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QuantCube launches Crude Oil Risk Sentiment Indicator
Alternative data specialist QuantCube Technology, has launched the QuantCube Crude Oil Risk Sentiment Indicator. By processing sentiment data in relation to crude oil in Arabic as well as English, QuantCube has created the most comprehensive real-time indicator available for the commodity.
By employing social media analytics in both Arabic and English, alongside QuantCube’s proprietary Natural Language Processing algorithms and a specific dictionary tailored for the crude oil market, the QuantCube Crude Oil Risk Sentiment Indicator is able to accurately capture short-term risks in the market. It processes multiple factors impacting crude oil prices in real time, including OPEC meetings, production and stocks. As a result, the indicator can provide insights several hours in advance of traditional news outlets, giving commodity traders and hedge funds an edge in the market.
“Our Crude Oil Risk Sentiment Indicator is a must-have for clients interested in commodities such as crude oil and is used to derive short term investment signals,” says Thanh-Long Huynh, CEO of QuantCube. “By capturing social media sentiment in Arabic, as well as English, we are analysing more than five times as much data as our nearest competitor and delivering much greater accuracy. The result is derived investment signals that are performing well and generating consistent Alpha.”
Alongside QuantCube’s international and commodity trade indices, powered by AIS Shipping data, the QuantCube Crude Oil Risk Sentiment Indicator provides real-time insights on the supply side for commodity and energy futures traders. When the indicator is also used in combination with QuantCube’s Macroeconomic Intelligence Platform – incorporating real-time macro variable indices for GDP, Consumption, Inflation and Employment – it enables users to assess overall demand trends, and to anticipate economic and trade trends.
The QuantCube Crude Oil Risk Sentiment Indicator is computed over a 24-hour period and refreshed every day. The indicator varies from 0 to 100 and provides information on current social media risk perception for the crude oil market. Investment signals can be derived from the absolute level, as well as from the short-term acceleration, looking at the data over a period of 2-6 days. Readings above 65 are considered very high, and below 35 very low. If the risk is high, the indication is that prices are expected to fall.
“QuantCube carried out a successful pilot of the indicator before launching it to market this month,” says Huynh. “QuantCube has proven success in accurately processing large data sets in different languages using NLP models. We have used NLP techniques to analyse sentiment data to predict the outcome of elections more accurately than the polls.”
Institutional investors and wealth managers to increase allocations to alternatives, says new study
A new study (1) reveals over half (53 per cent) of professional investors believe that over the next two years, institutional investors will look to dramatically increase the level of diversification in their portfolios, and a further 40 per cent think there will be a slightly greater focus on this.
Nickel Digital Asset Management (Nickel), a European investment manager dedicated to the digital assets market, commissioned research with institutional investors and wealth managers from the US, UK, France, Germany, and the UAE who collectively have USD275.5 billion in assets under management.
As part of their plans to diversify, the majority of respondents expect institutional investors to increase their exposure to alternative asset classes over the next two years.
Some 42 per cent of professional investors surveyed said they expect institutional investors to ‘dramatically’ increase their exposure to cryptocurrencies between now and 2023. This can partly be explained by the fact that many institutional investors are still testing the cryptoassets/digital market and either have very small holdings here, or none at all.
Fiona King, Head of Institutional Sales at Nickel Digital, says: “The digitisation of the investment management sector has revolutionised the market in terms of the transparency around different asset classes and the investment strategies that can be developed. This, coupled with developments around alternative asset classes such as cryptoassets, means the opportunities to diversify portfolios have never been greater.”
Nickel currently has four funds investing in the digital asset space.
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Related Topics Digital Assets Surveys & researchKomainu, Nomura, and Crypto Garage explore custody solutions for Japanese institutions
Komainu, a regulated digital asset custody services provider built by institutions for institutions, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Crypto Garage, a regulated Japanese crypto assets service provider and global investment bank Nomura Holdings (Nomura) to explore leveraging Komainu’s custody infrastructure to provide digital asset custody services to institutional customers in the Japanese market.
Henson Orser, Komainu’s President and Acting CEO, says: “We are excited to enter into this agreement with Crypto Garage to explore bringing our institutional-grade custody services to an underserved market in Japan. The evolution of digital assets is changing the financial ecosystem and Komainu is building out custody solutions as well as additional services to provide institutions with the support they need throughout the entire custody process. We are thankful for the continued support of Nomura and look forward to working with Crypto Garage to further expand Komainu’s global presence, bringing trust and transparency to the servicing of this asset class.”
Komainu is an established digital asset custody business that is licensed in Jersey by the Jersey Financial Services Commission. In April of 2021, Komainu secured the ISO 27001 and ISAE 3402 Type 1 certifications, further demonstrating its commitment to providing institutions looking to place digital assets with an institutional-grade custody solution that adheres to the highest industry standards for security protocols.
Crypto Garage offers services to crypto asset businesses in Japan and overseas, including its blockchain related settlement platform, SETTLENET. In June 2021, in accordance with Japan’s Fund Settlement Act, Crypto Garage registered with the Kanto Finance Bureau as a crypto asset exchange, allowing it to act as an intermediary for transactions between domestic crypto asset exchanges and cover companies.
