December 2020
Strategy Five reasons why special situations outlook is brightening
Special Situations strategies have been under pressure in 2020, both on their event and credit arbitrage books. Due to their long structural market beta, managers have underperformed early this year. They have retraced most but not all they have (...)
|
November 2020
Strategy Dollar depreciation helps CTAS
Since the U.S. presidential election on November 3 th, the USD has started a descent that may have legs under the new administration. The easing of trade tensions and an accommodative policy mix could put additional pressure on the DXY, which was down -1.7% since the (...)
|
November 2020
Strategy Most L/S Equity emerge unscathed from factor rotations
Several hedge fund strategies have momentum biases, in particular L/S Equity, and CTAs. Considering the fact that this rotation took place in a bullish environment, most hedge fund strategies ended the week in positive (...)
|
October 2020
Strategy Hedge fund positioning ahead of U.S. Elections
If past elections provide any guidance, prospects for a Trump reelection look slim. History suggests that a second term reelection almost always requires strong growth. In most past election campaigns, polls did not materially shift after (...)
|
October 2020
Strategy Our thoughts on the rally in momentum stocks
Momentum is a strategy which buys stocks trending higher and sells stocks on a downtrend within an index. It is systematic and has no considerations for earnings, valuation, or other fundamental metrics such as (...)
|
September 2020
Opinion Weaker Alpha potential in EM Debt after the rally…temporarily
The market crash that began in March sent the spread of EM debt (for the hard currency aggregate) to nearly 700 bps. It is now only 30 bps away from the pre-crisis level. This spread tightening reflects the ongoing economic recovery EM countries. Trends in Covid-19 are (...)
|
June 2020
News What are activists buying after the storm?
The Special Situations strategy went through a roller coaster since February. Typically, due to their long structural market beta, managers tend to underperform in risk-off episodes. However, as they also tend to look beyond short-term volatility, they usually rebound (...)
|
April 2020
News Mixed outlook for L/S Equity Neutral and Short-Selling
Lyxor’s L/S Equity Neutral peer group was down -2.8% year-to-date, hurt by extreme trading conditions and the constituents’ average market beta of 20%. The environment has been challenging for the strategy amid extreme stock volatility and unsettling heavy systematic trading (...)
|
April 2020
Strategy CTAs as shock absorbers
In the space of alternative strategies, Global Macro and Event-Driven strategies rebounded the most since March 23rd. Both Merger Arbitrage and Special Situations sub strategies benefitted as M&A deal spreads tightened significantly since (...)
|
January 2020
Note ESMA report values EU Alternative Investment Funds at €5.8 trillion
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) today published its second statistical report on European Union (EU) Alternative Investment Funds (AIF). The study found that the EU AIF sector in 2018, as measured by Net Asset Value (NAV), amounted to €5.8tn or nearly 40% (...)
|
November 2019
Strategy Small, Medium, Large HF: How to choose?
Should alternative portfolios favor smaller, medium, or larger hedge funds? The choice might not be as obvious as before and may be more dependent on the stage of the business cycle. For many years, small hedge funds have steadily outperformed their large peers, sometimes by (...)
|
October 2019
Strategy Trend reversals briefly halted the CTA rise
Despite the escalation of trade tensions during the third quarter, economic activity has remained quite resilient. Macro data releases even managed to beat expectations in the U.S. and in Japan, leading to a sudden rise in bond yields over the course of (...)
|
October 2019
Strategy Falling Geopolitical Premium to fuel Global Macro Strategies
Progress in trade talks between the U.S. and China and in Brexit negotiations knocked down safe assets last week. Bond yields rose in most developed countries and gold prices fell, as the stance on both thorny issues reversed and turned (...)
|
October 2019
Strategy Slow and steady march towards a higher volatility regime
Volatility regimes are decisive for most investment approaches, particularly hedge funds. For both top down players (CTAs, Global Macro, FI Sovereign Arb.) and bottom-up strategies (L/S Equity, Event Driven, Credit Arb.), volatility deeply influence their universe and the (...)
|
October 2019
News Momentum is back but for how long?
Going forward, our stance remains defensive on equities, in particular on European, Japanese and EM markets (UW). In the space of alternative strategies, we prefer Market Neutral L/S vs. Directional L/S, despite the fact that the latter has adopted a cautious stance in (...)
|
| 1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
