Absolute Returns

Pierre-Yves Moix, co-manager of the Alternative Risk Premia strategy at GAM, comments on how the growing alternative risk premia industry has delivered strong performance in the uncertain Brexit environment – proving once again its strong diversification and market neutral properties.

Unigestion, the boutique asset manager with scale that focuses on guiding its clients with risk-managed investment solutions, today announces that the second of the two factor funds created in collaboration with its client Railpen, announced in January this year, has now launched.

The broad-based market upswing in the first half of July has benefitted risk assets globally. That follows the release of better than expected economic data in the US and China, suggesting that fears over the strength of the global recovery have been exaggerated.

During the Brexit, the average CTA did very well: the SG Trend Index, a performance indicator for trend-following strategies, jumped 2.9% on 24 June. Trend-following strategies outperformed both equities, with the MSCI World Index dropping 4.9%, and hedge funds in general, with the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index shedding 1.1%.

The research - which includes data on a diverse range of institutional investor types - shows that pension fund assets represent a third (34%) of the top 100 alternative managers’ assets, followed by wealth managers (19%), insurance companies (10%), sovereign wealth funds (6%), banks (2%), funds of funds (2%) and endowments & foundations (2%).