Veteran hedge fund manager converts flagship fund to mutual fund
Abraham Trading Company (ATC), a hedge fund manager with a 33-year investment track record, has launched its first mutual fund today. The firm converted its private hedge fund, the Abraham Fortress Fund LP, into an SEC-registered mutual fund as of Thursday, 14 October.
“Every investor deserves institutional-quality investments,” remarks Salem Abraham, ATC president. “As a company with over three decades in the investment space, the mutual fund conversion allows us to share our 33 years of experience with both retail and institutional investors alike.”
The firm began in January 1990 as a commodity futures investment company, building a managed futures investment fund and a client base of institutional and high net worth investors. By 2018, Mr. Abraham saw a need in the retail investment marketplace for institutional-quality, lower volatility funds, prompting the firm to launch a multi-asset strategy called the Abraham Fortress Fund LP. The new fund combined traditional equity and fixed income assets with diversifying investments in third-party investment funds. The conversion of the Fortress Fund LP into a mutual fund opens the previously private investment strategy to all investors.
“Investors in the Fortress Fund can expect an experienced team, smart risk management, and what we believe are fair, competitive fees. We want to bring the same care and professional management to an individual investor’s retirement portfolio as we would to a large college endowment. We believe investors should be carefully evaluating their equity exposure, especially now,” Abraham adds.
Abraham, the 55-year-old founder and president of the firm, began trading in the futures markets in 1987 as an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame. After he graduated and returned to his hometown in Texas, he started the firm and its managed futures investment strategy.
Umbrella Network launches arbitrage-free pricing data for crypto options on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain
Umbrella Network, the decentralised Layer-2 oracle solution, has launched its arbitrage-free pricing model for crypto derivatives. This new offering aims to bring arbitrage-free information for option pricing to the crypto ecosystem, in order to provide users with more comprehensive sets of real-time pricing data.
At launch, arbitrage-free pricing will be available on both Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, and will offer complete sets of options data for both BTC and ETH, containing the underlying crypto asset, expiry data, call price, put price, and implied volatility. Umbrella Network is currently including 660 new pairs covering 220 options instruments, for more profitable trading. DeFi applications will be able to access the data feeds via Umbrella Network’s Layer 2 Data (L2D) on both chains.
Currently, there is a lack of data and liquidity within the DeFi options space, specifically on strikes or maturities, which has led to gaps in values for option prices. In an immature market, where there is a lack of information and the data is sparse, market participants may find themselves trading on partial information. In addition, due to the lack of data and sophisticated data models, DeFi option prices are prohibitively expensive, leading to a thinly traded market. Umbrella Network’s arbitrage-free data feeds remove those pain points, and provide more efficient prices that are competitive with centralised option prices by offering a full overview of options markets, prices that include options with the same maturity, as well as options with the same strike but different maturities.
“DeFi doesn’t have a viable or developed options market,” says Sam Kim, Partner at Umbrella Network. “We felt that offering our advanced arbitrage-free options pricing data will be crucial for the DeFi market given the importance of options in traditional finance, not only for speculation but for risk management. As a decentralised oracle service, we work with data that is necessary to calculate true arbitrage-free option prices. So to us, spearheading this movement towards efficient option pricing is the next step to building a thriving derivatives market.”
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Related Topics Digital AssetsMacro hedge fund Massar Capital launches new global discretionary strategy
Massar Capital Management has launched a new discretionary macro hedge fund strategy which aims to capitalise on directional trading opportunities across a broad set of global markets.
The Massar Macro Directional is the New York-based firm’s second strategy and began trading on trading on 1 October with UDSD300 million in assets under management. Additional investor interest is expected is bring assets close to the strategy’s soft close target of USD600 million.
Established in 2015 by Chief Investment Officer Marwan Younes, Massar Capital Management combines a discretionary global macro approach with advanced data analytics to generate risk-adjusted returns uncorrelated to major market indices and other hedge fund strategies.
Its inaugural fund, the Massar Macro Commodity strategy, targets investment opportunities spanning commodity, foreign exchange, fixed income and equity markets, with a particular focus on commodities. Launched in February 2015, the strategy triumphed in the Best Macro Hedge Fund category at the 2020 Hedgeweek US Awards last year.
The Massar Macro Commodity fund actively trades more than 70 markets across a range of asset classes and regions, combining bottom-up fundamental market research with a top-down global macro view, with risk spread across 25 to 50 distinct liquid trade ideas, diversified across timeframe, market and structure.
The new Macro Directional strategy meanwhile will offer investors a more balanced exposure across commodities, equity indices, currencies and fixed income markets. Its launch will bring the firm’s overall assets under management to more than USD950 million.
Prior to founding Massar, Younes was a portfolio manager at both Jamison Capital Partners and Graham Capital Management, where he traded discretionary macro and commodity strategies.
Speaking to Hedgeweek last year, Younes predicted “sustained volatility” across global macro and commodity markets following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Hugh Leask Employee title Editor, Hedgeweek Twitter Linkedin Related Topics Funds Launches & Fundraising Investments Results & performance Investing in Hedge FundsStoneX’s Prime Services Division launches Prime Direct
StoneX Group Inc's Prime Services Division has launched a new Prime Direct offerings which leverages the firm's technology to bridge the void between full-service Prime Brokerage services offered to larger managers and discount brokerage options accessible to emerging investors.
