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The Hennessee Hedge Fund Index declined -.20% in June (+1.45% YTD), while the S&P 500 declined 1.83% (+5.01% YTD), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.24% (+7.23% YTD), and the NASDAQ Composite Index decreased 2.18% (+4.55% YTD). Bonds also fell, as the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index declined 0.29% (+2.74% YTD) and the Barclays High Yield Credit Bond Index decreased 0.97% (+4.98% YTD).
“Hedge funds experienced another difficult month in June. Hedge funds were ‘whipsawed’ as markets sold off sharply before dramatically reversing course with a strong five day rally into quarter end,” says Lee Hennessee (pictured), Managing Principal of Hennessee
Hedge funds as measured by the Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index (GGHFI) navigated volatile markets to finish the month with a slight loss. The GGHFI shed 1.32% compared to global equity returns in the S&P 500 Total Return (-1.67%), MSCI World Equity (-1.73%), and FTSE 100 (-0.74%) equity indices. 28% of constituent funds in the GGHFI ended the month with gains.
Short-biased and fixed income arbitrage funds posted positive results for the month, while long-short equity managers declined 1.06%, less than equity benchmarks. Managed futures funds meanwhile slid 2.39% on intra-month selloff in equities and commodities.
Long-short credit and
The hedge fund industry posted an inflow of USD8.1 billion (0.5% of assets) in May 2011, according to the latest report from BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research. The inflow marks the fifth straight as well as the seventh in eight months. Industry assets remain unchanged at USD1.79 trillion, just below the highest level since October 2008.
“Hedge fund investors have been pouring money into funds,” says Sol Waksman (pictured), founder and President of BarclayHedge. “The industry hauled in USD75.0 billion in the first five months of 2011, which marks the heaviest such inflow since 2007. Performance, however, has hardly been stellar. The
Andrew Morris, managing director of Signature, the arm of Rowan Dartington dedicated to supporting investment professionals and their clients, comments on the crisis facing the Italian bond market…
We are experiencing a seemingly relentless rise in the EU government bond yields of Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland. Are we to be joined by Italy, a country which whilst being frequently mocked for the state of its public finances had until recently escaped the attention of the bond markets? The omens aren’t good. The Italian bond market is the third largest in the World. Estimated at EUR1.6 trillion – three times
DZ BANK has successfully commenced clearing its interest rate swaps (IRS) business through SwapClear, LCH.Clearnet Ltd’s (LCH.Clearnet) market leading over-the-counter (OTC) IRS clearing service. The total number of SwapClear clearing members now stands at 56.
DZ BANK, a corporate and investment bank, is the fourth largest bank in Germany providing centralised services to more than 900 German cooperative banks. Within the Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken cooperative financial network, which is one of Germany’s largest private-sector financial services organisations, the DZ BANK Group is one of Germany’s leading “Allfinanz” providers for the local cooperative banks with strong market positions. By joining SwapClear, DZ
Lombard Risk Management plc has announced a major global contract with another tier one bank – Société Générale – for its COLLINE collateral management solution. This major contract is expected to generate revenues of more than GBP2m in the first two years and contribute to future years.
COLLINE is a state-of-the-art, web-based solution designed by experienced business practitioner for end-to-end, cross-product collateral management. It provides a consolidated solution for mitigating credit risk while meeting the growing demand for multiple global entities, cross-product margining, Central Counterparty Clearing (CCP), MIS reporting and electronic messaging.
Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking will use
Man Group’s GLG Partners is to launch the GLG European Equity Alternative (the fund), a UCITS version of its successful GLG European long-short strategy.
Managed by Pierre Lagrange (pictured), partner and co-founder of GLG, Simon Savage, a specialist in active risk management, and Darren Hodges, an expert in options trading, the Fund for the first time offers retail investors access to the team behind the GLG European Long-Short strategy, which has a track record since 2000.
The GLG European Long-Short (ELS) strategy combines two key objectives. The first objective is aiming to deliver sustainable capital growth. Emphasising stock
Come September, ML Capital’s dedicated Ucits platform, MontLake, is on target to have four funds operating on it, in what is so far turning out to be a good year for the Malta-headquartered firm. It was announced this month that Skyline Capital Management will launch a global l/s emerging market Ucits and follows the earlier announcements of DUNN Capital Management and New York event-driven manager, Para Advisors.
MontLake was launched in Q4 last year specifically to attract hedge fund managers like those listed above. “One of the key drivers of managers coming to us is they can see we have
By James Williams – The last twelve months have done a lot to consolidate peoples’ views of alternative Ucits. Fund managers have started to wake up to the obvious benefits of having an onshore vehicle and the value that the Ucits structure can bring.
Every month new funds are being launched, transforming a sector that was once the preserve of equity l/s strategies into one populated by more diverse, complex strategies including event-driven, global macro, credit and CTAs. The emergence of John Paulson, Barton Biggs of Traxis Partners and York Capital illustrates the depth of hedge fund talent embracing Ucits.
Funds of Ucits hedge funds are a recent product development: the Gottex Absolute Return Fund, a multi-strategy product, launched 7 July 2010. As such, few have had the chance to produce eye-popping returns because in the time they’ve existed, the markets have been sluggish. “I think when equity markets improve you’ll find returns starting to pick up and investor interest will grow,” says Chris Hawkins, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of Gottex Absolute Return (Ucits) Funds.
Alternative Ucits funds are easily understood, regulated, and transparent. Consequently, some investors are allocating directly to managers rather than paying a FoFs adviser to
