Solutions
February proved to be a difficult month for hedge funds, according to data released by Newedge, with eight of the firm’s suite of 11 hedge fund indices reporting negative returns for the month.
The Newedge Short-Term Traders Index (0.62 per cent), the Newedge Commodity Trading Index (Equity) (0.14 per cent) and the Newedge CTA Index (0.09 per cent) were the only three indices to finish February in positive territory.
The Newedge Trend Indicator (-2.37 per cent), the Newedge Commodity Trading Index (Trading) (-1.40 per cent) and the Newedhge Commodity Trading Index (-1/20 per cent) were the worst performers.
FTSE Group and DPT Capital Management have launched the FTSE Target Exposure Commodity Index Series, a series of rules-based long-short commodity indices derived from Professor John M Mulvey’s risk management and portfolio allocation approach – Dynamic Portfolio Tactics.
The FTSE Target Exposure Commodity Index Series allocates dynamically across a broad basket of 18 commodity futures using a suite of rules-based quantitative investment tactics, designed to capture systemic sources of return embedded in global commodity markets, whilst avoiding over-concentration in certain commodity sectors.
The indices have been designed to act as performance benchmarks for quantitative commodity managers, and as
Equity-focused hedge fund strategies exhibited returns that were broadly consistent with market dynamics in February, according figures released by Edhec-Risk.
Edhec’s long/short equity strategy (0.41 per cent) showed some negative alpha, the equity market neutral strategy (0.34 per cent) mildly positive alpha, whereas the event driven strategy (0.49 per cent) performed in line with its modelled dynamic exposure.
The convertible arbitrage strategy (0.21 per cent) managed to post its ninth consecutive gain despite almost flat equity exposure and associated fixed-income risk drivers weakening.
The CTA global strategy, structurally unable to extract any alpha from the markets in
Calastone, the global fund transaction network, has opened a new office in Zurich, Switzerland. With over 400 customers and 2,500 active trading links in 17 domiciles Calastone now routes over GBP12bn of fund transactions per month through its global network.
With its global expansion Calastone is an enabler of domestic and cross border funds STP.
The decision to open a new office in Zurich allows Calastone to provide a local presence to the Swiss market, in line with its business model of providing support to domestic as well as cross-border funds.
As part of the business strategy to
To help clients comply with new regulations intended to manage risk in the financial derivatives markets, Northern Trust has enhanced its systems to provide operational support for central clearing of certain over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives.
New capabilities allow Northern Trust to electronically capture trade information on swaps, a widely used type of OTC derivative, and connect with external parties to route trades to electronic matching platforms, clearing firms and exchanges.
The enhancements to Northern Trust’s custody and middle-office platform will support compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act in the US and the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), which require investors to clear
Singapore Exchange (SGX) and The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to cooperate in the development of Philippines-linked derivatives products.
As part of the MOU, SGX and PSE will jointly explore the development and promotion of Philippines futures and options to address the demands of international investors. The first product to be launched would be a Philippines index futures, based on the MSCI Philippines index. The product is targeted for listing on SGX in 4Q2013, subject to regulatory approval. Both exchanges will also look into the potential listing of derivatives products on PSE in
Torstone Technology, providers of securities and derivatives processing software to the global financial markets, has readied its Inferno post-trade processing solution for Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) and is rolling out the upgrade to existing clients.
Some 11 European countries have decided to impose the FTT across a range of equities and derivatives with France and Italy being first to introduce the tax.
Highly configurable, Inferno is built for adaptability enabling rapid customisation for clients and a speedy response to new market requirements. Brian Collings, chief executive of Torstone Technology says: “FTT is a core systems upgrade as far as we are
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Market Oversight has issued a letter advising the Bolsa de Valores, Marcadorias e Futuros (BVMF-Brazil) that its MICEX Index, Hang Seng Index, FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index, and the BSE Sensitive Index futures contracts submitted for review on 25 January, 2013, have now been deemed certified.
The contracts satisfy the requirements of the Commodity Exchange Act and the Commission’s Regulations and may be offered or sold to persons in the US through the BVMF’s direct access terminals located in the US.
Options, provider of the Options PIPE Private Financial Cloud, a managed infrastructure platform for the trading and alternative investment communities, has expanded connectivity to additional global foreign exchange markets and has upgraded connectivity between the major US trading venues.
With these additions, Options now provides clients with high performance and highly available connectivity to more than 60 markets, including ultra-low latency connectivity in the NJ2 and NY4 data centres to Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, Currenex, Deutsche Bank, EBS (ICAP), FXAll, Reuters Dealing, UBS and Hotspot FX (Knight).
"Our new connections to global FX markets reflect our ongoing strategy of
James Caird Asset Management has gone live with Tradar’s flagship product, Insight version 5.0.
James Caird, a multi-strategy fund with a strong focus on credit and fixed income, will take advantage of Insight’s portfolio management functionality for its operational requirements.
James Caird was looking to replace its existing system with a product that would support its workflow and asset class requirements and could be deployed in an aggressive timeframe. The new platform had to offer full front to back functionality, including trade entry, allocations, position reporting, flexible pricing optionality, P&L reporting, and connectivity to both prime brokers and administrator.
Nigel
