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MF Global Singapore has become a trading member of the Singapore Exchange securities market.
MF Global is currently a trading and clearing member of the SGX derivatives market.
“We welcome MF Global to our securities market and are pleased that MF Global has extended its distribution to encompass both Singapore securities and derivatives business. We look forward to MF Global reaching out to new investor segments,” says Gan Seow Ann (pictured), senior executive vice president and head of markets at SGX.
“My team and I welcome the opportunity for MF Global, a long-standing member of SGX in the listed derivatives
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System is seeking a consultant to help select, monitor and assess hedge fund managers for a global macro strategy the fund will be undertaking.
The final filing date for proposals is 2pm PDT on 29 April 2010, with the consultant selection expected by early summer.
The selected firm will help Calstrs initiate, monitor and assess a global macro hedge fund strategy for its new absolute return asset class. The strategy will undergo an incubation period of not more than three years.
Calstrs staff will work with the consultant to select three to six hedge fund
Competition in the US Treasury market has been sparse with the number of primary dealers on the decline since the mid-1980s, but according to a research note written by Adam Sussman, Tabb Group’s director of research, new entrants are beginning to emerge.
Although BrokerTec and eSpeed own the on-the-run interdealer broker business and Bloomberg and Tradeweb dominate institutional dealer-to-client trading, Tabb says the combination of record issuance, expected rate hikes and a weakened competitive landscape make US Treasuries a ripe opportunity for mid-tier dealers, independent trading firms and hedge funds, alternative trading venues and the supporting technologies.
“With interest
BlueMountain Capital Management has raised more than USD250m for three new funds designed to pursue credit market opportunities in the post-financial crisis world.
The new funds are the BlueMountain Long/Short Credit Fund, the BlueMountain Distressed Fund and a single-client fund focused on securitized investments.
The Long/Short Credit Fund began trading on 1 February 2010, and the other funds were launched on 1 April 2010.
BlueMountain also plans to create a multi-client asset backed securities fund by the end of the third quarter of this year.
The new funds will provide clients with access to trading strategies already tried and tested
IndexIQ, a developer of index-based alternative investment solutions, has marked the three-year anniversary for its family of hedge fund replication and alternative beta indexes.
Designed to replicate the performance characteristics of sophisticated hedge fund strategies, including global macro, emerging markets, long/short equity, market neutral, event driven, and fixed income arbitrage, the IQ Hedge indexes were originally introduced on 30 March 2007.
The indexes have been calculating live with Standard & Poors since inception and the index values are published daily on Bloomberg.
The hedge fund strategies covered are among the most prevalent in the market, comprising approximately 80 per cent
NYSE Liffe US, the new US futures exchange of NYSE Euronext, will launch a family of interest rate futures in the third quarter of 2010 to coincide with the anticipated regulatory approval and launch of New York Portfolio Clearing, its clearing joint venture with DTCC.
NYSE Liffe US will launch Eurodollar futures as well as two-year, five-year, ten-year and 30-year US Treasury futures.
Options on these futures are expected to be launched in fourth quarter 2010.
Interest rate futures listed on NYSE Liffe US will benefit from the operational and capital efficiencies achieved through the NYPC clearing solution.
NYPC will
HSBC Global Asset Management is launching a Ucits III absolute return global emerging markets fund.
The HSBC GIF GEM Equity Alpha Fund, which offers daily liquidity, will target annual returns of ten to 15 per cent based on approximately ten per cent volatility with limited market correlation.
The fund will be jointly managed by Omar Negyal and Nick Timberlake, who together have a combined three decades of investment experience in global emerging market equities.
Negyal, who has more than ten year’s experience in GEM equities, joined HSBC Global Asset Management in 2009 from hedge fund specialist Lansdowne Partners, where he
Law firm Maples and Calder has hired Paul Dobbyn in Dublin to bolster the firm’s funds group.
Dobbyn (pictured), who joins on 1 May, will also lead the firm’s growing insolvency practice.
Dobbyn has been heavily involved in shaping the regulation of the industry in Ireland both at policy level and its implementation through legislation and regulation.
He is also one of Ireland’s most experienced and respected lawyers in the fields of insolvency and financial services.
Barry McGrath, head of investment funds at Maples’ Dublin office, says: "This is an exciting development for our funds practice as we continue to
Singapore Exchange is inviting public feedback on the proposed contract specifications for the SGX Nikkei Stock Average Dividend Point Index Futures contract, which will be targeted for the derivatives market.
The Nikkei Dividend Index Futures is a standard, cash-settled futures contract based on the Nikkei Stock Average Dividend Point Index.
The index is calculated by Nikkei and is based on accumulated dividends received by investors of constituent companies of the Nikkei Stock Average over a calendar year.
In recent years, institutional investors have sought tools to manage and hedge dividend exposure. The proposed Nikkei Dividend Index Futures will provide investors
The S&P GSCI ended the first quarter of 2010 with a decline of 0.89 per cent following a 1.94 per cent increase in March.
Livestock was the strongest sector in the S&P GSCI for the first quarter as measured by the S&P GSCI Livestock Index’s Q1 increase of 6.99 per cent after a 3.81 per cent gain in March.
“The index’s performance in the quarter straddled the positive influence of a 6.03 per cent increase in the S&P 500, and the negative forces of a 4.12 per cent gain in the US Dollar Index,” says Michael McGlone, director of commodity
