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Mary Chris Gay (pictured), portfolio manager of the Legg Mason US Equity Fund, explains how low inflation rates, slack in the economy and continuing high rates of unemployment have put the US in a ‘sweet spot’ of the equity investment cycle…
Whilst we don’t believe the US will necessarily lead the global recovery, what is certain is that it has moved from recession to recovery and there is little evidence that the US will slip back into recession. The balance of the economic reports in the US have been positive and we believe the market is underestimating the powerful cyclical
Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at Standard Life Investments, argues that it will take time before the effectiveness – or otherwise – of the UK’s proposed new structure financial for financial regulation becomes clear.
Anyone who flies into Edinburgh airport sees one of the great sights of Victorian engineering: the Forth Rail Bridge. This magnificent structure, built to withstand all that nature could throw at it, has an interesting history. Only a few years before, public attention had been caught by a great disaster, the collapse of the Tay Rail Bridge, with substantial loss of life. Engineers learn from
A selection of the most influential business leaders working in today’s financial markets converge on Jersey in September to take part in the Exchange’s second international business summit.
In a wide ranging agenda, the one day Summit will tackle issues affecting future investment decisions and assess the regulatory changes emerging. It will aim to clarify where the engines for global growth are and how investment professionals can manage risk in current markets..
To make the event as meaningful and thought provoking as possible, the Exchange has invited a world class line up of speakers to reflect a cross section of
The Euro Stoxx Index and its respective size indices Euro Stoxx Large, Mid and Small, have been licensed to Eurex to serve as the basis for equity index futures and options.
This is the first time that these four indices are used as an underlying for equity index futures and options contracts.
The new derivatives will become available at the end of July 2010.
"The transparent and rules based methodology of the Euro Stoxx Index and its respective size indices make them ideal instruments to measure the performance of the leading large, mid or small cap companies in the Euro-zone.
John Collins has been appointed a member at Kinetic Partners to extend the firm’s growing range of risk services.
In addition to the risk and valuation services platform, Collins (pictured) will develop a broader range of risk consultancy services to investment banks, prime brokers, asset servicers, large asset managers and hedge funds.
Kinetic Partners will offer consulting skills across the spectrum of risk: market risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, regulatory risk and reporting, operational risk, and risk control/middle office.
Collins has a strong background in risk management. He joins Kinetic Partners having founded and built Rule Financial’s risk practice
GlobeOp Financial Services, a provider of business process outsourcing, financial technology services and analytics to hedge funds and other asset managers, had assets under administration of USD121bn at 31 May 2010, an increase of nearly 50 per cent over the last 12 months.
GlobeOp added 16 new middle, back office and fund administration clients in the first five months of the year, with total AUA of nearly USD3bn.
Aggregate client fund performance has added USD5bn to GlobeOp’s AUA.
Subscriptions totalled nearly USD18bn in the first five months while redemptions and terminations were USD15bn through May.
New funds from existing clients
International derivatives exchange Eurex plans to extend its offering of futures and options on European size indices provided by Stoxx.
Four futures and four options based on the Euro Stoxx and the three corresponding sub-indices Euro Stoxx Large, Mid and Small will be tradable as from 28 July.
The new derivatives will enhance the existing offering of four futures and four options based on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index and the three sub-indices Stoxx Europe Large 200, Stoxx Europe Mid 200 and Stoxx Europe Small 200.
“By extending our offering to include new euro-denominated index derivatives, we will create additional
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has voted to approve the Cantor Futures Exchange’s Domestic Box Office Receipts futures contract on the motion picture The Expendables.
This includes specific modifications requested by the CFTC to guard against manipulation or any other abusive conduct in the trading of any contract by knowledgeable and informed sources within the studio or distribution company.
The Commission previously issued a statement on 14 June 2010 approving the Media Derivatives Exchange’s (MDEX) Weekend Motion Picture Revenue futures and binary option contracts for the motion picture Takers.
The Commission finds the issues raised by the MDEX contracts for
Financial services firm Cowen Group has hired Thomas O’Mara as head of equity derivatives and convertibles.
O’Mara will be primarily responsible for expanding the firm’s equity derivative capabilities and building out a presence in the convertible market.
He will be based in New York.
"Tom is a professional with exceptionally broad experience in equity derivatives and convertible trading activities," says Peter Cohen (pictured), chairman and chief executive officer of Cowen Group. "Tom is ideally suited to work with John O’Donoghue, our head of equities, to lead the growth of our sales and trading platform, where we continue to expand our
The Alternative Investment Management Association says that while some details and definitions contained in the US Dodd-Frank Bill remain to be clarified, it supports those parts of the bill relating to the registration of hedge fund managers.
It also supports the periodic reporting by managers to supervisors in the interests of improving their ability to assess financial stability
“This is not because any individual hedge fund is likely to be deemed systemically important, or because the sector in any way increases financial stability risk; it does not,” says Todd Groome, chairman of Aima.
“In fact, the diversity of our industry’s
