Opalesque Futures Briefing

How to buy … futures

Laxman — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:51:03 +0000

The futures market is often seen as a casino, a legal betting parlor for speculators of the kind portrayed in the 1983 movie “Trading Places.” Futures are speculative, leveraged instruments and aggressive traders can lose big, but these derivatives also can be prudent ways to diversify portfolios and hedge against losses in volatile markets.
Commodities, stocks, Treasury bonds, global currencies…

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How much to invest in managed futures

Laxman — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:50:45 +0000

Managed futures is very unique, because it’s one of the only asset classes that has very low correlation to almost every other type of investment. So if you look at how managed futures correlates to equity markets, basically the term would be, it really has no correlation.
And what that means is: That it doesn’t really move in any predictive pattern…

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Managed futures strategies

Laxman — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:50:28 +0000

As managed futures have grown in popularity, it is important to understand why many seek to diversify their traditional stock and bond portfolios to include this alternative asset class, including: Potential for returns in up and down markets: The flexibility and ease in taking long and short positions allows profit both from rising as well as falling markets.
Noncorrelation to traditional…

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RBC Hedge 250 Index in April: Managed futures gains of 2.13 pct

Laxman — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:49:54 +0000

RBC Capital Markets today reported that for the month of April 2012 the RBC Hedge 250 Index had a net return of -0.04 per cent. This brings the year-to-date return of the Index to 3.37 per cent.
Managed futures funds provided the only bright light in April, with gains of 2.13%, bringing their YTD returns to 0.05%. All other strategies…

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The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index: Managed Futures up 0.43pct

Laxman — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:49:43 +0000

The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index finished down 0.04% for the month of April. Performance for the Broad Index and its 10 sub-strategies is calculated monthly. March, April and YTD 2012. Among the worst-performing sub-strategies last month were dedicated short-bias funds (-2.53%), long/short equity (-0.46%) and equity market-neutral (-0.41%).
Meanwhile, the best-performing ones included fixed-income arbitrage (0.69%), multi-strategy…

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How safe are your savings? Commodity pools can be toxic waters

Laxman — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:49:30 +0000

The appeal of commodity pools is that they play off of headlines: Gold is up! Copper is soaring! Silver is through the roof! A growing number of scams have emerged in recent years that prey upon investors who get suckered into the idea that a brilliant trader is more than happy to help them get a piece of the action.…

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Survey finds rising investor demand for growth stimulus

Laxman — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:49:12 +0000

A growing majority of global investors would like to see more stimulative fiscal policies from governments around the world, amid resurgent fears about the Greek economy, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers for May.
The proportion of global investors saying global fiscal policy is “too restrictive” has more than doubled to a net 23 percent from a…

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Investors missing rally dump bearish bets most since 2008

Laxman — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:48:56 +0000

As individuals bail out of U.S. stocks at the fastest rate in three decades, professional speculators have cut bearish bets by the most since 2008. Money managers are net short 19,375 contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, down 82 percent from a four-year high in September even after the figure jumped from 3,584 last week, data compiled by…

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How many futures contracts can one market support?

Laxman — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:48:40 +0000

Operating a futures exchange has become a highly competitive business, and exchanges worldwide are constantly looking for ways to boost volume. Both ICE and CME Group – the holding company for CME and CBOT plus NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) and COMEX (Commodity Exchange) – are publicly-traded, for-profit companies; ELX is a privately-held corporation owned by a group of investment…

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China introduces silver futures contracts

Laxman — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:48:21 +0000

Shanghai Futures Exchange (SFE) started the trading of China’s first silver futures exchange on Thursday. On the first trading day, the benchmark listing price was 6,166 yuan ($979.77) per kg, according to statistics released by the SFE.
And the first batch of eight listed futures contracts received the accumulative amount of 349,100 hands………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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