Funds Management

As a world of woe continues to roil markets, Australia’s top alternative investment managers gathered to celebrate their gains and raise money for a good cause.

The level of alpha that hedge funds generated in the age of quantitative easing was “lackluster”, but rising market volatility now offer “a richer opportunity set for skilled managers.”

With rising rates expected to enhance yield in an asset class characterized by floating rate loans, international private markets manager Northleaf will launch a new open-ended private credit fund Down Under.

As rates rise and the money fuelled tech bubble pops, private companies – and their investors – are buckling down. The hard question, for which there is no good answer, is about what happens next.

A host of things investors have benefitted from in recent decades are likely to turn on a multi-year view. Even the much vaunted alternatives will find it harder to generate alpha.

Portfolios built along factor lines may be better-placed to withstand the grinding effects of high inflation, a recent study probing almost 150 years of market returns has found.

The smart money in the alternatives space is likely to flow into CTAs, or trend-following hedge funds, and global macro strategies, according to an annual survey by capital introduction specialists Agecroft Partners LLC.

The former CIO of Crestone Wealth Management has won seed capital from a number of family offices and individuals for a new global multi-strategy hedge fund.

The Fed Put is dead. Dip buying is a crutch. Private equity is a “junk bond in disguise”. And get ready for a lost decade for US equities says Rupal Bhansali, CIO of Ariel Investments.

It turns out that being a top performer can be tough as institutional clients pull money from favourites amidst broader equity de-risking.

“If you have style drift and you move into the latest hot thing, you’re gonna get whipsawed… That’s usually the death knell of a fund manager, that style drift.”

Chicago-based V-Square Quantitative Management has expanded its separately-managed account platform with the launch of its Global Equity ESG Materiality and Carbon Transition Indexed Strategy.