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Matthias Knab, Opalesque:

ABN AMRO Clearing's 12th Amsterdam Investor Forum (AIF) kicked off today at ABN AMRO's head office in Amsterdam. The conference has become a landmark conference in the Netherlands for the alternatives industry and also attracts participants from Europe, US, and Asia.

A yearly conference highlight is the AIF Factor where alternative asset managers pitch their propositions to a group of 200 delegates, comprising of investment managers, institutional investors, hedge funds allocators and high net worth individuals.

This year the AI-driven Omphalos Fund, presented by Borno Janekovic, came out as the winner. Below is a descripition of the six funds who entered the AIF competition this year.

1. Omphalos Fund, presented by Borno Janekovic

Omphalos Fund is a 100% AI-powered, systematic, multi-strategy, long-short alternative investment vehicle. It combines quantitative approaches, time-series prediction, machine learning, and portfolio optimization. Operating on a proprietary, fully autonomous trading platform, the fund trades 24/5 over 200 financial instruments across global exchanges. Since its launch in January 2022, it has achieved a net return of 34.63% (approx. 12% annualized) with a 1.7 Sharpe Ratio. The fund aims for capital preservation in down markets with up market participation, targeting 90% plus monthly positive returns over a calendar year.

2. AlphaTech Equity Market Neutral Fund, presented by Giovanni Beliosi

AlphaTech Equity Market Neutral Fund targets long-term capital appreciation with consistent growth throughout market cycles. Using proprietary quantitative models, it seeks alpha opportunities in global developed equity markets. The fund aims for zero beta over a full market cycle and diversifies across assets, industries, sectors, countries, and regions. Founded by Jia Ye, who brings over 20 years of asset management experience, AlphaTech's strategies are built on years of quantitative research and a macro perspective, adjusting risk allocation based on evolving market environments.

3. Catalyst Futures, presented by Alex Chain

TreeCap's Catalyst Futures fund offers a unique arbitrage strategy in Futures and Options markets, blending systematic and discretionary approaches. Based in Amsterdam and founded in 2016, the fund exploits inefficiencies across developed and emerging markets. TreeCap's edge lies in its expertise in less liquid markets, advanced quantitative modeling, and deep derivatives experience. The fund has maintained a consistent track record of profitability across four years of trading, adapting swiftly to market changes while effectively managing risk.

4. Hodl Algorithmic Fund, presented by Maurice Mureau

The Hodl Algorithmic Fund is a diversified digital assets fund leveraging proprietary algorithms and a self-developed trading engine. Operating across centralized and decentralized exchanges, it deploys advanced algorithms for market making, liquidity provision, arbitrage, and options trading. The fund's high-frequency trading platform executes up to 1.5 million orders daily, generating substantial market-making fees and trading profits. To mitigate exchange risk, the fund uses cold storage solutions and a mirror function. Regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission, Hodl Group has managed diversified digital asset strategies since 2020.

5. Logica, presented by Justin McEntee

Logica is a $525M AUM manager specializing in long volatility strategies. Its flagship strategy, Logica Tail Risk (LTR), aims to reduce equity risk and add convexity to institutional portfolios without typical performance drag. LTR targets an 8% gain when the S&P is down 10%, while aiming to lose only ~2% when the market rises 10%. Since its 2015 inception, LTR has largely achieved this objective, generating positive cumulative returns despite its roughly -60% correlation to the S&P 500. The strategy utilizes dynamic S&P 500 straddles for both downside protection and upside capture, mitigating perceived costs through trading/scalping alpha generation.

6. TradingBynk, presented by Jos Langens

TradingBynk B.V. is a Dutch investment boutique founded in 2018 by Jos Langens. The firm's CTA program, launched in 2022, is designed to generate positive returns with high convexity and low correlation compared to other CTA and MF programs. Employing a strictly quantitative and systematic approach, TradingBynk dynamically allocates risk across agricultural, equity, and fixed-income futures markets. The program targets a standard deviation of 10% while aiming for positive skewness. With a proven multi-year track record, the current program is designed to accommodate a capacity of at least $500M.