Providing family offices, hedge funds, and other professional clients with the same institutional routing and systems offered by full-service Prime brokerages, but in a direct-to-client format that includes the StoneX Equities Pro platform which is available in web, mobile, and desktop formats that can be used interchangeably.
Ben Brown, Managing Director of Business Development for Prime Services at StoneX, says: “StoneX is continuing to push the envelope when it comes giving our clients access to the technological solutions needed to trade the US equities and options markets at an institutional level. As many other firms look for ways to monetise their customer's trade flow, we’ve actively developed a platform that uses the same routing protocols institutional traders use to avoid unnecessary fees.”
The Prime Direct Platform will be made accessible via StoneX’s digital platform allowing clientele to trade US equity and options while leveraging StoneX’s white-glove service and technical prowess. The Prime Direct platform is a unique offering designed to make prime brokerage services that are provided by top-tier financial institutions to clients with the institutional-grade algo order routing that emerging fund managers are accustomed to in addition to some of the best execution quality on the market. Once users have established an account with StoneX they will be able to easily activate Prime Direct which will offer professional trading capabilities in a way that is fast, inexpensive, and supported by the highest level of customer service.
Douglas Nelson, Managing Director – Co-Head of Prime Services at StoneX Financial Inc, says: “We’re excited to have this opportunity to leverage our tech platform to offer the best and most economical solutions to emerging managers and family offices. As we constantly look to evolve our platform to meet the needs of new managers, we strive to continue providing all of our customers with the same high touch service we’ve been known for throughout the industry.”
Activist hedge fund TCI spells out strategic overhaul of Canadian National Railway
Sir Christopher Hohn’s TCI Fund Management has set out a strategic plan to overhaul Canadian National Railway which it says would put the Montreal-headquartered freight railway company “back on track."
The London-based activist hedge fund this week outlined sweeping proposals for a “high-quality, experienced board, a world-class railroader as CEO and a long-term plan for sustainable growth.”
The plan also includes several board changes and a new CEO, four immediate key priorities, and a six-point plan for sustainable long-term growth.
In Monday’s announcement, TCI said CN’s current board had been responsible for “multiple corporate governance failures”, which has led to a “brain-drain of high-quality operators” from the company.
It accused CN of “establishing a board that has no meaningful railroad experience and expertise, and selective, inconsistent and potentially misleading disclosure of material information that shows a deliberate lack of transparency with respect to corporate governance matters.”
It also criticised CN’s failed bid for Kansas City Southern.
Ahead of a special shareholder meeting scheduled for March 22, TCI has nominated four independent board members – Gilbert Lamphere, Allison Landry, Rob Knight and Paul Miller – as well as CEO candidate Jim Vena.
TCI said Vena is a “well-respected railroader with a proven track record as an exceptional operator and leader who is uniquely qualified to run CN.”
Lamphere, who has some 40 years’ experience of the railroad industry, has been a board member of several public and private railroad companies. Landry - an independent director on the board of transportation company XPO Logistics – previously spent 16 years as an equity research analyst at Credit Suisse, specialising in the railroad, trucking, airfreight and logistics industries.
Knight spent 40 years at Union Pacific, including 15 years as CFO. Miller, a transportation, logistics, safety management and regulatory affairs expert, was an executive at CN between 1978 and 2011, having held roles in operations, marketing and planning, and latterly as vice president, safety, sustainability and network transportation before retiring in 2011.
TCI’s four key priorities are to grow the business; invest in the network and technology to create capacity, improve fluidity and connect new customers to the railroad; develop and motivate CN’s people to deliver the growth plan safely; and actively campaign and publicly advertise to promote the environmental and fuel efficiency benefits of railroads versus trucks, helping lower CO2 emissions, reduce road congestion and advance the urgent fight against climate change.
TCI has been a CN shareholder since 2018, and recently increased its holdings to more than 5 per cent of shares outstanding, valued at USD4 billion. The activist manager has been agitating for change at the company amid “serious concerns” over its corporate governance practices.
The activist manager said CN has “the best network in North America” and should be the “most efficient and fastest growing railroad” in the region. But “poor oversight” by the board has led to the company underperforming other Class 1 railroads on key operational and financial performance metrics, it added.
TCI’s six-point plan for sustainable, long-term growth includes a low cost, high-service network; plans to make CN a more attractive shipping alternative for customers; “a reliable and precise schedule [to] free up network capacity for CN to offer more frequent shipment options and departure times”, and a more profitable business model.
“An efficient, high-service, reliable, low cost, fluid and flexible network will open up significant new growth opportunities for CN,” TCI added.
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Hugh Leask Employee title Editor, Hedgeweek Twitter Linkedin Related Topics Impact Investing Investments Investing in Hedge FundsBSO launches market-leading FX trading routes between Tokyo, London and Singapore
Global pioneering infrastructure and connectivity provider, BSO, is to upgrade its Tokyo to London and Tokyo to Singapore connectivity routes.
