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Adriano Agosti Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva:

To what degree does the current global and economic volatility allow managers to create value through market inefficiencies? According to a panel at last week’s Terrapinn Hedge Funds World Zurich 2011 conference, there is conspicuous correlation within and among markets – and that does not spell well for investments. Outstanding stock selection is therefore, as always, key to beat the markets.

The CBO’s volatility index (VIX) shot up from 18 on 21st July this year to 48 on 8th August, and has stayed up since. It is now at around 33 (on 19th November 2008, the index reached a high of 74.)

Adriano Agosti, chairman and managing partner at GoldenPeaks Capital Partners, a European active ownership investor, runs long term capital. The environment over the next two years will be very challenging, but interesting opportunities can be snatched if one is careful. "Inefficiencies are created by correlation," he said. Those inefficiencies can nowadays be found in the likes of real estate and listed companies.

Directional macro is non existent at the moment, and lots of managers capitalise on that, said Max von Bismark, CEO and partner at Skybridge Capital, a $5.7bn hedge fund with offices in New York and in Zurich. Not long/short equity though, as the environment is difficult for stock pickers. As the phenomenon is "not current", he believes the traditional......................

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