Arbitrage

In recent months, Market Neutral L/S strategies underperformed other hedge fund strategies, in a context where risk assets rallied following the Pfizer vaccine announcement in November 2020. While the strategy is not designed to capture the equity market beta, the alpha contribution has declined since Q4-2020.

In the space of alternatives, Global Macro strategies have embraced reflation trades in the past quarter, scaling up positions on EM FX, equities, commodities and inflation linked bonds at varying degrees.

We see the alpha environment in Japan improving in 2021. First, we expect a more supportive macro backdrop, setting the stage for a wider set of investment themes. Japan’s second wave of Covid-19 has peaked and its impact on activity looks manageable so far and will likely lead to stronger economic growth in Q2.

The consensus now expects a supportive 2021 backdrop for risky assets. With vaccines rolling out and continued reflation policies, the normalization of the world economy would accelerate, amid lower geopolitical uncertainties, still ample global liquidity...

The parabolic rise of this stock, reportedly driven by retail speculation, short-covering and options hedging, has reverberated across a number of other stocks and sectors.