Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: It's been a rough year for trend followers. Calm markets haven't offered many trends. CTAs are down more than 4 percent for the year according to performance benchmark data and the medium term picture doesn't look much better. Still, investors are making allocations to trend followers as they look for uncorrelated returns ahead of a possible correction.
Reporting from IPE suggests that large Scandinavian and Dutch investors are on the hunt for trend followers as one example. Fund flows data from eVestment also shows that more than $3 billion has gone into CTA strategies year-to-date.
These developments have come as somewhat of a surprise to Anthony Todd, CEO of Aspect Capital. "Investor demand for our Core Diversified Program remains strong, despite recent flat performance in the CTA space. Investors are on the hunt for risk offsetting strategies," he tells Opalesque in a recent interview.
Aspect recently moved to grow distribution for the Core Diversified Program, by joining the Gemini Alternative Funds platform. The medium-term trend following strategy will now be available to RIAs, as well as pensions, endowments, private wealth groups and other institutional investors that invest through Gemini.
Todd suspects that there may also be a historical reason for s...................... To view our full article Click here
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