David Harding There has been a lot of comment in the hedge fund industry on the asset gathering of Winton Capital this year. David Harding’s firm has attracted inflows of over $7bn in 2011, which equates to over 10% of the whole industry’s capital inflows. This is a remarkable market share of the growth for […] Read more »
Risk Managers are the Social Workers of Asset Management?
Recent research has shown that in the UK 86% of youth workers/social workers time is spent in completing forms for reporting, and in attending meetings about clients and how the services are run. Only 14% of time is spent with clients. This skewed sense of priorities came to mind when I read the 2011 Risk […] Read more »
The Dangers of Mixing the Functions in a Hedge Fund Management Company
In an in-depth due diligence questionnaire of a hedge fund manager there is often a question about the outside business interests of the principals. For an organisation with a broad team of decision makers managing investments this is less of a concern. To the extent that there is a single presiding talent who sets the […] Read more »
Hedge Fund Credit & Risk
By Simon Kerr A couple of weeks back I joined in a presentation put on by PRMIA (The Professional Risk Managers International Association) at Imperial College, London. The sessions were on hedge funds and credit risk, and so I tapped into my experience as a risk manager in a single manager hedge fund and what […] Read more »
Book Review for "The Inner Voice of Trading"
By Simon Kerr A successful trader or investor in financial markets succeeds through a combination of factors. There is the “what they know” part; there is the trading format the trader or investors uses; and there is the less well explored element in the mix – the “other” of the trader besides technical/factual knowledge. Michael […] Read more »
Chart of the Day – Extremely High Correlation of Stocks – Implications for Hedge Funds
I’m doing some work on risk measurement/management at a hedge fund management company. The investment strategy of the hedge fund is long/short equity. Most of the work revolves around measurements at the portfolio level, and the aim of measuring and controlling risk is to produce steady returns for investors. This is only possible on a […] Read more »
Battle of the Quants London 2011
This year I have experienced two rounds of the Battle of the Quants. The first was the edition of the radio show “The Naked Short Club” broadcast on Monday of this week. Host Dr.Stu bursts into the studio with his posse, and sets about arranging the guests The show featured a line up of […] Read more »
Working in Equity Market-Neutral – A Q&A with ABACO Financials
By Simon Kerr, Principal of Enhance Consulting ABACO Financials Fund is a market-neutral equity fund with a European bias dedicated to investing in the Financial sector. The portfolio of long/short positions is structured to generate absolute returns by capturing relative value within the sector while targeting low volatility. The return stream produced for their growing […] Read more »
Top Macro Manager Talks Through Set-Ups, Triggers and Sizing Positions
By Simon Kerr, Principal of Enhance Consulting This week I heard a presentation by a senior trader at one of the large global macro hedge funds which has been in business for nearly 20 years. He put across several insights into the way of working of those who engage in the strategy. The particular trades […] Read more »
Consulting One – Team Working in Hedge Funds
By Simon Kerr, Principal of Enhance Consulting There is no such thing as a perfect hedge fund – we are all trying. So in my role as a consultant to hedge fund portfolio managers (PMs), I am usually carrying out remedial work in some dimension. Sometimes it can be about the positioning of hedge […] Read more »