FINalternatives Published on FINalternatives (https://www.finalternatives.com) Q&A: Bringing Hedge Fund Strategies To The Mutual Fund World Feb 8 2012 | 9:31am ET Direxion president and CIO Dan O’Neill says portfolio diversification is about asset classes, but it’s also about strategies. To O’Neill’s way of thinking, Direxion has been in the alternative asset business for years, having cut its teeth in the leveraged index mutual fund space before expanding into leveraged index …
REUTERS A running debate in the markets for the last few years has been the degree to which exchange traded funds have been driving the ups and downs of underlying stocks that make up ETFs. A big part of the problem is simply that it’s difficult to know precisely just how much trading of individual stocks is generated by shares of ETFs being bought and sold, especially if the trading …
Mandate expands relationship to cover 12 ETFs with assets over $420 million The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation Rockledge SectorSAM ETF NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – BNY Mellon, the global leader in investment management and investment services, has been selected to provide exchange-traded fund (ETF) services, custody, fund accounting and fund administration for the AdvisorShares Rockledge SectorSAM ETF (NYSE: SSAM – News). This mandate expands BNY Mellon’s relationship …
Jan 31, 2012 Investors should not write off long/short equity hedge fund strategies, the co-head of cap intro at Goldman Sachs has warned. According to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research, equity hedge funds suffered $8.6 billion in net outflows in the fourth quarter of 2011 reducing full year inflows to $2.2 billion. The HFRI Equity hedge Index finished 2011 down 8.25%. “Predicting success is inversely correlated to the hedge funds which …
If you were a better stock picker than Warren Buffet, would you be punching the clock every day as the faceless manager of a corporate pension plan? Judging by many companies’ recent financial statements, they must believe their pension plans are run by such unheralded baby Buffetts. WSJ ‘Intelligent Investor’ Jason Zweig visits Mean Street to discuss the rosy – and in many cases, unrealistic – pension fund projection corporations …
 Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — Money overseen by U.S. investment managers who buy exchange-traded funds instead of individual stocks and bonds rose by 43 percent in the last year, even faster than the growth for ETFs, according to a report from Morningstar Inc. The 370 ETF-based investment strategies tracked by Morningstar grew to $27 billion in the year ended Sept. 30, the Chicago-based research firm said today. That outpaced the …
The stage is set for more exchange-traded fund launches from traditional fund companies this year. Last month, Fidelity investments moved to significantly expand its role in the ETF market by filing an application for exemptive relief with the Securities and Exchange Commission to roll out a suite of ETFs. The filing envisions the launch of index-based domestic and international stock and bond funds including 130/30 and other long/short funds. “This …
Unlimited choices produce genuine suffering according to Dr. Barry Schwartz. In his book Paradox of Choice – Can Having Too Many Choices Make You Unhappy, Dr. Schwartz argues that more choices make us more uncertain about our choices. And this leads to increased anxiety and suffering. Investing already produces anxiety for many investors. So adding more choices without a solution for managing them seems to make the anxiety grow and …
Sectors within the S&P 500 have exhibited a similar trend. Summary Points The correlations of many assets with domestic stocks have increased during the past 30 years. The availability of mutual funds and Exchange Traded Funds has contributed to this trend. Correlations of the S&P 500 with all 10 of its component sectors are at or near their highest points in 20 years. Over the past 30 years, the variability …
There was a time when being short was a bad idea. Not anymore. As David Kostin’ summarizes in his latest weekly chart packet, the level of 3 month S&P and sector correlation is now at a 20 year high, an environment which never leads to good outcomes for long-only whales, and which has led to sizable outperformance for hedge funds due to their recent loading up on short positions. To …