Alternative Investment

News Alternative strategies for a democratic U.S. Congress

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Strategy The EM FX carry trade is back

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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 (...)

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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 (...)

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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 (...)

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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 (...)

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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 (...)

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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 (...)

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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 (...)

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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 (...)

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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 (...)

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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% (...)

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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 (...)

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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 (...)

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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 (...)

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Note Are markets becoming more unstable?

Readers of financial news may believe that ‘market corrections’, or ‘shocks’, or ‘five-sigma events’ are more common than they used to be. Winton Capital Management look at the historical data for a number of financial markets and find that there is no evidence for increasing (...)

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News Top 20 largest hedge funds

According to Bloomberg, the $69 billion Man Group tops the list of the largest hedge funds, an industry that is selectively recovering.

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Pedagogy Back to the future, may 2011: Nobles Crus and Earth Element Fund

Yesterday they were introduced as innovatives products. Today, How far have they got and what are the prospects for tomorrow ? Two products in the spotlight this month: Nobles Crus or the blend of passion for wine and financial investment, and a quantitative systematic (...)

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Innovation Elite Advisers launches Precious Time, a fund which invest in collectible watches

Up to 50% will be invested in Patek Philippe watches, 30% in Rolex, Breguet, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin and Cartier

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People Moves Jim Simons, the « Michael Jordan » of finance retires

Jim Simons has officially announced his retirement, leaving the reins of "Medallion Fund" - without doubt one of the greatest performing management funds in history - in the hands of his two co-successors, Peter Brown and Robert (...)

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Stories Axa Rosenberg: a $217 million bug.

The American quantitative management firm is struggling to get over a scandal that originated from an IT error and which lead 600 of its clients to lose money.

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Interview Barbara Rupf Bee : «The argument about the lack of women at Lehman Brothers does not hold up !»

According to Barbara Rupf Bee, ranked among the top 50 most powerful women in the hedge fund industry, the crisis would not have been avoided had there been a different ratio of women to men..."

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Stories Key Quant: New revelation of systematic management

"Key Quant”. The saga of Robert Baguenault de Viéville and Raphael Gelrubin could be summarized in these two words, the name of the company they run. Specialized in systematic trend-following management strategies (trend following (...)

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News Institutional investor appetite is back for quant funds

The recent CTA performances encourage institutional investors to more closely monitor this type of hedge fund. Thus, according to Preqin, 52% of them wish to increase their exposure to this type of alternative strategy this year (vs 14% last (...)

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Strategy JPY at risk of reversal: who wins? who loses?

JPY and Japanese equities were the outcast of the rally, in diffidence of Abenomics’ and BoJ’s chances of success. They bear a risk of a reversal ahead of the coming BoJ meetings (April 28 & June 16) and the July Upper House (...)

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Note ESMA report values EU Alternative Investment Funds at €4.9 trillion

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) today published its first statistical report on European Union (EU) Alternative Investment Funds (AIF). The study finds that the EU AIF sector in 2017, as measured by Net Asset Value (NAV), amounted to (...)

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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 (...)

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Opinion Are L/S Equity managers concerned by the covid resurgence?

Managers in the U.S. and Europe are continuing to reduce both their net and gross exposures, now converging near their long-term lows. They are selectively selling or shorting stocks that are the most exposed to tighter restrictions, preferring value stocks instead (to (...)

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News Hedge Funds Show Resilience Ahead of Election Day

Risk aversion rose over the recent days as Election Day approaches in the U.S. and the gap between Clinton and Trump in the polls has narrowed. During the period under review, both equities and bonds delivered negative returns, while credit spreads widened and energy (...)

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News Alternative UCITS Get the Flows in Europe!

There has been much discussion over the recent weeks on the outflows suffered by the hedge fund industry. Several data providers estimated the decline in global hedge fund capital in the first quarter of 2016 at about USD (...)

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