Ex-Goldman’s banker Hideki Furusho has teamed up with a University of Tokyo professor to launch a hedge fund that trades Nikkei 22PARA_BREAK_SENTINEL_9f8e7d6c

Ex-Goldman’s banker Hideki Furusho has teamed up with a University of Tokyo professor to launch a hedge fund that trades Nikkei 225 futures using a computer model that analyzes Japanese blog traffic, reported Bloomberg this week. Pluga Capital Co hopes to raise USD61million for the unique Pluga AI Fund by targeting overseas investors from June onwards according to Furusho. The fund uses a web-mining model developed by Yutaka Matsuo, an associate professor at UOT. “Over the next 10 years the web universe is going to grow, which will allow us to become more accurate in making investment decisions,” Furusho was quoted as saying. Matsuo said that the fund aims to generate returns by tracking and analyzing roughly 20 million Japanese blogs with keywords that could potentially influence price moves in Nikkei futures. The fund aims to generate returns of 30 per cent. The strategy is highly liquid, with investment decisions made every day on whether to buy, sell or avoid investing in Nikkei 225 futures. Cashing in at the end of each day to maintain liquidity is likely to be an attractive proposition to investors. “In an environment like this, investors are looking for liquidity as well as redemption requirements,” Furusho said. Since the fund began trading in August it has returned 7.5 per cent.