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Eurex will introduce equity options with weekly expiration dates on 24 January 2011. It’s the first time that weekly options will be available on the exchange.
The Eurex Weekly Equity Options will be listed as separate contracts and will initially comprise derivatives based on shares of Daimler, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Telekom and Nokia (four per underlying stock).
Eurex will offer Weekly Equity Options for the first, second, fourth and fifth Friday of a calendar month, complementing the standard equity options series, which expires on the third Friday of every month. All other contract specifications will correspond to those of Eurex’s
Hedge funds gained 2.88 per cent in December and are up 10.86 per cent in 2010 according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
“After two years of strong gains, close to 64 per cent of the hedge funds that report data to us have now recovered from losses in 2008,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge. "Although hedge funds under performed US equities in 2010, +15.07 per cent for the S&P 500 versus +10.95 per cent for the Barclay Hedge Fund Index, the S&P 500 still remains 8.3 per cent below its year-end 2007 close,
Private equity firm GTCR has entered into a partnership with David Minella to form Aligned Asset Managers (AAM), which will focus on building a multi-strategy asset management platform through substantial equity investments in firms across alternative and traditional asset classes.
GTCR, the firm that pioneered the Leaders Strategy of partnering with proven executives in growing industries to create market-leading companies, plans to invest up to USD200 million of equity capital to support the strategy, while Minella will serve as CEO of Stamford, Connecticut-based AAM.
Minella, a 35-year financial services industry veteran, was formerly CEO at Value Asset Management (VAM), a
Gartmore Group, which put itself up for sale late last year following the departure of several senior fund executives, is set to be acquired by Henderson Group plc, parent company of Henderson Global Investors (Henderson).
Henderson yesterday announced its offer to acquire Gartmore Group Limited (Gartmore). The combined Group will have around GB78bn assets under management and become one of the largest UK retail asset managers by AUM.
"The acquisition of Gartmore is a great opportunity for Henderson,” says Andrew Formica, Chief Executive of Henderson Group. “Gartmore has a highly complementary strategy and stable of products to that of Henderson.
Monday evening (10 Jan 2011) at the Barclays Wealth office in Brook Street, London, saw the official launch of a new product by Ifina. Entitled the Primary Development Fund, it provides a one-stop shop solution for unregulated managers looking to establish a fund umbrella structure and become the investment manager to their sub-funds.
Following a short introduction from Steve McCafferty of Barclays Wealth, Derek Adler (pictured), co-founder of Ifina, presented the fund to an audience that included Mary Chandler-Allen, London representative of the government of the Cayman Islands. Adler began by stating that it was the unregulated smaller start-up managers
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has charged Scott Bottolfson and Spirit Investments, both of Encinitas, California, and Increase Investments, Inc of Reno, Nevada, with fraudulently soliciting approximately USD14 million from 30 individuals to invest in two commodity pools to trade commodity futures contracts and options on commodity futures.
Spirit and Increase allegedly operated the pools.
The CFTC’s complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of California, charges that, from approximately 2002 through August 2010, Bottolfson lured prospective participants with false or misleading representations, including promising a 20 per cent fixed-rate return on investments, that
International law firm Mourant Ozannes has expanded its award-winning Cayman Islands investment funds team with the appointment of Associate Adam Bathgate (pictured), who joins the firm from Clifford Chance’s Munich office.
A solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, Bathgate graduated from Christ Church, Oxford, with a first class degree in Law and German Law in 2002, and completed the LPC at Nottingham Law School in 2003. He was admitted as an Attorney of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands in 2010.
"This is a very exciting time to be joining Mourant Ozannes," says Bathgate. "The firm has
Early estimates indicate the Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index surged ahead in December, posting positive performance of 3.01% for the month.
According to the estimate, which is based on 88 per cent of assets in the index reporting, nine out of ten sectors posted positive performance for the month and the industry is expected to finish up 11.07% for the year.
The Event Driven sector posted the strongest performance in December due primarily to increased opportunities in the special situations arena. The largest gains were seen in the Distressed and Multi-Strategy sub-indices which were up 2.34% and 5.27%
Jorge Villon as has joined Polygon In Vestment Partners as Chief Executive Officer and Partner of the firm. Polygon founders and partners Reade Griffith and Paddy Dear will continue to focus on investment management and strategic initiatives.
“Polygon has evolved from a single manager hedge fund business into a diversified alternative asset management firm with seven different operating businesses on its platform," says Dear. "We will continue to focus on delivering returns to our investors across all our funds and business lines. We believe Jorge’s skills and significant experience will make a major contribution to the company.”
Villon has
The nominal value of European government bond and repo trades cleared by the LCH.Clearnet group in 2010 increased by 28% year on year, a record fuelled by increased demand as banks seek to manage their counterparty risk exposures.
A total of 19 new participants signed up to clear their fixed income business through LCH.Clearnet, taking the total to 70 and resulting in an increased proportion of inter-bank repo trades being cleared.
The total nominal value of fixed income trades cleared by LCH.Clearnet during 2010 reached EUR137 trillion, equating to over EUR500 billion in nominal value cleared daily.
Also in 2010,
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