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COMMENT
This year’s Covid-19 stock market upheaval has revealed an “Achilles’ heel” in quantitative hedge fund models that use traditional factors such as momentum and value, as machine-based strategies have struggled against “unique new drivers of stock returns that don’t fit the academic models”, says Man FRM.
2020 proved to be a “blow to the head” for factor-based quantitative equity analysis, Man FRM observed in its ‘Early View’ commentary on Wednesday.
Quant equity hedge funds which trade traditional factors have struggled amid the dominance of a new “Covid factor” this year, with “near-consistent disappointment” in the form of “losses at the
HEDGEWEEK LIVE EUROPE
In an in-depth conversation with Hedgeweek’s editor-in-chief James Williams during last week’s Hedgeweek LIVE Europe summit, Charlotte Thorne, founding partner and co-chair of Capital Generation Partners, discussed how diversity and inclusion are reshaping the hedge fund industry, and explored some of the challenges and opportunities for firms arising from this growing trend.
MARKETS
CF Partners Capital Management, a London-based energy-focused hedge fund, is betting on a continued price recovery in energy markets heading into the second half of 2020.
PERFORMANCE
Rhenman & Partners Asset Management, a Stockholm-based sector-specialist hedge fund firm, says 2020 is poised to be “a good year” for its flagship healthcare strategy, after it posted a double-digit return for the second month in a row.
NEWS
Odey Asset Management, Crispin Odey’s long-running hedge fund firm, has hired former CQS and Pensato Capital man Jos Trusted as head of institutional business, a newly-created role aimed at expanding institutional business and developing the firm’s product range.
As well as focusing on growing institutional business through the development of its product range, Trusted will help spearhead the recruitment of new investment managers and the diversification of its international client base, with a strong focus on actively managed strategies.
Before joining Odey, Trusted was CEO of the New City Equity business at CQS, the high-profile multi-strategy credit-focused hedge fund giant
SURVEY
Hedge fund investors are evenly split over how satisfied they are with the industry’s performance this year, according to a new industry poll by investment consultant bfinance.
bfinance’s mid-year asset owner survey, ‘Managing through Uncertainty’, quizzed a range of investors – including pension funds, insurers, endowments, family offices and sovereign wealth funds – on the first-half performance of various investment products, such as hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and risk premia.
Altogether, the 368 senior investors surveyed represented assets of some USD11 trillion.
Overall, more than four-fifths (82 per cent) of survey participants expressed satisfaction with how their portfolios performed during
FUND LAUNCHES
Fulcrum Asset Management, the USD4.4 billion London-based multi-asset manager, is preparing to launch two new hedge fund strategies – an equity diversifier fund and a market neutral offering.
The two funds, Fulcrum Equity Dispersion and Fulcrum Thematic Equity Market Neutral, are existing strategies carved out of the firm’s Diversified Absolute Return Fund.
Fulcrum Equity Dispersion will launch as a separate fund after three years within the DAR strategy, having generated strong performance during volatile periods.
The strategy – which rolls out with USD110 million on 31 July, managed by Stephen Crewe – is positioned as a portfolio diversifier, with positive carry
NEWS
Activist hedge fund TCI Fund Management is challenging Italy’s government over the sale of a motorways unit held by Atlantia, the Rome-headquartered infrastructure group which managed the Morandi Bridge that collapsed in Genoa in 2018, killing 43 people.
PERFORMANCE
Altana Wealth, the credit, currency and special situations-focused hedge fund led by former Trafalgar Asset Managers co-founder Lee Robinson, believes its specialist corporate bond strategy is well placed to generate further gains following a strong second quarter performance.
The firm’s Altana Corporate Bond Fund – which trades a range of short-duration investment grade and opportunistic high-yield and event driven credit themes globally – made 2.5 per cent in June, and rose more than 9 per cent overall during Q2.
The gains partly eased sharp losses suffered during the Q1 sell-off. But the fund’s USD share class was still down more
NEWS
CIAM, the London and Paris-based activist hedge fund, has hit out at Ontex Group NV over what it sees as financial underperformance and a lack of strategic direction, and is calling for a shake-up of the Belgian personal hygiene products manufacturer’s board.
