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MSCI has launched Barra Portfolio Manager, a series of equity portfolio management tools for institutional investors.
Designed to help fund managers and their teams manage, monitor and build better equity portfolios, Barra Portfolio Manager provides users with additional portfolio insight and enables them to make faster, more informed investment decisions.
It offers a way to access a broad range of equity portfolio analytics, advanced workflow tools and high quality data.
“In this competitive environment, our clients need flexible, easy-to-use tools that align with their investment process – whether quantitative, fundamental or a blend of both,” says Nathan Tidd, global head
Since the equity markets reached a high in October of 2007, there has been a double digit correction followed by a sharp double digit rally, which has made for a very challenging investment environment.
While most broad based equity averages remain well off their highs reached in late 2007, the average hedge fund has recently exceeded its high-water mark and has drastically outperformed its traditional counterparts.
“The Hennessee Group believes a key driver of this outperformance by hedge funds has been their ability to successfully navigate through these highly volatile and uncertain market environments by adjusting their equity market exposures,”
Bolsas y Mercados Españoles and Clearstream have started operations of the trade repository Regis-TR that is jointly owned by the two market infrastructures.
The trade repository aims to meet demands from regulators for more transparency in the OTC derivatives market.
The start of operations of Regis-TR takes place one year after the initiative was announced in November 2009 and follows a testing period in which the financial institutions Banco Sabadell and BBVA participated as pilots. Over the last few weeks the corporates Iberia and Telefónica also joined as pilots.
To operate the trade repository, BME and Clearstream have created a
November saw record volumes for LCH.Clearnet’s interest rate swap clearing service, SwapClear.
The total number of cleared OTC trades for the month reached 76,650 trade sides, 12 per cent more than October and a 24 per cent increase on November 2009.
The increased figures bring the total outstanding number of IRS transactions to 1,720,390 trade sides with a notional value of USD248.3trn equivalent.
The last quarter saw an average of 3,309 trade sides cleared daily and over the last five years the notional value has risen at a 40 per cent per annum compound rate.
Michael Davie, chief executive, SwapClear
Financial market participants across Asia can now seek dark pools of liquidity throughout the region, following an agreement between Chi-East, the first Asian exchange backed non-display venue, and global connectivity provider Transaction Network Services.
Chi-East, a joint venture between Chi-X Global and the Singapore Exchange, supports the non-displayed trading of securities in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.
Using TNS’ Secure Trading Extranet, Chi-East will be able to provide its clients with a single trading connection, giving them access to multiple liquidity sources, enhancing intra Asia connectivity between financial institutions.
TNS’ Secure Trading Extranet offers mission-critical low latency connectivity, bringing
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation has launched an automated over-the-counter equity derivatives cash flow matching and netting service with all of the 14 major dealers live on the platform.
"In an environment where risk mitigation is paramount, the OTC derivatives community has placed great priority in promoting improved certainty in the market,” says Lawrence Waller, managing director, J.P. Morgan. “The new automated cash flow matching and netting process for OTC equity derivatives facilitates seamless and timely settlement. J.P. Morgan is pleased to be working with the DTCC and our peers to bring such global solutions to market.”
The creation
Butterfield Fulcrum, a fund administration company for the alternative investment industry, has appointed Edwin Parker as director of business development for the EMEA region.
Parker will start in February 2011 and be based in the London office, which has recently relocated to Mayfair.
He will be responsible for identifying and developing strategic partnerships to strengthen and expand Butterfield Fulcrum’s client base throughout Europe and its surrounding emerging markets.
Parker will work closely with Mark Boyes who joined Butterfield Fulcrum earlier this year as Director, EMEA business development.
Parker joins Butterfield Fulcrum from SS&C where he served as a business development
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed an enforcement action charging Kent R.E. Whitney, a registered floor broker, with making false and misleading statements to Chicago Mercantile Exchange representatives, futures commission merchants and others in connection with a scheme to trade options without posting the required margin.
The CFTC’s civil complaint, filed on 10 December in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that from May 2008 through April 2010, Whitney perpetrated a margin avoidance scheme in connection with out-of-the-money options by knowingly or recklessly making false and misleading statements to a representative of
Irving H. Picard, the trustee for the liquidation for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) has filed a complaint seeking USD 19.6bn in damages against members of the “Medici Enterprise,” allegedly masterminded by Sonja Kohn, principal shareholder of the now defunct Bank Medici, using multiple trusts and nominee companies in New York, Austria, Italy, Gibraltar and elsewhere.
The detailed claim, a copy of which has been obtained by Hedgeweek, has been made “against Sonja Kohn a/k/a Sonja Blau Kohn a/k/a Sonja Blau a/k/a Sinja Kohn a/k/a Sinja Blau a/k/a Sinja Turk, Erwin Kohn, Netty Blau, Robert Alan Kohn, Rina
The historical trend of hedge funds acquiring talent from financial institutions could be reversed going into 2011, as new regulations for alternatives come into play.
Banks are now seen by many as a more stable option, according to headhunting firm Carrington Fox.
“Compensation issues will be replaced by bigger salaries for candidates hoping to work in banks,” says Nicholas Wells, one of the firm’s directors.
Wells says investment banks and hedge funds have been battling for the same talent as of late, which in 2008 and 2009 would simply not have happened.
“In the past, hedge funds have acquired talent