The routes are available from November to new and existing customers, offering market-leading connectivity between the three major equities and FX hubs.
Achieving fast connectivity between London and Tokyo has long been a challenge for telco providers and so this upgrade solves an important problem. Tokyo is a key section of the FX arbitrage triangle between Europe and Asia and the revamped routes builds on BSO’s award-winning global trading network to deliver more resilient and even lower latency networks.
The new routes also extends BSO’s recent enhancements to its connectivity links across high-growth hubs in Asia including Shanghai and Hong Kong. In addition to the current upgrade BSO has one of the leading connectivity routes between New York and Tokyo.
“Connecting financial traders to the complex Asian landscape is an ongoing challenge, but when demand for connectivity from our customers grow, we rise to the challenge and push the limits of our networks to keep pace. Over the past year we’ve made continual improvements to our routes connecting major Asian financial hubs to other hubs around the world, cementing our market-leading position,” says Michael Ourabah, CEO and Founder of BSO.
“Our investment in these Tokyo routes is yet again another demonstration of our continued commitment to providing the FX trading community with resilient and competitive access to Asian markets and one of the busiest FX circuits in the world,” says Tony Jones, Head of Low Latency Strategy, BSO.
TMX Group launches TSX Market on Close
TMX Group has launched the new TSX Market on Close (MOC), a facility designed to enable investors to source liquidity and participate in trades at the closing price.
The new features of the enhanced MOC facility are aimed at providing clients with an improved trading experience, and delivering benefits to the broader Canadian capital markets ecosystem with increased efficiency in determining end-of-day valuations for eligible Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and select TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) listed issues.
“We are proud to introduce the new and improved TSX MOC, an adaptive response to industry needs and a significant step forward in ensuring Canada’s markets remain transparent, liquid and globally competitive,” says Rizwan Awan, President, Equities Trading and Head of TMX Markets, Products & Services, TMX Group. “The enhanced, modernised TSX MOC model is the culmination of two years of dedicated work by our team in close collaboration with a wide range of participants across our client community, and we are confident that the new features will reap wide-reaching and long-lasting benefits.”
Introduced in 2004, the TSX MOC facility operates as an electronic call market, providing equal access and opportunity for investors looking to source liquidity and participate in trades at the closing price. TSX MOC also plays a vital role in Canada’s markets by providing efficiency and accuracy in setting the TSX Closing Price and TSXV Closing Price closing price for eligible listed issues.
The new TSX MOC model introduces three high level changes, each designed to address issues of transparency, alignment with global markets, and consistency of execution:
Enhanced transparency by increasing depth of detailed information and frequency of communication regarding Imbalances.
Newly defined MOC Imbalance market state to align with global models.
Additional MOC Freeze market state to mitigate volatility and help prevent unexpected price and imbalance movements.
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Related Topics Markets Trading & ExecutionBTIG launches new structured products business
BTIG has hired several industry leaders and senior product specialists to launch a new Structured Product business from within its Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities division.
Alejandro Feely, a twenty-year industry veteran, will lead the new business unit. He joins BTIG as a Managing Director and the Head of Structured Products. Additionally, Conor O'Callaghan, Michael Murray and Emily Brown join BTIG as part of the Structured Product sales and trading team.
BTIG Structured Product professionals will be focused on secondary trading as well as facilitating new issue for a wide range of products and client segments including banks, hedge funds, institutional money managers, insurance providers and more. “Our expansion into structured credit products is another key development in the diversification of our trading platform,” comments Anton LeRoy, President of BTIG. “We are confident that under Alejandro’s leadership and with contributions from Conor, Michael and Emily, that we will generate new business opportunities and compelling ideas for clients to leverage.”
By facilitating introductions between buyers and sellers of structured credit products and producing actionable sales commentary, BTIG’s team will help institutional investor clients maximise their performance. In 2018, BTIG made its first investment in the structured products space when it launched a Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities Trading (CMBS) desk led by Weston Friedman. The new Structured Product offering will complement the firm’s existing CMBS capabilities and build upon the momentum achieved in the space thus far.
Prior to BTIG, Feely was a Managing Director at Brownstone Investment Group, where he managed the Mortgage Credit Trading desk. Previously, he spent four years at Morgan Stanley, where he was a Director within the Fixed Income division and led the Mortgage Credit Trading desk. Earlier in his career, Mr. Feely was a Vice President and Mortgage Trader within Fixed Income Trading at Nomura Securities. He began his career at Lehman Brothers as an Associate and Mortgage Structurer on the Fixed Income Trading desk.
O’Callaghan joins BTIG as Managing Director and the Head of Structured Products Sales. Prior to BTIG, he was the Head of Investment Banking and a Managing Director within Structured Products at Brownstone Investment Group. Previously, O’Callaghan was a Managing Director at Nomura Securities, where he held several senior roles in both the Investment Banking and Global Markets divisions throughout his decade with the firm. Earlier in his career, he held similar roles at Barclays, Clay Finlay and Credit Suisse.
