The IMF has warned that a “concentration of vulnerability has built up” which poses a potential risk to wider financial stability, given that a small group of hedge funds now accounts for the vast majority of short positions in the US Treasury futures market, according to a report by Bloomberg. The report quotes the IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report, released this week: “Some of these funds may have become systemically important to the Treasury and repo markets, and stresses they face could affect the broader financial system.” Leveraged hedge funds have ramped up their leveraged short p ..read more

Athena, a full front-to-back OMS/PMS solution, has integrated data science specialist BTON Financial’s AI-powered Trader Co-Pilot solution into its offering with the aim of helping trading decision-making for fund managers, particularly in equity and ETF execution. According to a press release, this latest development lets traders “effortlessly select orders in their blotter and specify various parameters, including size, instruments, desired algorithms, and timeframes – with just a single click”. In a statement, Daniel Shepherd, CEO of BTON Financial, said: “We are very excited about our coll ..read more

Multi-strategy hedge fund ExodusPoint Capital Management has continued to build out its operations in the Middle East with the addition of three new Portfolio Managers to its office in Dubai, according to a report by Bloomberg. The report cites an unnamed source familiar with the matter as confirming that the new PMs are Valery Ivanov, who has joined from Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management as an equity long/short manager focused mainly on the consumer sector; Omar Soomro, who previously worked with Garda Capital Partners and Moore Capital Management and will trade emerging markets; and mac ..read more

A period of poor performance has prompted macro hedge fund major Brevan Howard to embark on a strategic cost cutting exercise which will see the Jersey-headquartered firm axe around 100 traders and middle and back-office staff, according to a report by Bloomberg. The report cites an unnamed person with knowledge of the situation in confirming that the job losses, which amount to just under 10% of the firm’s global 1,100 workforce, will affect around 20, mainly systematic, traders and 80 other staff. News of the cuts come after the $35bn firm announced last month that 10% of its traders would b ..read more

Hidden Road Partners, a startup prime brokerage with backing from Ken Griffin’s market-making firm Citadel Securities, is looking to raise new funds as the digital assets market rebounds, according to a report by Bloomberg citing unnamed people with knowledge of the matter.  The firm, which specialises in cryptocurrencies and foreign exchange, is in the process of raising a Series B equity round that is projected to raise about $120m and expected to value the company at approximately $1bn, according to Bloomberg’s sources. The prime brokerage was established in 2018 by Marc Asch, a f ..read more

Hedge fund performance was positive during the first quarter, as nearly all strategies turned more bullish on US stocks, with gross returns across all strategies averaging nearly 6%, led by managed futures strategies with gross returns at nearly 10%, according to Unlimited’s Hedge Fund Barometer, a new quarterly report and data analysis tool. Average gross returns across all strategies were up nearly 6%, with managed futures strategies leading the way with gross returns of nearly 10%. Emerging markets were the worst performing with a 3.8% increase. Heading into Q2 2024, hedge funds held long p ..read more

European Commodity Clearing (ECC) and BSP Energy Exchange (BSP) have concluded the migration of clearing services for power spot intraday continuous and day-ahead customers in Slovenia. Around 30 customers have so far transferred to the ECC systems. ECC will now serve all exchanges of the newly extended Alpine-Adriatic Danube Power Exchange Group (ADEX Group) in the region, including BSP, HUPX and SEEPEX. The offering also includes market coupling services on four Slovenian bidding zone borders. In a press statement, Dr Tobias Paulun, CEO of ECC, said: “We are delighted that with the integrati ..read more

Iress’s QuantHouse division, which provides API data feeds to hedge funds and other asset managers, has entered into a global partnership with BMLL, a independent provider of harmonised Level 1, 2 & 3 historical data and analytics for the global equity and futures markets. The partnership follows the completion of the data symbology mapping for both QuantHouse real-time data services and BMLL’s historical order book data sets. According to a press release, the joint offering aims to support the buy-side community and will accelerate time to insights and time to market, enabling asset ..read more

Hedge fund performance was positive during the first quarter, as nearly all strategies turned more bullish on US stocks, with gross returns across all strategies averaging nearly 6%, led by managed futures strategies with gross returns at nearly 10%, according to Unlimited’s Hedge Fund Barometer, a new quarterly report and data analysis tool. Average gross returns across all strategies were up nearly 6%, with managed futures strategies leading the way with gross returns of nearly 10%. Emerging markets were the worst performing with a 3.8% increase. Heading into Q2 2024, hedge funds held long p ..read more

Two years of losses at Lijaro Asset Management has prompted Founder Stephen Irving, who left Balyasny Asset Management to start the long-short equity hedge fund about four years ago, to return money to investors, according to a report by Bloomberg. The report cites an investor document seen by Bloomberg as confirming the decision, which comes after assets at the firm have fallen from more than $600m in 2022 to around $207m at the end of January. The firm started returning money on 31 March, after telling investors: “Given the reduction of assets under management of the Lijaro Funds and the pro ..read more