Quant Finance

The recent CTA performances encourage institutional investors to more closely monitor this type of hedge fund. Thus, according to Preqin, 52% of them wish to increase their exposure to this type of alternative strategy this year (vs 14% last year).

Pierre Richert, Agrica CFO – mutual company dedicated to the agriculture sector – still does not invest in quant funds. He considers necessary to enhance transparency, performance attribution and especially regulation for this kind of funds.

Donald A. Steinbrugge, managing partner at Agecroft Partners – US third party marketing firm specialized in hedge funds - gave us information regarding demand from institutional investors for CTAs

During the first quarter of 2016, hedge funds suffered a 2% drawdown according to the Lyxor Hedge Fund index. Across hedge fund strategies, CTAs and Merger Arbitrage have been the only segments of the industry being able to post returns in positive territory in Q1.

Fifty CTAs launched in the first nine months of 2015, and the year looks set for the fewest launches since 2006, when 66 CTA funds launched. As a proportion of all hedge funds launched each year, the fraction represented by CTAs has fallen below 10% for the first time since 2006, and now stands at 9%.