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The AlphaShares Chinese Volatility Index hit a 31-month low of 23.48 on Christmas Eve and closed the year at 24.22, down from 59.69 at the start of 2009.
The data from AlphaShares also shows that the CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index traded at its 52-week low of 19.47 on 24 December and finished the year at 21.68. It began the year at 40.00.
The CHIX premium over the VIX ended 2009 at just 11.72 per cent, after having started the year at 49.24 per cent.
Overall, both the CHIX and VUX moved down over the course of 2009, declining by
The IQ Hedge Emerging Markets Beta Index was IndexIQ’s strongest performing hedge fund replication index in 2009, finishing the year up 42.96 per cent.
The next best performing index was the IQ Hedge Composite Beta Index, which was up 19.25 per cent at the end of 2009.
IndexIQ’s Hedge Event-Driven Beta Index was up 17.93 per cent, the Hedge Fixed Income Arbitrage Beta Index was up 17.00 per cent and the Hedge Long/Short Beta Index was up 15.80 per cent.
The index recording the lowest return was the IQ Hedge Market Neutral Beta Index, which rose 11.14 per cent.
“IndexIQ’s
Multi-jurisdictional law firm Conyers Dill & Pearman has made a fresh round of hires to its corporate team with the addition of associates Tara Rivers in the Cayman Islands and Claire McConway, Robert Alexander and Victor Richards in Bermuda.
The firm has also hired Michael Swain as head of Codan Management in Bermuda and Jacqueline Shannon as manager for Codan International in Dubai.
John Collis (pictured), chairman of Conyers and head of corporate, says: “Each of these lawyers possesses the culture, values and expertise that enable us to provide the highest quality responsive, timely and thorough legal advice to our
Edhec-Risk Institute, a centre for asset and risk management research, is changing the official name for the holding entity governing its entire range of activities to Edhec-Risk Institute.
Formerly called the Edhec Risk and Asset Management Research Centre, Edhec-Risk Institute was set up in 2001 to conduct academic research and highlight its applications to the industry.
The institute seeks to validate the academic quality of its research through publications in scholarly journals, implements a multifaceted communications policy to inform investors and asset managers on concepts and techniques, and develops business partnerships to launch products.
Professor Noël Amenc (pictured), director of
Listing activity in 2009 experienced a significant slowdown as a result of the situation on the international capital markets since September 2008, according to the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
The year was marked by a sharp decline in the admission of securities representing securitized assets or structured products. In contrast, bond issues from non-financial enterprises rose sharply.
The amount of capital raised and listed during 2009 increased by about 8.17 per cent compared to 2008 to breach the symbolic barrier of EUR1,000bn, while the number of new quotation lines was lower by almost 35 per cent over the previous year.
During
Asset management group Polar Capital has appointed John Regnier-Wilson, formerly a senior sales manager at Martin Currie and Axa Framlington, to the group’s UK sales team.
The appointment comes as Polar Capital looks to expand its UK business.
Regnier-Wilson joins Polar Capital from Martin Currie on 1 February 2010 and will be responsible for developing the distribution of Polar Capital’s fund range in the UK, focusing primarily on wealth managers and stockbrokers.
Working closely with Iain Evans, head of UK sales, Regnier-Wilson will primarily be supporting Polar Capital’s Ucits fund range, including the UK Absolute Return Fund, and the
Based on the December performance for the Credit Suisse Long/Short Equity Liquid Index, long/short equity funds ended the year on a high note as managers took advantage of increased equity market opportunities.
Jordan Drachman, head of research for alternative beta strategies at Credit Suisse, says: "Long/short equity hedge funds experienced positive December returns in line with many global equity markets. In particular, managers were able to capitalize on increased volatility in Asian markets, including a significant year-end rebound in Japan which contributed to opportunities in the sector.”
The Long/Short Equity Liquid Index was up 1.19 per cent (net) for the
Speed will continue to be the name of the game for US equity brokers, a study published by Tabb Group has found that business demands beyond latency in 2010 may outpace trading technology budgets.
Chief information officers, chief technology officers and heads of technology say that in addition to meeting increased latency reduction requirements, they are being asked to expand network capacity, make more efficient use of data centre space and increase the use of their share of the 93,000 sell-side servers running their US equities businesses.
According to Tabb Group’s Kevin McPartland, senior analyst and the study’s author,
NYSE Technologies, the commercial technology unit of NYSE Euronext, has launched a super-low latency market data platform specifically designed for the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s new Arrowhead trading platform.
As the new equities trading system for the Tokyo market, Arrowhead has been implemented to support increased trading volumes and the performance demands of ultra-fast electronic trading strategies.
"We are very pleased to offer our proven feed handlers for the TSE and its Arrowhead platform. Ten large international clients have successfully deployed and tested the NYSE Technologies market data platform and feed handler suite for their Arrowhead trading environments," says Peter Tierney,
BNP Paribas has joined Icap’s EBS platform as an FX prime bank.
This is the first time BNP Paribas has been active in the FX market as a prime bank.
EBS Prime extends the ability to trade in the core spot FX market to other bank and non-bank professional traders, including hedge funds, through a prime brokerage relationship.
An EBS prime bank offers customers the ability to view and trade on the prices available to the world’s leading FX banks, giving gives access to tighter prices and greater depth of liquidity. This helps customers increase their trading activity and facilitates
