose
SunGard will make secondary market price data on private equity, real estate and hedge funds available from its Investran platform through a collaboration with NYPPEX Private Markets.
The secondary market price data for private investment funds will be offered on a confidential basis to help customers better manage risk and meet regulatory compliance through improved private market transparency
SunGard’s Investran is an award winning application suite that supports the entire investment lifecycle, from fundraising to portfolio monitoring and reporting, by automating front-, middle- and back-office processes and providing a real-time, end-to-end solution for private equity and alternative investment firms.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has approved a final rule requiring certain advisors to private funds that are dually registered with the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to report information to the SEC for use by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) in monitoring risks to the US financial system.
The SEC approved the joint rule on 26 October, 2011.
The Commissions’ final rules, which implement Sections 404 and 406 of the Dodd-Frank Act, require SEC-registered investment advisers and dually registered CFTC registrants with at least USD150 million in private fund assets under management to periodically
To meet growing investor demand for alternative investment strategies, American Century Investments has introduced three new alternative portfolios – Core Equity Plus, Disciplined Growth Plus and Market Neutral Value. All will employ short selling but in different proportions and using different investment approaches. These new portfolios complement American Century Investments current alternative strategies – Real Estate, Global Real Estate, Global Gold, Strategic Inflation Opportunities and Equity Market Neutral.
Core Equity Plus and Disciplined Growth Plus are managed by Asset Allocation and Quantitative Equity Chief Investment Officer Scott Wittman (pictured) and Senior Portfolio Manager Bill Martin. Core Equity Plus team also
The 2011 Advent Users Group (AUG) annual Asset Management Operations and Compensation Survey, which is co-sponsored by the Investment Adviser Association (IAA) and Advent Software, has found that asset management firms benefitted from market growth and recovering fund flows, which contributed to a 16 per cent year-over-year revenue growth and a rise in compensation for investment management executives and professionals.
Furthermore, despite the uncertain economy, profit margins were up from the previous year, fuelled largely by cost-cutting measures initiated in response to the financial crisis.
"The AUG survey offers invaluable insights into the trends shaping the asset management industry. Listening
The US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts has charged Andrey C Hicks of Boston, Massachusetts, in a criminal complaint unsealed on Friday, 28 October, 2011. Hicks was charged with committing wire fraud, attempting to commit wire fraud, and aiding and abetting wire fraud, in violation of 18 USC Sections 1343, 1349, and 2.
On 26 October, 2011, the SEC filed an emergency enforcement action charging Hicks and Locust Offshore Management, LLC, his investment advisory firm, with fraud in connection with misleading prospective investors about their supposed quantitative hedge fund and diverting investor money to the money manager’s personal bank
