F&C says its Zircon Fund returned 19.07 per cent with an annualised daily volatility of 10.26 per cent in its first year.

F&C says its Zircon Fund returned 19.07 per cent with an annualised daily volatility of 10.26 per cent in its first year.

F&C Zircon, managed by F&C Alternative Investments, the single strategy hedge fund division of F&C, is an absolute return trading strategy that aims to capture dispersion between same sector pairs of stocks within a pan-European equity universe.

The portfolio is managed by Darren Jordan and Phil Robinson who have worked together for over ten years. Their philosophy is to capture excessive and unwarranted short term dispersion between same sector pairs of stocks in pan-European equity markets within an efficient and diversified portfolio context.

'We are most pleased with meeting our volatility target in a year where index volatility hit record and prolonged levels,' Robinson says. 'This validates our approach to risk and has reinforced our view that the amount of risk employed is key to the success of any strategy. Our vanilla approach to liquid asset class trading is well suited to weather any further and unexpected market storms.'

The F&C Zircon Fund, which has a minimum investment level of EUR500,000, has both euro and US dollar share classes and is being targeted primarily at institutional investors including funds of hedge funds.

The fund is domiciled in the Cayman Islands with a listing on the Irish Stock Exchange.