"What I Know as a Former Hedge Fund CTO”: Fusing Technology Optimisation With Business Flexibility in the Alternative Investment Space Mon, 03/20/2023 - 09:39 The alternative investment sector has recently evolved, with new regulations, rising institutional cybersecurity expectations, and the shift towards commoditised and cloud-based tech imposing long-term changes on the chief technology officer (CTO) roles and responsibilities. Yet it remains a highly fluid industry – firms can disappear almost as quickly as they appear, depending on market conditions. Fast reactions and consistently high ..read more

Schonfeld Strengthens its Fundamental Equity Business with Regional Leadership Appointments Wed, 03/15/2023 - 13:26 Schonfeld Strategic Advisors has appointed long-time senior leaders to regional Strategy Heads in its Fundamental Equity business in the U.S., EMEA and APAC. John Tompkins, based in Florida, will assume the new role of Head of U.S. Fundamental Equity. Tompkins has served as a consumer Portfolio Manager within the business for 10 years, in both an external partner fund and internal Portfolio Manager capacity. Russell Hartley and Alex Codrington, based in London, will assume the n ..read more

Kettera Strategies Heat Map - February 2023 Tue, 03/14/2023 - 11:57 Systematic Trend Strategies: February was generally a good month for systematic trend followers. The key performance drivers appeared to be the opposite of what worked in January: Fixed income and short-term rates seemed to be the best sector, while precious metals was the most problematic. Many, if not most, of the trend programs we track generated gains from short North American and European bonds. However, many also entered the month generally long the metals complex – positions that got hit hard as many markets ..read more

Directional Data Biases and Systematic Trend Following: Friends or Foes? Tue, 03/14/2023 - 11:19 Living in a world where (almost) everything seems familiar gives us a sense of comfort and at least partial security. The result is that we perceive ourselves to be in a privileged position where we can peacefully anticipate what may happen next in life. Surely apples can only fall from their tree onto Earth in the same way each time – this makes sense to us. Physics appears to rely on such an observation as one of its fundamental principles1 but dig a little deeper and it also caters for potenti ..read more

East vs West? The New Frontier of Regulations in Crypto Assets Mon, 03/13/2023 - 09:14 Global asset markets are a complex adaptive system that is constantly evolving and processing multiple sources of information which compounds in convolution. As such our investment process has to reflect this complexity and be adaptive in conducting “Mosaic Theory” to develop and implement our investment view. In analysing the difficult year that 2022 was, we believe that all the abysmal challenges that best both the global financial markets and specifically the cryptocurrency and digital assets (“crypto a ..read more

Macro The Best Performing Hedge Fund Category In February As Equity Hedge Declines Wed, 03/08/2023 - 08:00 Macro was the leading hedge fund category tracked by HFR in February, leading all others with an average gain of +0.19%, padding year to date returns to +0.54%. Last month was one to forget generally for the hedge fund space, with HFR's Relative Value category delivering an average of just +0.11% and Event-Driven turning in only +0.09%; Equity hedge declined -1.34% last month. HFR's overall index, the HFRI, declined -0.49% on a fund weighted basis, bringing year to date returns down to ..read more

Ben Melkman joins Schonfeld as a Macro Senior Portfolio Manager Tue, 03/07/2023 - 18:28 Schonfeld Strategic Advisors has hired Ben Melkman as a portfolio manager in the firm’s Discretionary Macro & Fixed Income strategy. Melkman will report to co-Heads of DMFI Colin Lancaster and Mitesh Parikh, and he will build out a team of experienced macro risk takers to provide more diversification and scale to his strategy. Melkman plans to operate out of the Bahamas as Schonfeld seeks to further expand its global footprint in this region.  “Ben is a business builder and world-cl ..read more

bfinance Appoints Olivier Cassin as Head of Investments and Research Mon, 03/06/2023 - 17:50 bfinance, the independent investment consultancy, has announced two new senior hires following the firm’s recent management buyout. Olivier Cassin returns to the firm in the newly created role of Head of Investments and Research, having previously worked at bfinance from 2000 to 2014. He arrives from BNY Mellon, where he was Head of EMEA Client Solutions and previously managed the UK and European institutional sales team. In the new position, Cassin - who is based in the firm’s London office - will he ..read more

Latest Numbers Signal Upbeat Outlook for South Africa’s Hedge Funds Sector Mon, 03/06/2023 - 11:37 Like many other areas of the financial services industry, South Africa’s alternative investments sector is emerging from post-pandemic malaise and starting to demonstrate some significant growth factors. This was reflected in recent numbers released to the media by ASISA – the Association of Savings and Investment South Africa. The South African hedge fund industry grew its assets by a punchy 30% in 2023 with ZAR 5.33bn (USD 290m) of net inflows in 2022. “It’s been a turbulent time for markets ..read more

Hedge Funds Q&A: Oliver Skutil, Petrus Advisers Mon, 03/06/2023 - 11:26 2022 wasn’t the easiest year for equity hedge strategies as investors largely reallocated capital away from risk assets, dragging down equity prices broadly. 2023 might be different, however, and AlphaWeek’s Greg Winterton spoke to Oliver Skutil, Head of Special Situations at London-based hedge fund manager Petrus Advisers, to learn more about the outlook for European equity investing. GW: Oliver, let’s begin with the specifics of your strategy. Petrus Advisers runs a European long/short public equity product with an ..read more