Murray joins BTIG as a Managing Director. Prior to BTIG, he was a Managing Director within Capital Markets at Waypoint Direct Investments and a Managing Director within Fixed Income Credit at Imperial Capital. Previously, Murray was a Managing Director within Securitised Product Sales at Nomura Securities and a Managing Director within Debt Capital Markets at Cantor Fitzgerald. Earlier in his career, he was a Managing Director within Structured Product Sales at Credit Suisse.
Brown joins BTIG as a Director. Prior to BTIG, she was a Director within Fixed Income Sales at Brownstone Investment Group. Previously, Brown held MBS sales roles at Jefferies, where she was a Senior Vice President, and with Nomura Securities, where she was a Vice President. Earlier in her career, she was a Senior Analyst within Real Estate Securities at PPM America.
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Related Topics Moves & Appointments Structured ProductsOptions Technology acquires ACTIV Financial
Options Technology, a provider of Capital Markets services, backed by Abry Partners, is to acquire ACTIV Financial. The financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
As a long-term provider of global capital markets services including cloud-enabled managed solutions, global trading infrastructure and telemetry analytics services, this deal reinforces Options' commitment to continually add value and optimise their offering to capital markets firms.
ACTIV Financial is a global provider of real-time, delayed, historical and enriched multi-asset financial market data and offer a wide range of industry-leading solutions in a true Enterprise data platform. The combination of Options' core services will allow clients to bring their mission-critical applications closer to the data source, in essence bringing the query to the data, not the data to the query. In addition, this acquisition further supports Options' growth strategy, allowing clients to benefit from an extensive market data footprint and global trading connectivity built on and supported by best of breed technologies, industry-leading automation and world-class cyber security and monitoring.
"We believe that merging the ACTIV data feed and software capabilities on top of the Options global network and infrastructure is probably the most impactful deal in the sector in the last decade," said Danny Moore, Options' President and Chief Executive Officer. "The industry has been crying out for a true next-generation platform focused on the coming decades, near zero latency, global, on modern hardware, fully Cloud Integrated, and fully backward compatible. Merging our platforms will bring all that and more."
Tomer Yosef-Or, a Partner at Abry, says: "We are very excited to support Options in the acquisition of ACTIV Financial. We are highly impressed by ACTIV Financial's global presence within market data services which has allowed them to develop successful relationships with some of the world's leading financial institutions.
Avery Zuck, a Principal at Abry, says: "The combined Options / ACTIV Financial platform will be able to provide an increasingly comprehensive solution set to our new and existing customers. We are excited to bring this transaction to a close and move forward together in the continued pursuit of being the premier Capital Markets Services provider to the global financial ecosystem."
Steve McNeany, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder at ACTIV Financial, says: "The acquisition of ACTIV Financial by Options is an extremely exciting time in our history, and we are confident this deal will deliver a highly differentiated and competitive offering to both our current clients and the market as a whole. We believe this is the start of a new era in the market data industry providing unparalleled, fully managed market data services globally with our clients set to benefit from a wide range of strategic synergies."
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Related Topics Deals & Transactions Acquisitions Services Research & AnalyticsDigital asset investment products see USD90 in inflows
Digital asset investment products saw inflows totalling USD80 million last week, according to the latest Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly report from CoinShares.
Total assets under management are now USD72.3 billion, their highest level on record.
Bitcoin saw the largest inflows, totalling USD70 million, marking the 5th consecutive week of inflows.
Polkadot and cardano saw continued inflows totalling USD3.6m and USD2.7 million respectively, while ether saw minor outflows totalling USD1 million.
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Related Topics Digital AssetsQuant hedge fund pioneer Aspect Capital launches China-focused futures strategy
Quantitative hedge fund and CTA pioneer Aspect Capital has unveiled a new systematic momentum-based investment strategy focused on Chinese financial and commodities futures, tapping into the expanding global institutional investor appetite for opportunities there.
The Aspect China Diversified Fund – which launches with more than USD100 million in external capital - uses the London-based firm’s systematic medium-term trend-following models to trade more than 40 onshore Chinese futures markets spanning six asset classes: agriculturals, bonds, energies, industrials, metals and stock indices.
The strategy brings the firm’s expertise in systematic investment to global investors who are keen to tap into the opportunities offered by Chinese markets. Specifically, the new strategy will offer weekly liquidity with an annualised volatility of 15 per cent.
Aspect aims to capitalise on growing investor demand for new opportunities in China, and diversified and uncorrelated returns, and will tap into its extensive decade-plus research into the country’s markets. The firm has also been accessing onshore Chinese futures markets in conjunction with an onshore partner since 2016.
“We are excited to be able to leverage this research, and five years’ experience in applying systematic investment models to onshore Chinese futures markets, to provide investors with this compelling opportunity to access a new, uncorrelated, diversifying return stream,” said Aspect CEO and co-founder Anthony Todd.
“With uncertainty over the sustainability of current equity market valuations, declining bond yields and the looming threat of inflation, we believe now is an interesting time for investors to consider adding exposure to Chinese financial and commodity futures markets to their portfolios.”
Established in 1997 by Todd and Martin Lueck, who earlier ran CTA pioneer AHL – which is now part of Man Group – Aspect today manages USD9.3 billion across a range of systematic hedge fund strategies, spanning managed futures, multi-strategy, alternative risk premia, and currencies.
