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Hedge fund performance was adversely impacted by the escalation of the Euro-centric sovereign bond crisis in May, with the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index declining by 2.26 per cent for the month.
May was the worst performance month since November 2008 and, inclusive of the recent loss, hedge funds have surrendered a large portion of early year gains, ending the first five months of 2010 with a gain of 1.32 per cent.
Hedge funds were broadly impacted by the sharp increase in risk aversion associated directly with the sovereign bond crisis escalation, as well as the effects this situation has
Traditional and alternative asset manager EquityStar Capital Management has formed an alliance with J.P. Morgan Securities for brokerage, trading and custodial services.
EquityStar Capital Management is a multi-strategy investment and wealth advisory firm created to provide traditional and alternative asset management exclusively for institutional investors, retirement plan sponsors and certain qualified individuals.
Its fund will trade in the universe of the 1,500 most liquid global companies and is open to new investors.
By reinvesting some of the firm’s profits into African economies, EquityStar will help give citizens of emerging nations the confidence to reinvest in their own economy by helping
Merlin Securities, a prime brokerage services and technology provider for hedge funds, has launched two technology solutions.
First, Merlin’s clients now have the option of reporting in any base portfolio currency, not just US dollars.
Second, Merlin now provides enhanced start-of-day positions following specific corporate actions that affect a client’s portfolio, allowing for more timely, efficient and informed decision-making.
Merlin has expanded its reporting and analytics platform to support non-USD-based currency reporting. This functionality will allow a fund with multiple accounts the flexibility to have different base reporting currencies for each. For example, a fund with a separately managed
Early estimates indicate the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index will experience its first negative month since February 2009 in May with a fall of 2.73 per cent.
The index remains up 1.52 per cent year-to-date and, based on comparable indices, hedge funds outperformed global equity markets which finished down 9.91 per cent for the month.
Event driven funds lost an estimated 3.23 per cent in May as equity-oriented managers declined with global equity markets.
While distressed and merger arbitrage funds performed slightly better, market sell-offs and indiscriminate levels of correlation across asset classes made it difficult for managers to generate
The hedge fund industry posted an estimated outflow of USD3.5bn, or 0.2 per cent of assets, in April 2010, the third outflow in five months, according to TrimTabs Investment Research and BarclayHedge.
Strong performance has added USD338bn to hedge fund coffers in the past year, lifting industry assets to USD1.65trn, the highest level since November 2008.
“Recent flow weakness is surprising,” says Sol Waksman, chief executive of BarclayHedge. “Industry performance has been stellar, and April is historically a strong month for subscriptions.”
The TrimTabs/BarclayHedge survey of hedge fund managers for May reveals that 52 per cent of 143 respondents are
Equinoxe Alternative Investment Services has launched the Mid Ocean Emerging Manager Offshore Platform to provide emerging managers with a transparent, cost-effective and time-sensitive solution for an offshore hedge fund.
The platform provides a Bermuda segregated accounts company coupled with quality services providers to enable the manager to pass the institutional due diligence requirements for a verifiable offshore product.
The total start up cost for the set up of a Bermuda segregated accounts company on this platform will be under USD30,000, inclusive of service providers, legal fees, government fees and legal documentation. In comparison, the cost of setting up an offshore
After falling steadily for four quarters, hedge fund liquidations rose again in the first quarter of 2010 with 240 funds closing during the period, according to the HFR Market Microstructure Industry Report by Hedge Fund Research.
Liquidations were disproportionately skewed towards fund of funds, with 102 fund of funds closing in the quarter.
This marks the seventh consecutive quarter in which fund of funds liquidations have exceeded new launches.
Leverage employed by hedge funds has continued to moderate relative to five years ago, with nearly 70 per cent of all funds, which manage 83 per cent of industry capital, using
PMA Capital Management, an Asian hedge fund manager, says three of its funds delivered positive returns in May.
Within the equity strategy, the PMA Pathfinder Asia Equity Fund delivered positive returns of 1.6 per cent for May, bringing YTD returns to 3.9 per cent.
The fund was able to achieve these returns while maintaining a volatility that was less than one third that of the market.
The PMA India Fund also performed well, returning 1.8 per cent in May.
Representing its ninth consecutive month of positive returns, PMA’s flagship FX and rates fund, PMA Harvester Fund, posted results of
CME Group and Dow Jones Indexes have launched the Dow Jones CME FX$Index.
The index will serve as the basis of a new futures contract, which is expected to launch in the third quarter 2010.
The contracts will be listed with, and subject to, the rules and regulations of CME.
The new index combines six currency futures and represents the relative value of the US dollar versus six major currencies. The currencies included are the Australian dollar, British pound, Canadian dollar, Euro, Japanese yen, and Swiss franc.
The Dow Jones CME FX$Index futures contract will provide a more efficient way
JonesTrading Institutional Services, an agency brokerage which provides institutions with block trading in securities, has appointed Andrew Tuthill as managing director and head of its capital markets group and a member of the executive committee.
JonesTrading Capital Markets provides liquidity to the corporate and private equity communities and is in part a response to the increased demand by institutions for an unconflicted agency model in secondary offerings.
Tuthill brings 17 years of experience in investment banking, trading and equity capital markets to the position.
Most recently he was managing director – head of special situations for the equity capital markets
