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By Nick Barisheff – In some parts of the world gold is viewed as the protector of wealth. In North America, gold is viewed as a speculative investment. Economists regard a rising gold price as an admission of defeat and their disparaging attitude toward higher gold prices took on a more desperate tone in 2010.
It is important to note that currencies are falling in value, and gold can rise as far as currencies can fall. Nick discusses the three dominant medium-term trends that pushed up gold prices in 2010 (central bank buying; movement away from the US dollar; China)
The hedge fund industry posted an inflow of USD15.7 billion (0.9% of assets) in March 2011, according to BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research. The inflow marks the third straight as well as the seventh in eight months. Industry assets rose to USD1.8 trillion, the highest level since October 2008.
“We expect recent strength to persist in light of a particularly kind landscape,” says Sol Waksman (pictured), founder and President of BarclayHedge. “Seasonality works in favor of the industry through June, high commodity prices leave sovereign wealth funds with a lot of cash to invest, and returns have been strong. The Barclay Hedge
State Street Corporation has appointed Craig Butterworth as head of fixed income sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Butterworth will lead State Street Global Market’s fixed income sales team and will be responsible for expanding its rates business with new and existing clients. State Street Global Markets launched its fixed income rates business in 2010 in response to market demand and opportunities for integrated and diversified trading strategies. The business, which provides fixed income rates trading and sales coverage to institutional clients now has more than 60 front office professionals, primarily based in the UK and US.
“It is truly
NYSE Euronext saw global derivatives average daily volume (“ADV”) of 8.8 million contracts traded per day in April 2011 a decrease of 18.5% versus the prior year, which benefited from un-seasonally strong trading volumes due to heightened market volatility driven by the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
April 2010 was the second highest level of derivatives monthly trading volume in 2010, second only to May 2010. When compared to the strong first quarter of 2011, Global Derivatives trading volumes in April 2011 are down only 2.4%. Cash equities ADV in April 2011 declined across all venues, with European cash
The Hennessee Hedge Fund Index advanced 1.36% in April (+3.85% YTD), while the S&P 500 advanced 2.85% (+8.43% YTD), the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 3.98% (+10.65% YTD), and the NASDAQ Composite Index gained +3.32% (+8.32% YTD).
Bonds advanced, as the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index increased 1.27% (+1.71% YTD) and the Barclays High Yield Credit Bond Index advanced +1.55% (+5.49% YTD).
“Hedge funds are underperforming for the year as the investment environment remains challenging for alpha generation,” says Lee Hennessee (pictured), Managing Principal of Hennessee Group. “While managers generated gains in long portfolios as equity markets continued to rally,
AlphaMetrix, a provider of platform and administration services for hedge funds and investors, has appointed Mikus Kins as Executive Director of Business Development. Kins reports to Geoff Marcus, Chief Strategic Officer, and is based in Chicago.
Most recently, Kins was Head of US Business Development at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Chicago for the Business Transaction Services product group focusing on large corporate and multinational clients.
“Mikus has a proven track record for growing innovative, entrepreneurial teams that serve the world’s top financial institutions,” says Marcus. “We are excited to leverage that experience as we roll out what we
Commodity trading adviser DUNN Capital is to launch the DUNN WMA UCITS Fund on the MontLake UCITS Platform. WMA (World Monetary and Agriculture) DUNN’s flagship long-term trend-following program, has experienced an annualised return of 14.61% from its inception in 1984.


John Lowry (pictured), Chairman of ML Capital says: “We are delighted about this launch. DUNN has by most metrics outperformed the largest Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) firms in the world, and the objective of the MontLake UCITS Platform is to deliver access to leading alternative strategies providers. At present, US based CTAs are in short supply within a UCITS structure and are
To strengthen their goal of offering leading investment products globally, Canadian asset management veteran, Arrow Hedge Partners, is expanding its presence in the UK through new firm, Generation Asset Management (G2AM).
The move coincides with a full corporate rebrand. After ten years as Arrow Hedge, the successful Canadian fund manager is changing its name to Arrow Capital Management (Arrow).
The firm was founded in 1999 by Jim McGovern (pictured), former CEO and co-founder of BPI Financial Corporation (BPI), a Canadian based investment manager; with the belief that true, active management would lead to superior investment results, through down-side protection and
Man Group’s range of UCITS funds now offers a daily dealing facility. The funds – Man AHL Trend and Man AHL Diversity – – were initially launched with a weekly dealing cycle and offer retail investors access to Man’s flagship AHL strategy through an onshore, regulated format with low minimum investment requirements.
From today, Man investors will be able to buy and sell these funds on a daily basis.
The funds have attracted more than $750 million in assets since the first offering was brought to market in July 2009.
Harry Skaliotis, Head of Client Portfolio Management at
After posting modest losses during the first half of April, US equity markets ended the month with positive performance. Commodities posted gains concentrated in precious metals while the US Dollar declined sharply. US treasury yields fell on analysts’ negative outlook for US credit rating, while the environment for credit & corporate acquisition remained robust. Hedge funds posted gains for the month of April, with the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index gaining 1.86% with positive contributions across all strategies.
The strongest area of hedge fund performance for April was Macro strategies, with the HFRI Macro (Total) Index posted a gain of
