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The biases that inflate the performance of hedge funds have been well documented in the financial literature. Survivorship bias, which results from the ex-post exclusion of unsuccessful funds from databases, and backfill or instant history bias, which occurs when the historical performance of a successful fund is retroactively added (backfilled) into the database, distort the performance of the hedge fund industry. These biases tend to inflate the returns posted by non-investable hedge fund indices.
Investable hedge fund indices can help investors mitigate the effects of these biases, but investable indices cannot include all existing funds. The number of underlying
More than 1,200 investment professionals passed the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA) AIA Level II exam in 2010, making them eligible for the CAIA designation, the only globally recognised designation focused on alternative investments.
By year-end 2010, CAIA Association membership worldwide for the 8-year-old organisation grew to more than 4,600.
“Employers and investors are looking for professionals with an in-depth and current understanding of the dynamic world of alternatives,” says Florence Lombard (pictured), CEO, CAIA Association. “The CAIA designation’s international reputation is unique and draws investment professionals to the CAIA Association’s comprehensive educational program.”
The CAIA designation is
Guillaume Ménabé has joined Finisterre Capital as junior portfolio manager on the Finisterre Global Opportunity Fund. He will be running a portion of the Foreign Exchange and Commodities portfolio as well as providing additional support to the existing team.
Guillaume joined Finisterre from JP Morgan, where he was a portfolio manager in the Global Macro Proprietary Trading team in London. Prior to this he worked with JP Morgan in the Structured Product Energy Trading team in both London and Asia.
“We are delighted that Guillaume has joined us," says Yan Swiderski, Partner and Portfolio Manager of the Global Opportunity Fund.
Despite an increase in average costs, a unanimous rise in business volumes and a robust increase in fee, commission & premium income meant that investment management profitability grew strongly for the sixth consecutive quarter, according to the latex CBI/PwC Financial Services Survey.
However, the survey, which asked participants how their business volumes fared in the three months to December, found that plans for capital spending in the year ahead have generally weakened; in particular, investment managers plan to authorise less spending on IT relative to the past year, for the first time since June 2009.
Optimism in securities trading rose
Multi-family office MaxCap Partners has appointed award winning investment experts, Michel Piette and Ittan Ali as investment managers.
Piette and Ali will be co-managing the investment team, with Piette focusing primarily on hedge funds and commodities and Ali taking greater responsibility for equities.
“MaxCap was founded four years ago to meet the investment needs of the ultra high net worth families dissatisfied with the offerings of traditional private banks and wealth managers," says Mohammad Syed (pictured), MaxCap CEO. "Our investment team is formed of experts with deep, specialist knowledge to carefully strategise and manage clients’ investments. We hire
LCH.Clearnet and Chi-X Europe will this week launch the world’s first contract-for-difference (CFD) clearing service for institutional investors.
The centrally cleared CFD (ccCFD) service has been designed to fit with existing market practices. Institutional investors will be able to source best execution from the broker of their choice and transform this into an on exchange centrally cleared CFD. The service complements regulators’ stated aims to increase the proportion of OTC trades cleared and provides additional choice to institutional investors concerned about counterparty risk or regulatory developments.
The ccCFD contract has been developed by LCH.Clearnet and is accessed through Chi-X
The bull run in commodities is set to continue for at least another five years, offering long-only investors better growth potential than any other asset class, according to managed futures fund manager, Dighton Capital Management.
Bonds and property are all hitting headwinds while Dighton believes equities are set for a major correction toward the end of 2011 or early 2012 led by the developed markets.
“Long-only investors should just own commodities across the board," says Alex Moiseev," Principal and Chief Investment Officer, Dighton Capital Management, "There is nothing else that is worthwhile out there. Equities in some emerging markets do
International derivatives exchange Eurex will offer its Trader Development Program in 2011 in response to high customer demand. Now entering its fifth year, the program will also introduce new incentives to attract more traders to the Eurex exchange, including educational and training services as well as fee waivers.
In addition, Eurex is going to extend the rewards for participants of last year’s Trader Development Program. Depending on volume traded in 2010, traders could be registered for the “Champions Group” in Eurex’s Trader Development Program, securing significant fee reductions and training that allow traders to further boost their activities on Eurex.
Global financial markets ended 2010 with a positive tone, with strength across global equity, commodity and credit markets throughout the month of December.
Fixed income yields rose despite continued subdued inflationary pressures, measures of manufacturing and employment improved while the US dollar declined against most major currencies. The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index gained 3.15% for the month, bringing full year performance to a gain of 10.42%; all strategies had a positive contribution for the month, with the most significant gains in Macro and Equity Hedge strategies.
Macro funds posted the strongest gains of the strategies with a contribution
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed and simultaneously settled charges against Forex Auto Profits, LLC (FAP) and its founder, Darren L Shanks, formerly of South Jordan, Utah, for fraud and misappropriation in connection with operating a foreign currency (forex) scheme.
The CFTC order requires FAP and Shanks to pay civil monetary penalties of USD750,000 and USD500,000, respectively. FAP and Shanks also are ordered jointly and severally to pay restitution of USD1,702,770.94 and are permanently barred from engaging in any commodity-related trading activities, including soliciting funds, registering with the CFTC and trading on behalf of themselves or others.