Earlier this year, the firm rolled out a new daily-liquid UCITS-compliant version of its Aspect Core Diversified Programme, a medium-term quantitative trend-following strategy originally launched in 2014, to tap into allocator demand for uncorrelated returns amid growing market uncertainty. The computer-driven strategy looks to generate alpha by trading an assortment of medium-term trend opportunities across more than 100 liquid financial and commodity markets.
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Hugh Leask Employee title Editor, Hedgeweek Twitter Linkedin Related Topics Funds Launches & FundraisingMarketFactory and Tradefeedr announce strategic partnership
MarketFactory, part of ION Markets, a global provider of trading, analytics, and risk management solutions for capital markets, has partnered with Tradefeedr, an independent FX data and analytics provider.
The Tradefeedr data and analytics platform is now fully integrated within MarketFactory, enabling clients to review their trading markouts, impacts, and spreads directly with liquidity providers, using a common platform and shared data sets. Tradefeedr’s data analytics solution will be available as an add-on to new and existing customers using the award-winning MarketFactory service.
Tradefeedr has created a common, truly independent FX trading database allowing market participants across the sell-side, buy-side, regional banks, hedge funds, brokers, and central banks to connect, analyse their trading data, and collaborate. In June 2021, Tradefeedr launched its ground-breaking FX data analytics platform with more than 15 leading sell-side and 20 major buy-side firms onboarding and another 20 in the pipeline.
“MarketFactory’s partnership with Tradefeedr will broaden our offering to clients, providing shared data sets through one unified platform. The combination of MarketFactory’s end-to-end connectivity and Tradefeedr’s unified, analysis-ready data is a compelling proposition in a market where real-time data-driven decision-making is key,” says Eugene Markman, MarketFactory Chief Executive Officer.
“I’m very excited by the possibilities this strategic partnership offers both Tradefeedr and MarketFactory clients. Our platform delivers significant benefits to market participants, through improving collaboration, and giving better access to trading information, providing greater transparency and trust in the market,” adds Balraj Bassi, Co-Founder of Tradefeedr.
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Related Topics Services Research & Analytics Trading & ExecutionDAR announces October 2021 crypto exchange and asset vetting results
Digital Asset Research (DAR), a provider of crypto asset data and research, has released its October 2021 Crypto Exchange Vetting and Asset Vetting results.
In an environment where cryptocurrencies trade across hundreds of lightly regulated or unregulated exchanges, DAR’s vetting processes meet an industry-wide need for reliable crypto data by applying institutional-level diligence to digital asset markets.
Over 450 exchanges were evaluated to identify 21 Vetted Exchanges: Binance.US; bitbank; Bitfinex; bitFlyer; BITFRONT; Bitso; Bitstamp; Bittrex; CEX.IO, Coinbase; Coincheck; CoinField; Gemini; GMO Coin Co.; itBit; Kraken; Liquid; LMAX; Luno; Okcoin; and Zaif. B2BX and VCC Exchange were removed from the list of Vetted Exchanges after the latest evaluation.
Fourteen exchanges remain as Watchlist Exchanges for potential future inclusion on the Vetted Exchanges list: Bidesk; Binance; Bitcoin.com; BHEX; BKEX; CoinEx; CoinTiger; Dcoin; FTX; Gate.io; Huobi; LATOKEN; Poloniex; and Phemex. BitOffer, OceanEx, and ZB.com were removed as Watchlist Exchanges.
The Asset Vetting process evaluated over 1000 digital assets to identify 43 benchmark assets and over 600 non-benchmark assets. In the latest evaluation, Aave (AAVE); Bancor Network Token (BNT); Curve DAO Token (CRV); Decentraland (MANA); Dogecoin (DOGE); Elrond (EGLD); Kusama (KSM); Loopring (LRC); Polkadot (DOT); Polygon (MATIC); Solana (SOL); Sushi (SUSHI); The Graph (GRT); The Sandbox (SAND); and UMA (UMA) were added to the Benchmark Asset list.
The Benchmark Asset list also continues to include 0x (ZRX); Algorand (ALGO); Augur (REP); Basic Attention Token (BAT); Bitcoin (BTC); Bitcoin Cash (BCH); Cardano (ADA); Chainlink (LINK); Cosmos (ATOM); Dash (DASH); Enzyme (MLN); EOS (EOS); Ethereum (ETH); Kyber Network (KNC); Maker (MKR); Monero (XMR); OMG Network (OMG); Orchid (OXT); REN (REN); Qtum (QTUM); Stellar (XLM); Storj (STORJ); Synthetix (SNX); Tezos (XTZ); TRON (TRX); Uniswap (UNI); yearn.finance (YFI); and Zcash (ZEC).
“Our vetting processes continue to reflect the evolution of the crypto space. The increase in the Benchmark Asset list is largely attributable to an expansion of asset listings on Vetted Exchanges, which in turn are a direct result of higher prices and community interest, especially in alt coins,” says Doug Schwenk, DAR’s CEO.
