Solutions
Hedgebay Trading has launched a monthly index that aims to give the hedge fund industry detailed insight into the average discount or premium to NAV that investors are paying for assets that have no contractual redemption rights to investors.
The Hedgebay Global Illiquid Asset Index is the first time that a breakdown of liquidity data has been made available to investors.
Illiquidity is the primary concern of hedge fund investors, with difficulties in providing accurate valuations of illiquid assets emerging as a key factor behind the collapse of several hedge funds over the last two years.
The IAI will be
Bats Exchange’s Multicast Pitch service, a real-time depth-of-book data feed, is now available via Atrium Network’s Exchange Ring, which offers dark fibre connectivity to exchanges, multilateral trading facilities and electronic communications networks.
Multicast Pitch allows Bats Exchange market data recipients to more easily redistribute the data within their own networks with up to a 50 per cent reduction in latency and 20 per cent fewer events than Bats’ TCP Pitch feed, a point-to-point depth-of-book market data feed.
Atrium Network offers connectivity to Bats Exchange for ultra low latency trading and data delivery. Customers can receive and redistribute real-time market
Fortis Bank Global Clearing and Tick-TS have entered into an agreement whereby trading companies can use the Tick-TS trading front-end in combination with Fortis Clearing services either with their own membership or with a shared membership of Fortis Clearing.
The combination of the Tick-TS trading front-end and the exchange memberships of Fortis Bank Global Clearing provides trading companies access to Xetra, Xontro, SIX Swiss Exchange, Wiener Börse and XIM (Xetra International Market).
In addition, Fortis Bank Global Clearing and Tick-TS also plan to provide access to the Euronext cash markets (Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon), Eurex and US equity markets.
Butterfield Fulcrum, an alternative fund administration company, has launched a managed accounts platform that provides segregated and commingled managed accounts with a common set of tools for operations, administration and risk monitoring.
The platform, called Altinus, aims to provide an advanced operational and technological infrastructure that complements the investment management services provided by an asset allocator.
"Altinus is the first ever administrator sponsored managed accounts platform, and is based on ten years of managed account operations experience," says Akshaya Bhargava (pictured), Butterfield Fulcrum’s chief executive. "It is designed to eliminate service and fee duplication by allowing allocators to determine investment
Convergex Group, a provider of investment technologies and execution solutions, has launched a tactical trading algorithm designed for orders requiring careful execution.
Using a proprietary multi-dimensional sensitivity profile, Abraxas aims to exploit hidden liquidity, favourable price movements and volatility changes, while navigating difficult markets.
Abraxas is available to clients through all major OMSs, EMSs and through Convergex’s electronic trading desk.
Additionally, Abraxas has been deployed on Convergex’s high-touch desk, where Convergex leverages high performance technology on behalf of clients.
“Abraxas employs highly adaptable technology and simultaneously uses a mix of different order types to rapidly respond to changing
Icap Energy is introducing a combined voice-electronic broking service for OTC crude, fuel oil and middle distillate swaps, subject to regulatory approvals.
The service, Icap TrueQuote, will offer OTC oil swap clients a screen-supported voice hybrid service with execution and straight-through-processing to clearing.
ICAP TrueQuote will be powered by technology provided by IntercontinentalExchange and will be distributed on WebICE, the front-end to ICE’s trading platform.
“Oil is the only one of the five major OTC energy-commodity markets where electronic trading is not widespread. The financial crisis has resulted in an increased focus on counterparty credit risk and understanding of the
IlliquidX, a financial services boutique which enables clients to price and trade illiquid securities, says it has had a strong start to 2010 with January traded notional volumes more than double those of December 2009.
IlliquidX currently has over EUR1bn of assets listed on its web based platform.
Celestino Amore (pictured), chief executive and founder of IlliquidX, says: “We had a bumper second half of 2009, and our rapid growth looks set to continue this year. Since starting operations in March 2009, we are now connected with over 600 participants in the European distressed debt and illiquid securities market.”
List Group, an electronic trading software provider, has launched Brain3, a complex event processing and algorithmic trading engine, which provides buy and sell-side firms with a solution for the development of low latency, automated algorithms.
B3’s CEP engine enables real-time monitoring and analysis of event streams and the parallel development of customised and complex strategies.
Stefano Falciani, managing director of List UK, says: “B3 not only allows you to back test, but also measures the effectiveness of your algo’s interacting with previous day’s market data via a playback function or in real time by mirroring real time market data.”
B3
LaCrosse Global Fund Services, a hedge fund administrator, is partnering with RiskMetrics Group, a provider of risk management and corporate governance services, to offer LaCrosse’s hedge fund clients access to RiskMetrics’ HedgePlatform Community.
LaCrosse’s clients can now access at no cost RiskMetrics’ RiskManager Investor Reporting Application, allowing them to create custom monthly risk reports for their investors.
"The addition of RiskMetrics’ new tools furthers our ability to create an accurate representation of a hedge fund’s risk, including understanding and verifying representation of risk, communicating risk to investors, and staying current on the latest risk methodology," says Mike Carpenter, managing director
Asian exchanges will see high trading volumes of 20 to 30 per cent growth per annum, driven mainly by economic fundamentals but also by greater order flow from foreign traders and overseas quantitative funds, according to a report by Celent.
However, while undergoing change the Asian landscape still has a real need for improvement.
Market participants that expect the Asia Pacific equities markets to resemble the US and European market structure in the next few years are likely to be disappointed, says Celent.
Ultimately, firms that can customise to the local markets and have sufficient capital and patience to wait
