Managed Futures Briefings

Asia investors being pointed towards alternative investments

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 01:09:55 +0000

Asian investors should look more to alternative investments to balance their portfolios and reduce risk as the global markets remain volatile and politics unpredictable. Alternative investments include hedge funds, private equity, managed futures, real-estate and commodities like gold, and don�t move in same direction as equities or fixed income. In the wake of the unexpected Trump win in the US ...
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Distressed Gains and Managed Futures Losses Continue

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 01:09:40 +0000

October was the hedge funds industry�s first aggregate decline since January, ending an eight-month string of positive aggregate returns. The dispersion between positive and negative performance was below the 2016 average, which implies that while the month was negative, it was not dramatically so. Credit exposure has produced leading market and strategy returns in 2016, a theme which continued i...
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5 More Under-the-Radar and Up-and-Coming Funds

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 01:09:22 +0000

American Beacon AHL Managed Futures Strategy (AHLIX) is subadvised by Man AHL, one of the largest firms in the alternative investment industry, with $78.6 billion in assets under management and a 25-year track record in systematic strategies. This fund is managed by Matthew Sargaison and Russell Korgaonkar. Sargaison is the CIO of AHL Partners and served as chief risk officer between 2009 and 20...
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Money Talks: The details

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 01:09:02 +0000

As inquiries continue to grow about the implementation of managed futures, often the first question is �� what percentage is appropriate for the overall portfolio mix?� Here is where a professional should be involved with the details as they truly can be overwhelming. We have often referenced the Nobel Prize winning research known as Modern Portfolio Theory. The details are many; however the big...
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Funds Established Winning �Trump Trade� Before Election Outcome

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 01:08:46 +0000

Institutional investors sent dichotomous signals in their positioning leading up to the election of Donald Trump. While hedge funds moved to establish risk-on positions � establishing notable long Trump trade exposure in S&P 500 futures contracts, for instance � it was more conservative institutional investors who ran from the election, embracing a risk-off stance. This occurred as managed f...
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Traders are Taking a Closer Look at WisdomTree Managed Futures

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 01:08:15 +0000

Investors doing their homework on technical levels for WisdomTree Managed Futures (WDTI) will most likely be looking at many different indicators. The RSI, or Relative Strength Index is a widely used oscillating indicator among traders and investors. The RSI operates in a range-bound territory with values between 0 and 100. When the RSI line heads up, the stock may be showing strength. The oppos...
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How Funds Bet the Election

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 01:08:00 +0000

Many CTA and CPO (managed futures) funds put on another type of hedge fund trade intended to make money if Mr. Trump won: a bet that a spike in copper prices would accompany his trillion-dollar infrastructure promises. By Nov. 8, CTAs and CPOs had increased their net long positions in copper by 25.3%. That futures buying moved copper past certain standard deviation-based trading range parameters...
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Keeping your investment portfolio in balance in changing times

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 01:07:35 +0000

The financial markets are betting that Trump�s policies, greenlighted by a Republican Congress, will boost spending, tilting interest rates and inflation higher. In the inverse math of fixed income investors, higher interest rates mean lower prices on existing bonds, a dynamic professional investors call �rate risk.� The Great Recession of 2008 ushered in an unprecedented period of historically ...
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Managed futures CTA hedge funds give up gains after Brexit heroics

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 01:20:23 +0000

Managed futures CTAs have been hard hit recently and multiple ends of the time horizon curve. After the election, bond yields jumped significantly, moving from 1.55% last month to 2.11% today. If the US central bank pulls back on monetary stimulus and raises interest rates, and the Trump administration pushes fiscal stimulus, bonds could trend significantly higher in yield, lower in price. The ...
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Time to invest in managed futures?

