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Structured Solutions and 2n20.com have launched the Ucits HFS Index Series, the first index family that tracks Ucits funds applying hedge funds strategies.
The index series was developed by the Switzerland-based financial service provider 2n20.com and will be calculated by Structured Solutions.
2n20.com maintains and updates a database with all funds that are considered for the index calculation and acts as index adviser.
There will be the broad market Ucits HFS Index and an index for every sub-strategy.
The following indices will be calculated with immediate effect: Ucits HFS Index, Ucits HFS Index Arbitrage, Ucits HFS Index Convertible, Ucits HFS
Hedge funds investing in Europe have remained jittery during the past seven days, with caution evident in Greek, Spanish and Portuguese indexes.
Nautical Capital Management, an asset management company specialising in the development and management of commodity portfolios, has launched its commodity-based absolute return strategies.
The firm offers investors both systematic and discretionary absolute return and enhanced index strategies.
These commodity strategies, which are targeted to fund of funds, family offices, institutional investors and endowments, are intended to be diversified, comprehensive and tailored.
David Henritze, chief executive of Nautical Capital Management, says: “When you think of equities, you think of Fidelity, when you think of fixed income you think of Pimco and when you think of commodities we want investors to think
The Hennessee Hedge Fund Index declined 0.50 per cent in January, while the S&P 500 declined 3.70 per cent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 3.46 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 5.37 per cent.
Bonds rallied, as the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index increased 1.53 per cent.
“January was a challenging month as the equity rally was short lived and reversed course mid-month. Managers were defensively positioned with low net exposures and were able to limit losses,” says Charles Gradante, co-founder of Hennessee Group. “While 2009 was all about market beta, 2010 is going to be a year
Eurofin Capital has appointed Laurent Chevallier as head of alternative research and portfolio management.
Chevallier will lead Eurofin Capital’s total return research and asset management activities.
His role also includes running the firm’s range of multi-manager products and developing new absolute return investment strategies.
Before joining Eurofin Capital, Chevallier was executive director and head of manager selection and investments at Unigestion in Geneva, where he was in charge of a 12 man team of analysts and researchers managing USD3.5bn in hedge fund portfolios with top decile rankings.
Previously, he was chief investment officer and risk manager at BIM in Geneva.
Australian absolute return and hedge funds enjoyed one of their best performances on record in 2009, according to a report by Australian Fund Monitors.
Single funds across all strategies returned 20.81 per cent for their investors after all fees as equity markets rebounded sharply from the sell off of 2008 and early 2009.
The ASX had a stellar year, rising just over 30 per cent, but still remained below its previous highs of November 2007 following the fall of over 41 per cent in 2008. The ASX still has considerable ground to make up before reaching that point or approaching
BTIG, a broker dealer specialising in institutional trading and related brokerage services, has hired seven senior professionals in its fixed income group focusing on the areas of high yield/distressed, emerging markets and capital markets.
These hires continue BTIG’s ongoing expansion in the fixed income market.
BTIG has hired Chris Majak, Kerry Stein and Michael Satzberg in fixed income high yield/distressed; Tim Goodell, Diogenes Vazquez and Antonio Lopez-Torrero in fixed income emerging markets; and Peter Burton in fixed income capital markets.
BTIG has hired more than 75 fixed income professionals since the group was launched in February last year.
“Our clients
Matrix Asia Fund has added Sam West to its team, joining Rupert Foster and David Peerless.
Since its launch 18 months ago, the Matrix Asia Fund has outperformed the MSCI Asia Pacific Index by 48.09 per cent returning 33.89 per cent by using a long-short strategy that increasingly focuses on the relative winners and losers of the Asian growth story.
The fund holds 30 to 40 stocks between its long and short books.
West joins from Cantillon Capital Management and previously worked with Foster (pictured) at FM Capital.
Foster says: “I am delighted that Sam is joining the
NYSE Technologies and four Asean equities exchanges – Bursa Malaysia, the Philippine Stock Exchange, Singapore Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Thailand – have signed a letter of intent that designates NYSE Technologies as the solutions provider for the Asean Trading Link.
The award marks a significant first step towards the establishment of an integrated Asean capital market.
Once complete, the Asean Trading Link will electronically interconnect the participating Asean exchanges to facilitate cross border order routing and trading, thereby allowing investors and members to access multiple Asean markets from their domicile country.
It will enable participating Asean exchanges to
Prologue Capital, an alternative investment firm that manages a discretionary fixed income strategy, has hired Noah Estrin as a senior portfolio manager focused on trading US agency mortgages.
Estrin will work in the firm’s Greenwich, Connecticut office and will report to the firm’s founding partners, Graham Walsh and David Lofthouse.
“Noah is an experienced trader and we believe we’ll benefit from his specialized expertise,” says Lofthouse. “The US mortgage market offers many stand-alone opportunities, and gives us additional insight into the other instruments we trade.”
Estrin was most recently co-head of agency mortgage trading at RBS Greenwich.
Prior to that,