The Exchange Vetting process combines quantitative and traditional qualitative due diligence to identify exchanges reporting accurate volumes and eliminate exchanges that are not appropriate for determining an accurate market price. During the Asset Vetting process, digital assets trading on Vetted Exchanges are evaluated to determine if they meet institutional investor standards for codebase construction and maintenance, community, security, liquidity, and regulatory compliance.
The results of the Exchange Vetting and Asset Vetting processes are used by DAR clients to determine accurate asset prices and to identify safe venues in the market. Results are also used for DAR Sector Indexes, the recently launched FTSE Bitcoin Index, FTSE Ethereum Index, and FTSE Cardano Index, as well as in the FTSE DAR Reference Price, a robust hourly reference price for digital asset market performance.
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Related Topics Digital Assets Services Research & AnalyticsGadze Finance launches USD25 million defi crypto fund
Gadze Finance has launched a DeFi focused crypto fund with an initial USD25 million under management, growing to USD100 million over the coming six months.
The new fintech startup launched by Mike Silagadze and Andrew McGrath aims to democratize access to safe crypto investing strategies. Gadze Finance is based and operated in Cayman Islands.
Crypto is a USD2 trillion asset class, and DeFi (decentralised finance) is a rapidly growing USD100 billion segment where quick and efficient smart contracts, rather than central financial intermediaries, power financial transactions. Productive assets that are being built on DeFi that span finance, gaming, and art. While new and exciting, the investments within this space can feel uncertain and volatile.
"Our goal is to democratize access to safe high yield investment strategies in crypto," says Mike Silagadze, CEO of Gadze Finance. "We decided to launch operations in Cayman because the regulatory environment in Canada is unclear and risky. We believe DeFi is going to be one of the most transformational technologies of the 21st century. Eventually all value will be transacted on the blockchain."
The founders of Gadze Finance, Mike Silagadze and Andrew McGrath, are tech entrepreneurs who have been active in the crypto space since the very beginning in 2010.
Gadze Finance will use an initial USD25 million as a pilot fund intended to prove a market-neutral yield investment strategy in crypto. In addition to the capital under management, Gadze Finance raises a USD1.6 million equity financing. The equity financing is meant to help launch the fund and bring in smart investors around the table in preparation to scale the fund to USD100 million and beyond over the next 6 months. The equity financing is led by Boris Wertz from Version One Ventures, one of the leading investors in the crypto space. Also participating in the financing are Michael and Richard Hyatt and Som Seif, the CEO and founder of Purpose Financial.
"Gadze Finance is a unique blend of hedge fund and fintech, with a novel approach to crypto investing," says Boris Wertz, founder and managing partner of Version One Ventures. "We're excited to back the team we are strong supporters of their mission to democratise access to safe crypto investing for everyone."
“We’re happy to back two amazing entrepreneurs with proven track records and further invest in the emerging crypto ecosystem,” says Som Seif, founder and CEO of Purpose Financial and Purpose Investments, which launched the world’s first Bitcoin and Ether ETFs. “We have been excited about the potential for the crypto computing system for some time and believe the best way to learn and participate is by backing the best thinkers in the space. Mike and Andrew are building a unique investment platform to take advantage of the exciting opportunities that will be presented over the coming years.”
The initial investors in the fund are primarily US and Canadian tech entrepreneurs, many of whom have been active in the crypto space. Representing Gadze Finance in Canada is Robson Capital Management. The fund is administrated by Sudrania Fund Services and audited by Moore Cayman.
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Related Topics Digital Assets Funds Launches & FundraisingCAIS teams with Milken Institute to deliver educational content to wealth management industry
Alternative investment platform CAIS is working with the Milken Institute to provide expanded access by wealth managers to educational content from the 24th annual Milken Institute Global Conference, taking place October 17-20 in Beverly Hills, California.
This year’s Milken Institute Global Conference is centred on the theme “Charting a New Course,” and will examine the disruptions and innovations precipitated by the global pandemic, as well as ensuing social crises and economic hardships, can be reframed for a thriving future.
CAIS Founder and CEO Matt Brown will moderate a private session on “The Future of Wealth Management” at the conference discussing industry trends such as the rapid acceleration of technology, the broadening of access to new investment opportunities and the importance of transforming financial education. The best minds in wealth management will address the most urgent challenges the industry faces and the most exciting opportunities to drive the wealth management community forward through education, innovation, and transparency. “We are excited that the Milken Institute continues to focus attention on the wealth management community, which we believe validates the critical role the industry plays in the world’s economic, social, and political environment,” says Matt Brown, Founder and CEO of CAIS.
CAIS will livestream select panels from the Global Milken Conference through its CAIS IQ Center. This includes in depth conversations around several of the Milken Institute’s “Power of Ideas” with longer form essays, interviews and videos from thought leaders, including, Igor Tulchinsky (WorldQuant), Mohit Joshi (Infosys), Jimmy Etheredge (Accenture) and Virginie Morgon (Eurazeo). The CAIS IQ Center is a dedicated, interactive community where attendees can stream live video content from the conference as well as access courses on the CAIS IQ platform.