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 01:20:00 +0000

CTAs and managed futures have been hit by the poor performance of commodities in recent years and the end of the so-called �super cycle�. But is the case for these strategies still valid? A managed futures fund invests with an absolute return perspective, i.e. the fund manager tries to make money in all market environments and does do not follow a benchmark. The fund consists of two parts. First...
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Quant Hedge Funds Boom in Asia

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 01:19:35 +0000

More Asian hedge funds are starting computer-driven strategies, as investors disappointed by the poor performance of some traditional funds search for better returns. So far, allocations to Asia-based quant funds have been in line with global trends, rising about 30 percent the past two years. Still, there�s plenty of room to catch up in the region. Asian CTA/managed-futures funds had $4.2 billio...
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Why SmartBeta is spooking liquid alts investors

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 01:19:16 +0000

Recent market volatility has pushed many investors to look towards managed futures funds, which traditionally offer attractive returns in various markets paired with low risk. Speaking to Citywire Selector, Citywire + rated Frank Seidel of Amandea said the attraction of a managed futures fund is the fact most strategies are purely systematic. 'The transactions are typically triggered only on the...
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Inside the Ropes at Managed Futures/Macro Conference

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 01:18:59 +0000

As a Chicago-based firm, we never thought to celebrate the first Cubs World Series win in over 100 years in Austin, TX � but there we were nonetheless, with our sponsorship of the welcome reception for the �Managed Futures & Global Macro: Strategies to Optimize Institutional Portfolios� conference by TalkingHedge butting up against the start of the World Series game 7 last Wednesday night. ...
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Swiss-Asia�s rising alternative funds sustain growth despite global economic slowdown

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 01:18:38 +0000

Swiss-Asia Financial Services (Swiss-Asia), Singapore�s independent financial services platform which provides dedicated incubation services to hedge funds, announced that rising alternative funds incubated on the platform has sustained growth despite global economic slowdown. Steve Knabl, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner at Swiss-Asia Financial Services, said, �Although Asia hedge fu...
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Putting Morningstar�s New Style Box to Work

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 01:17:44 +0000

In October, we introduced the Morningstar Style Box for alternative funds, a new framework for analyzing alternative mutual funds. The October Fund Spy outlined why we think investors need a convenient way to view the diversification characteristics of liquid alternative mutual funds and the methodology behind the alternatives style box. The article can be found here, but to quickly recap: The a...
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Gross�s Unconstrained Fund Cut From Morningstar �Prospects�

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 01:17:29 +0000

Bill Gross�s Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund was removed from a list of up-and-coming strategies compiled by Morningstar Inc. because of performance and questions about the fund�s management, the Chicago-based researcher said Tuesday. The fund was taken off the list �because returns have been so-so versus major bond indexes, and there are questions about the resources behind Gross following ...
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Taking a Look at Shares of Horizons Auspice Managed Futures ETF

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 01:17:12 +0000

Shares of Horizons Auspice Managed Futures ETF have recently come under renewed examination. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is one of multiple popular technical indicators created by J. Welles Wilder. Wilder introduced RSI in his book �New Concepts in Technical Trading Systems� which was published in 1978. RSI measures the magnitude and velocity of directional price movements. The data is rep...
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NuWave Investment Management, LLC Launches Short-Term Futures Portfolio

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 01:16:57 +0000

NuWave adds intra-day futures program to complement its diversified suite of portfolio offerings; Short-Term Futures Portfolio commenced trading in July of 2016 with $20 million in assets under management. The Short-Term Futures Portfolio represents a new model set that is entirely focused on short-term directional trading opportunities, yet shares a common heritage with many of NuWave's existin...
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When active investors need to get away from indices

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 01:16:31 +0000

Thijs Hovers, co-portfolio manager and co-owner of Lucerne Capital said that active investors need to get away from indices when they are trying to find out where the growth is in Europe. Speaking at the latest Opalesque 2016 New York Roundtable, Hovers explained that a large part of European equity indices are banks, which are suffering from low net interest margins, profitability and earnings. ...
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No Volatility, No Bueno for Managed Futures / Macro

Mon, 31 Oct 2016 01:04:52 +0000

�Managed Futures Thrived from Brexit,� but since that, it�s been a steady diet of losses as volatility has been sucked out of just about everywhere once again. Nowhere has that been clearer than in currency volatility, where Bloomberg�s posting of JP Morgan�s Global Currency Volatility for the year reminded us of more than a few hedge fund equity curves for 2016. For those who trade volatility fo...
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