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George Colman Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York:

Optimal Fund Management Australia runs an Australia/New Zealand long-short equity fund with a large-cap focus. The fund was founded by George Colman and Peter Whiting as part of the Optimal Group. Both men were recently interviewed by Matthias Knab for Opalesque TV.

The men originally founded their firm with the goal of establishing Long/Short Equity as a strategy in Australia. "We run two funds, which are essentially onshore and offshore versions of the same strategy which is a low, but variable niche exposure long/short Australian equities strategy concentrating on the large capitalization into the market," Colman explains.

The fund is notable in that it launched with client funds just two hours after the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008. The fund boasts a 15% annual return with 3.75% annual volatility. Whiting explains that they have an aggressive approach to mitigating downside risk by quantifying potential risk before making a trade.

"We have averaged 15% net exposure since the inception of the fund and we have probably managed that within a band of slightly negative to about 40%," Colman says. "We feel most comfortable with an investment strategy that speaks to a range of net exposure somewhere between slightly negative to an upper bound of around 50%. This is not the style of fund that you are ever go......................

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