Tidan Capital has launched its NOVA volatility arbitrage strategy as a UCITS fund on Alma Capital's platform, with more than $100m in commitments from over 10 institutional investors.

The Alma Tidan NOVA Volatility Arbitrage Fund went live on 31 July through Alma Platinum IV SICAV. The strategy has an estimated capacity of about $4bn, the firms told Hedgeweek.

None of the seed money came from Alma. The capital was raised entirely from external investors through the two firms' combined distribution efforts.

The fund trades single-stock and equity index options, futures, swaps and foreign exchange. It targets pricing discrepancies across strikes and maturities that arise when hedging activity, market flows and behavioural biases distort the supply of and demand for options.

Those imbalances tend to widen in periods of stress, whether triggered by geopolitical uncertainty, economic instability or earnings announcements.

The fund is managed by Magnus Linder and Dennis Karlsson, derivatives specialists with about 20 years of experience each in trading, risk management and execution. Both joined Tidan in 2024 after several years running a similar strategy at a leading Nordic bank.

Tidan is responsible for portfolio management, including investment decisions, trading and risk management. Alma acts as the UCITS management company and platform operator, providing the fund infrastructure, operational framework and distribution to European institutional investors.

The partnership is exclusive and was set up specifically for the NOVA launch, the firms said. They were introduced through an industry referral and worked together on both the fund structure and the capital raise. There are no announced plans for further Tidan strategies on the platform, though both said they would be open to it.

Alma, founded in Luxembourg in 2006 by chief executive Henri Vernhes, has about $4.5bn in assets under management or advisory and offices in London, Paris and Luxembourg. Its business is focused on bringing specialist investment managers and strategies into the UCITS market.

Tidan was founded in Sweden in 2021 by alumni of Brummer & Partners. The firm has developed a range of specialised investment strategies and is led by chief investment officer Michael Falken.