“It is a privilege to work with the Milken Institute as we help financial advisors augment their approach to education,” said Andrew Smith Lewis, Chief Innovation Officer of CAIS. “The Milken Institute conference will highlight input from society’s most respected thought leaders. Our ability to amplify some of that content conforms with our view that RIAs and similar professionals are being underserved by traditional methods of learning as they explore new areas to protect and grow client interests and secure their own businesses.”
As part of this collaboration to focus on the wealth management industry, select leaders within the financial advisor and independent wealth management community will be invited by CAIS to receive complimentary passes to attend the Milken Institute Global Conference.
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Related Topics Education & TrainingKirby McInerney’s Randall fox named “Whistleblower Lawyer of the Year”
Law firm of Kirby McInerney partner Randall Fox has been named the 2021 “Lawyer of the Year” by the Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund (TAFEF), a public advocacy group for whistleblowers.
TAFEF presented Fox with the prestigious award, citing his successes for whistleblowers and his commitment to expanding opportunities to harness the power of whistleblowers to fight frauds committed against government dollars. The award was presented at TAFEF’s annual conference on 14 October.
TAFEF is a public interest non-profit dedicated to fighting fraud against the government by incentivising integrity. Through public-private partnerships, TAFEF advances the effectiveness of the federal and state False Claims Acts and other whistleblower programs to promote and protect the efficient use of taxpayer dollars.
In bestowing the award, TAFEF recognised Fox’s accomplishments as the founding Bureau Chief of the New York Attorney General’s Taxpayer Protection Bureau, which handles many of the whistleblower cases for New York State and aspires to encourage and aggressively pursue strong whistleblower cases. TAFEF also recognised Fox’s accomplishments since joining Kirby McInerney and representing whistleblowers in tax, healthcare, procurement and other whistleblower matters, including his most recent success of settling for USD105 million a tax qui tam case against hedge fund manager Thomas Sandell. Finally, TAFEF recognised Fox for his strong advocacy for whistleblower laws that help fight against fraud.
“It is a great honour to be named Whistleblower Lawyer of the Year by an organisation that is so deeply committed to integrity and fairness,” says Fox.
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Related Topics Legal & Regulation North AmericaFRMO Corp appoints three new directors
FRMO Corp has added Alice C Brennan, Herbert M Chain, and Dov Glickman to its Board of directors.
With the appointment of Brennan, Chain, and Glickman, FRMO Corp now has nine directors, of which six are independent.
“We are very pleased to welcome Alice Brennan, Herb Chain, and Dov Glickman to the Board. We’ve already been beneficiaries of their intellectual capital - which we’ve always intended to be the core FRMO asset - and look forward to their continued contributions,” says Murray Stahl, FRMO Corp.’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “As we continue to focus our attention on expanding and integrating a number of our strategic investments that are now approaching critical mass, FRMO Corp. will benefit tremendously from our new Board members’ unique perspectives and extensive experience.”
Alice Brennan has 30 years of experience in M&A, risk management, and corporate governance. She served as the first Chief Compliance Officer at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and then as the architect of the award-winning enterprise risk management program at Verizon Wireless. She co-led over 25 acquisitions, from due diligence through integration in the US, Europe, and Asia for private and public companies. Ms. Brennan is a member of the RENN Fund Board of Directors. She has achieved the National Association of Corporate Directors’ NACD Directorship Certification®. She is also certified as an “Advanced Professional Director” by the American College of Corporate Directors, and is a long-time active member of the Society for Corporate Governance. Ms. Brennan holds a Bachelor of Arts from Skidmore College and a Master of Arts in microbiology from Columbia University. She earned her JD at Hofstra Law School.
Herbert M Chain has four decades of accounting, auditing, financial, business, and risk management experience. A former Senior Audit Partner at Deloitte, Chain served complex global public and private commercial and financial institutions including investment advisers, ETFs, REITs, physical commodity traders, commodity pools, mutual funds, and investment partnerships. In addition to the FRMO Corp. Board of Directors, he serves on two public fund boards (The RENN Fund and Infusive US Trust) as audit committee chair. He also serves on two not-for-profit boards (Qlarant as director and audit and compliance committee chair, and The Kew-Forest School as treasurer). He was formerly the president and then chair of the Queens Symphony Orchestra. He has achieved the National Association of Corporate Directors’ NACD Directorship Certification® and holds the “Private Company Governance” certificate issued by the Private Directors Association. He is also certified as an “Advanced Professional Director” by the American College of Corporate Directors.
Chain holds a Bachelor of Science from Duke University, an MBA in Finance & Accounting from the University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School of Business, an MS from New York University in International Relations, and is in the process of writing his dissertation to attain a DBA from the International School of Management (Paris, France).
Dov Glickman has over twenty years of investment experience that began at Goldman Sachs & Co. He is currently head of risk and trading at Anqa Management, which manages Litespeed Master Fund, Ltd, a value oriented global event driven, special situations, and distressed credit hedge fund founded in 2000. He is a CFA charterholder and graduated with honours from Harvard College.
Glickman is deeply familiar with FRMO Corp. and has been a long-time investor. His understanding of the analytical and strategic approaches employed by FRMO Corp.’s management, combined with his own investing acumen, adds a valuable dimension to the company’s Board of Directors.
Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter Author Profile Related Topics Moves & Appointments