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Northern Trust says that if investment managers are to navigate the intricacies of pending new European regulations they cannot look at each regulation in isolation.
This, according to Northern Trust’s latest white paper Funds regulation: A brighter distribution future? is vital to ensure investment managers are well positioned to take advantage of the potential for increased ease of distribution across Europe.
"Europe’s supervisors are looking for ways to get more investors involved in the market and to keep them involved, while providing a framework for improved governance," says Wilson Leech, head of Northern Trust’s global fund services business.
"The challenge
Bandon Capital Management has launched Bandon Hedged Equity, a long-short equity strategy available to both accredited and non-accredited investors.
The strategy seeks to provide exposure to domestic equity markets while minimising the effect of the directional movements of the market.
The portfolio is constructed in two roughly equal parts. The first is a select basket of high conviction individual equity positions and the second is a market hedge to protect against market volatility in an attempt to isolate alpha and reduce directional market risk.
“As we reviewed the products available to non-accredited investors, we realized there was an opportunity to
Perfecta Partners, a strategy consulting firm for the investment management community, has appointed Sandra Curtis as managing director.
Curtis has broad experience in leading investment teams at a wide range of top tier asset management companies.
An award-winning professional with a track record in developing and managing investment strategies, she will share her knowledge and bring strategic support to international clients.
“I’m delighted to be joining Perfecta at such an exciting time when the opportunity set is so broad. I aim to expand Perfecta’s bandwidth and develop our business in Europe, the US and Asia,” says Curtis.
Previously she held
GFIA, the Singapore based specialist in skill-based managers in Asian and emerging markets, has released a research paper showing that mid-sized Asian hedge funds have performed best.
In the paper, which provides an analysis of the effect of size on performance and volatility across different strategies, GFIA observes that for the bellwether strategy of Asia ex-Japan long-short equity funds, USD250m-USD750m has been the clear performance sweet spot.
In 2008, USD450m to USD750m was the sweet spot for long-short equity managers, against the background of a liquidity-driven bull market.
In 2006, USD150m to USD300m was the sweet spot for long-short equity
The Hennessee Hedge Fund Index declined by 2.99 per cent in May, bringing its year-to-date return to 1.57 per cent.
The S&P 500 decreased 8.20 per cent (-2.30 per cent YTD), the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 7.92 per cent (-2.79 per cent), and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 8.29 per cent (-0.53 per cent YTD).
Bonds advanced, as the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index increased 0.84 per cent (+3.74 per cent YTD), due to increases in U. Treasuries as both investment grade and high yield bonds declined.
“May was the worst month of the year for hedge funds and the
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s division of clearing and intermediary oversight has published an advisory clarifying the extent to which certain sophisticated customers located in the US may transact in foreign security futures products.
The advisory is intended to address questions raised by members of the public following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s publication of an order on 30 June 2009.
The order exempts certain sophisticated persons from the provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that prohibit the offer and sale of foreign security futures products to US persons.
The advisory says that foreign boards of trade
Hedge fund performance was adversely impacted by the escalation of the Euro-centric sovereign bond crisis in May, with the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index declining by 2.26 per cent for the month.
May was the worst performance month since November 2008 and, inclusive of the recent loss, hedge funds have surrendered a large portion of early year gains, ending the first five months of 2010 with a gain of 1.32 per cent.
Hedge funds were broadly impacted by the sharp increase in risk aversion associated directly with the sovereign bond crisis escalation, as well as the effects this situation has
Traditional and alternative asset manager EquityStar Capital Management has formed an alliance with J.P. Morgan Securities for brokerage, trading and custodial services.
EquityStar Capital Management is a multi-strategy investment and wealth advisory firm created to provide traditional and alternative asset management exclusively for institutional investors, retirement plan sponsors and certain qualified individuals.
Its fund will trade in the universe of the 1,500 most liquid global companies and is open to new investors.
By reinvesting some of the firm’s profits into African economies, EquityStar will help give citizens of emerging nations the confidence to reinvest in their own economy by helping
Merlin Securities, a prime brokerage services and technology provider for hedge funds, has launched two technology solutions.
First, Merlin’s clients now have the option of reporting in any base portfolio currency, not just US dollars.
Second, Merlin now provides enhanced start-of-day positions following specific corporate actions that affect a client’s portfolio, allowing for more timely, efficient and informed decision-making.
Merlin has expanded its reporting and analytics platform to support non-USD-based currency reporting. This functionality will allow a fund with multiple accounts the flexibility to have different base reporting currencies for each. For example, a fund with a separately managed
Early estimates indicate the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index will experience its first negative month since February 2009 in May with a fall of 2.73 per cent.
The index remains up 1.52 per cent year-to-date and, based on comparable indices, hedge funds outperformed global equity markets which finished down 9.91 per cent for the month.
Event driven funds lost an estimated 3.23 per cent in May as equity-oriented managers declined with global equity markets.
While distressed and merger arbitrage funds performed slightly better, market sell-offs and indiscriminate levels of correlation across asset classes made it difficult for managers to generate
