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Managed futures gained 1.32% in July according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge. Year-to-date, the Barclay CTA Index is down 0.67%.
“A counter-intuitive bond market rally that flew in the face of rating downgrade concerns may have puzzled many traders, but trend-following CTAs were largely able to profit from the move,” says Sol Waksman, founder and President of BarclayHedge.
All of Barclay’s eight CTA indices had gains in July. The Barclay Diversified Traders Index gained 2.03%, Systematic Traders were up 1.93%, Agricultural Traders gained 1.18%, Discretionary Traders added 0.72%, Financial & Metals Traders were up 0.69%, and the Currency Traders
The bear trend continued on the stock market in July as pessimism set in among investors. The S&P 500 index (-2.03%) fell steeper, recording its third consecutive loss, accompanied by an exceptional surge (up 8.7%) of implicit volatility (25.3%) which reached the level of last summer.
On the fixed-income market, regular bonds (+0.84%) yielded a substantial profit which made up for their loss of June. The Lehman Global Bond Index (+1.82%) scored even better, and out-performed the S&P 500 index in 2011. Conversely, convertible bonds suffered heavy losses again (-1.59%). Following five months of a strong rise and two months
James Hughes, Senior Market Analyst at Alpari UK, says the proposed Europe-wide financial transactions tax, announced this week and backed by Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, will have a negative inpact on the City of London…
The proposed financial transactions tax isn’t a new concept and has been mentioned before – but only now has it been put forward as a plausible policy idea which explains the market reaction.
On the surface, the effect on the City of London is likely to be net negative because it will become more expensive to conduct transactions, which in turn means lower
Gold’s strong start to the year was reinforced during the second quarter of 2011 where total global gold demand measured 919.8 tonnes, worth a near-record USD44.5bn, with broad-based support across all sectors and geographies.
Standout markets were India and China, as these two markets accounted for 52% of total bar and coin investment and 55% of global jewellery demand, according to the World Gold Council.
According to the Gold Demand Trends report for Q2 2011, gold demand in the second half of 2011 will remain strong owing to a number of key factors.
Despite a higher gold price, Indian and
The dual impact of the persistently weak economic environment and new regulations is keeping investment management companies on a slow growth track, according to industry executives surveyed by KPMG LLP, the audit, tax, and advisory firm.
While the survey of 100 US investment management executives conducted in May – June 2011 revealed at the time that their biggest concern was around regulatory and legislative pressures, their views about an overall economic recovery were equally dour.
The burden of new regulations was a focal point, with 61 per cent of the asset managers indicating those pressures pose the most significant
Chi-X Europe Limited intends to offer full four-way clearing interoperability to all of its trading participants.
EMCF, EuroCCP, LCH.Clearnet Ltd and SIX x-clear will collaborate to offer a full clearing choice by 1 January 2012, subject to regulatory approval. Full interoperability will be available for all traded equities on Chi-X Europe, with the exception of the Spanish market.
Participants will be able to take advantage of the efficiencies of netting and cross-margining to manage their risks and costs more effectively.
“This is a significant milestone for the European equities market. Full four-way interoperability has always been one of
Harcourt Investment Consulting AG, the Switzerland-based alternative investment solutions provider, has seen its assets under management (AuM) increase from USD4.9bn in the first half of 2011from USD4.8bn as at the end of December 2010.
Harcourt believes the increase, in what continues to be a challenging environment, reflects the growing investor appetite for alternative investments.
During the first half of 2011, Harcourt saw positive inflows into its flagship products, Belvista Commodity and VONDA UCITS. Increases in assets under management were also reported for Harcourt’s Belmont Commodity Trading Fund. Most of the new assets were acquired from institutional clients.
The favourable increase
HedgeServ has appointed Farnaz Milani as Managing Director in the firm’s sales team. Milani will be responsible for building relationships with leading hedge fund managers, funds of hedge funds, private equity funds, and institutional investors.
"Farnaz is a proven veteran in fund administration with an industry-wide reputation for integrity," says Justin Nadler, President of HedgeServ. "We enthusiastically welcome her as a significant addition to the HedgeServ team. Farnaz brings extensive experience in partnering with prime brokers, audit firms, and due diligence professionals and is a trusted resource to investment managers for tailoring complete fund administration solutions."
Milani brings more than twenty years
European Multilateral Clearing Facility (EMCF), Europe’s largest cash equities Central Counterparty (CCP), is to engage in interoperability with competitors servicing European MTFs and exchanges. In addition, a competitive new fee schedule will be introduced ahead of Interoperability.
EMCF has indicated to Chi-X Europe, BATS Europe and NASDAQ OMX that it intends to enter into Interoperability agreements. Timing and process of the interoperability arrangements will be determined in coordination with platforms and interoperating CCPs in the coming weeks. EMCF aims for launch of the interoperability arrangements by January 1st 2012, conditional on regulatory approval.
EMCF has consistently supported interoperability, provided that
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), in conjunction with Markit, is launching its new Loan/SERV Cash on Transfer service, which, coupled with Markit’s loan settlement platform, gives the global syndicated loan market its first delivery-versus-payment (DVP) platform for secondary loan trading. The service is a major advance in reducing settlement risk in the loan market.
In the current trading process, there is no assurance that cash settles simultaneously with the change of ownership recorded by agent banks at the time of trade settlement. This leaves the seller on each trade at risk of no longer being the lender of
