The Hedgeweek USA Awards 2013 presented earlier this month in New York City brought together the leading names in the US hedge funds industry to celebrate the achievements of the best performing managers and service providers in 2012.

By Marianne Scordel – Summer in London brings with it a whole new wave of would be hedge fund managers, who have either left their employers as part of a pre-bonus cost-cutting exercise, or are planning to do so once they have been paid the sums they will then use as the required investments to start up their new ventures.

Swiss Seagull AG runs the Crossfire Fund, which follows what it refers to as a trend breakout strategy. Rather than take a trend following or countertrend trading approach, Swiss Seagull uses a multi-directional hybrid trading strategy. As such, it is composed of one core strategy and two sub-strategies, which provide more of discretionary element to how the fund is managed.

Numen Capital LLP was founded in May 2008 by Filippo Lanza and Kushal Kumar. The firm’s flagship mandate is the Numen Credit Opportunities Fund, an event-driven credit special situations strategy. 

HFR CA Phalanx Fund is a separately managed trust on the HFR Asset Management, LLC managed accounts platform (“HFR Platform”). Trading manager, Phalanx Capital Management LLC (“Phalanx”) is a Chicago-based hedge fund firm running approximately USD110 million in AUM as of 1 June, 2013.

Robert Hay founded Bayou City Capital LP in November 2000. Both Hay and William Monroe (pictured), who joined in 2011, represent the fund’s General Partner, Omni Trading LLC, a registered Commodity Pool Operator and Commodity Trading Advisor with the National Futures Association.

The consolidation of Admiral Administration into the Maitland Group last October has proven to be a winning formula according to Canover Watson, Managing Director at Admiral (which has retained its name).

It’s been a great year for independently owned Meridian Fund Services. The announcement of being voted Best Offshore Hedge Fund Administrator in this year’s Hedgeweek US Awards, which took place in New York on Thursday 6 June 2013, comes on the back of also winning the European award back in March this year.

Since it opened its doors in 2006, Opus has become one of the industry’s leading independent and privately owned full service fund administrators, providing a solid technology framework to deliver automated, middle and back office support to asset managers across the globe.

The market rally in 2013 hasn’t necessarily translated into significant trade volumes among hedge fund managers. This is primarily due to the fact that the market’s one-directional, low volatility performance is less fundamentally driven and more fuelled by central bank action; something that hedge fund managers, especially fundamental equity shops, really do not enjoy. For clients of Concept Capital, one of North America’s leading introducing brokers, things are no different.

Lyxor’s Managed Account Platform is the industry’s largest individual commingled managed account platform. With over 100 managers running a diverse range of hedge fund strategies, the Lyxor MAP is committed to providing its investors – fund-of-funds, pension funds, insurance companies, private banks – with access to a universe of best-in-class talent. 

Founded by hedge fund titan Julian Robertson in 1980, Tiger Management LLC became one of the most successful and lauded hedge funds. At its peak in 1998, Tiger Management was running USD22billion in assets.

CurAlea Associates LLC has been named the Best Risk Management Software Firm for the second consecutive year. The Hedgeweek USA Awards recognise excellence among hedge fund managers and service providers around the world as determined by the votes of Hedgeweek’s 41,000 subscribers.

It’s been a positive year for SunGard’s hedge fund business, which secured a number of large new customers including Industry Funds Management (IFM) in Australia.

New York-headquartered Liquidnet is a global institutional trading network that connects buy-side institutions to global equity markets. As such it supports the primary need of institutions: to buy or sell large blocks of stock in a secure, anonymous fashion with minimum price movement. Today, Liquidnet connects more than 700 of the world’s top asset managers to execute their business across 42 markets spanning five continents.

Being based in Chicago is ideal for a firm like Turnkey Trading Partners that specialises in supporting the many needs of derivatives firms looking to operate within the CFTC and NFA regulatory environment.

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” – Warren Buffett

The increased pressure hedge fund managers are under today in terms of investor due diligence and regulatory compliance means that partnering with the right service providers is a key consideration.

We believe that our investment funds group in Cayman has made great strides in the last few years. We’ve recruited some excellent people and have also been joined by some outstanding lateral hires,” comments Neal Lomax (pictured), managing partner of Mourant Ozannes’ Cayman Islands Office and co-head of its investment funds practice.

Agecroft Partners specialises in consulting and third party marketing for hedge funds. Its objective: to raise assets globally for institutional-quality hedge fund managers by utilising a consultative approach within the institutional investor community.