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HEDGEWEEKLIVE TECHNOLOGY SUMMIT
This year’s hedgeweekLIVE Technology Summit concluded with deep-level discussions of how hedge fund managers running a range of strategies are grappling with the rapid pace of change in data science and how the “explosion” in data volume can be managed more effectively.
HEDGEWEEKLIVE TECHNOLOGY SUMMIT
FUND PERFORMANCE
The biggest hedge fund managers outflanked the wider industry in July, with larger managers edging into the black and the broader sector suffering its first down month since the start of 2021.
SPECIAL REPORT
By Robin Pagnamenta – It’s been a year that many of us would probably prefer to forget, but for asset managers the pandemic has turbocharged many underlying technology trends that were already in place before anyone had ever heard of Covid-19. The migration of more and more activities onto the cloud has been underway for years, of course – propelled above all by the sheer volumes of data which asset managers now juggle daily in order to shape their investment decisions.
But those firms which had already shifted many of their activities into cloud-based solutions well before the pandemic hit last
OUTSOURCING
A new in-depth white paper by SEI sets out how the fund management industry can best address the often complex and challenging process of middle office outsourcing, particularly in the rapidly-altered Covid-19 working environment.
hedgeweekLIVE Technology Summit
The increased frequency of client communications during the pandemic has been a “game-changer” for the hedge fund manager-allocator dynamic, according to speakers on the fundraising and investor relations panel at this year’s hedgeweekLIVE Technology Summit.
hedgeweekLIVE Technology Summit
OUTLOOK
The boom in online retail during Covid-19 is substantially reshaping the UK’s consumer sector, but Toscafund Asset Management’s Savvas Savouri believes e-commerce sales may peak sooner rather later as restrictions finally end.
In a market commentary on Wednesday, Savouri – chief economist and partner at Martin Hughes’ hedge fund behemoth Toscafund – reflected on how the coronavirus pandemic sent online sales soaring as the UK entered a protracted lockdown.
However, looking ahead, he believes that multi-channel retail operators that offer both digital sales and ‘bricks-and-mortar’ stores may now have reached a point where their online offering has gone from a
hedgeweekLIVE Technology Summit
This year’s hedgeweekLIVE Technology Summit opened with an in-depth examination of future trends in hedge fund technology, with panellists exploring how managers are ramping up their use of natural language processing, AI and machine learning tools, and improving efficiency as data consumption grows and skillsets evolve.
The session heard how, historically, quantitative hedge fund models were built around market data, structural data and numerical data. But now an “enormous” new field of text data is available to be mined and to potentially find sources of investment decision-making guidance.
“This is a major evolution; a tectonic shift in terms of the
hedgeweekLIVE Technology Summit
FUND PERFORMANCE
Global macro hedge funds remain well-placed to benefit from investment themes arising from fragmented recoveries and diverging macroeconomic policies in the coming months – despite recent slim returns and allocator outflows over the summer.
Macro strategies have advanced 7.82 per cent so far in 2021, according to data provider BarclayHedge, after managers posted a narrow gain of 0.19 per cent in July. In comparison, the broader Barclay Hedge Fund Index – which measures average industry performance across strategy classes – has risen almost 9 per cent year-to-date, BarclayHedge said this week.
Macro managers take long and short positions across a
ESG
ESG-focused funds have rightly been receiving a lot of attention over the last 12 months or more, as institutional investors continue to analyse the impact their portfolios are having on the planet, and society at large.
OUTLOOK
Pictet Alt Advisors scores with China market rebound, but offers warning on SPACs
OUTLOOK
Pictet Alt Advisors scores with China market rebound, but offers warning on SPACs