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Bank of America Merrill Lynch has expanded its global algorithmic trading platform into Brazil to meet increasing demand from international and local investors for more sophisticated trading products designed for Brazil’s Bovespa.
The new offering includes several of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s most popular algorithms, including implementation shortfall and VWAP.
"Interest and liquidity in Brazilian stocks have risen significantly this year and as a result our international investor clients are asking for more sophisticated trading tools to access this market," says Steve Schneider, head of Latin America equities at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "We are also seeing increasing
Lyxor Asset Management has launched the Lyxor/Tudor Momentum Fund, which replicates the trend following component of the Tudor Tensor quantitative managed futures programme.
The Lyxor managed account platform responds to investors’ key decision criteria: transparency, risk control and liquidity.
Tudor Momentum Portfolio is comprised of the four trend following systems traded in the Tudor Tensor Portfolio. Steve Evans, a Tudor managing director and partner, oversees the systems group at Tudor and is the portfolio manager for the Tudor Tensor Portfolio and Tudor Momentum Portfolio.
These systems use a variety of rules to identify trending markets across more than 70 instruments
A service that provides independent directorship to hedge funds and investment funds has been launched in the UK & Ireland.
Independent Fund Director Services provides an experienced and qualified investment professional who can either join the fund board as an independent director or act as an advisor to the fund board.
The services available include ongoing detailed analysis of portfolio activity, risk measurement and valuation as well as reviewing the activities of third-party providers such as custodians and administrators.
The business has been established by Kevin Gallacher, formerly Managing Director of Dublin-based Merrion Investment Managers.
“Recent high profile
The European Energy Exchange and the international derivatives exchange Eurex are expanding their cooperation.
As of 25 November 2009, Eurex customers will be able to trade and clear EEX power derivatives via their existing Eurex access.
The new products in the cooperation comprise Phelix Baseload Futures and Options and Phelix Peakload Futures.
“We are offering our core product – Phelix Futures – to a global network of new participants for trading and clearing in one big step,” says Dr. Hans-Bernd Menzel, chief executive of EEX.
Peter Reitz, Eurex executive board member, adds: “The expansion of our cooperation with the EEX
Jupiter Asset Management is to launch two Ucits III funds for fund manager Philip Gibbs.
The two unit trust funds, which have been authorised by the FSA, will be launched in the next two to three months.
The Jupiter Absolute Return Fund will seek to generate an absolute return independent of market conditions by investing on a global basis. The fund will use the full Ucits III powers and use investment tools such as cash and derivatives in order to enable Gibbs (pictured) to respond to changing market conditions. The fund, which will be benchmarked against three month Libor, will
Cedrus Investments, a boutique investment firm, has launched two global nanotechnology indices: Cedrus Nanotechnology Index – Diversified and Cedrus Nanotechnology Index – Pure.
The indices are designed to serve as benchmarks for professional investors to capitalise on the fastest growing technology companies spanning the five markets most impacted by nanotechnology – manufacturing, electronics, energy, life sciences and environment.
Cedrus’ diversified index includes 220 equally-weighted companies spanning all five nano-markets and is inclusive of both diversified companies that have nanotechnology as only one of many growth drivers, and pure-play companies that have nanotechnology as their primary driver of growth.
Cedrus’ pure
Hedge Funds Care, an alliance of hedge fund industry professionals committed to protecting children from abuse and neglect, is holding its fifth London fundraising benefit on 3 December 2009.
Esther Rantzen CBE (pictured), veteran journalist and TV presenter and founder of ChildLine, has agreed to become patron of the charity and will be attending the December event.
The fifth annual fundraising gala will include a live auction conducted by Lord Jeffrey Archer. Items on auction will include a hand-signed Salvador Dali etching donated by the Broad Gallery and a dinner for ten cooked by Chef Tom Aiken.
The evening will
US institutions are increasing their use of highly liquid "flow" equity derivatives, but declines in asset values and a sharp falloff in hedge fund trading activity have driven down the volume of equity derivatives trades and the amount of commissions paid s, according to a report from Greenwich Associates.
Usage of flow equity derivatives increased among US institutions last year across a range of commonly employed delta-one and option and volatility products. The proportion of institutions using listed/listed "look-alike" options increased to 88 per cent in 2009 from 79 per cent in 2008.
While a stable 74 per cent of
Collins Stewart Fund Management has launched the Collins Stewart Alternative Strategies Fund.
With a target return objective of consistent absolute returns of approximately six to ten per cent per annum, the fund has daily dealing with no lock up periods or redemption penalties.
It is a Ucits compliant fund of Ucits III funds which will be Dublin domiciled from within the existing fund platform.
Mike Brown (pictured), head of sales at Collins Stewart Fund Management, says: “We are excited to be the first to launch a fund of this kind, as we expect the prospect of being able to
Guernsey’s fund servicing industry rose by more than six per cent to reach 2,057 funds and sub-funds at the end of June 2009, with total net assets of USD289.4bn (GBP175.7bn), according to figures from Lipper.
While total industry assets fell by nearly 13 per cent, non-domiciled funds serviced in Guernsey actually rose slightly to reach USD40.0bn (GBP24.3bn).
For fund administration services of both domiciled and non-domiciled funds, Northern Trust is the largest administrator by total net assets (USD45.7bn), while International Private Equity Services (USD34.6bn) and Apax Partners (USD30.4bin) are ranked second and third. Northern Trust also has the largest proportion
