Alexandre Garrabou von Trotha heads up the fund-of-fund business of Banc Sabadell in Barcelona. In a video interview with EIE’s Tjibbe Hoekstra, he explains how he has dealt with the huge inflows into his fund-of-funds range. He also tells about the changing risk appetite of Spanish investors.
There are two types of absolute return funds, and there are only 40 alternative Ucits funds to pass the hedge fund test. As a matter of fact, absolute return funds are far from a straightforward concept.
There appears no way back now that Janet Yellen and her Federal Reserve colleagues have all but committed to raising rates on 16 December, and a quarter point rise is largely priced into markets already.
I am out of ideas. Over the past few weeks a growing sense of déjà vu has crept into everything I have tried to write.
Government bonds are headed for negative returns in 2016, international asset managers believe. Their outlook for the next 12 months is at its most negative since April 2013.
ECB President Mario Draghi disappointed markets on Thursday. While the Bank delivered a 10 basis point cut to the deposit rate to an historic -0.3%, and extended the deadline of its asset purchase programme by six months, it kept the main refinancing and marginal lending rates steady at 5 and 30 basis points respectively.
Smart beta strategies are quickly growing in popularity, according to research commissioned by Invesco Powershares among 400 investors in Europe. However, overall portfolio allocation remains modest and the ways investors use non-market cap weighted index products varies widely across Europe.
The high yield bond sell-off has proved short-lived. After two months of strong net outflows, fortunes for the asset class have reversed once again. For other fixed income asset classes, fund flows remained negative.
Jersey-based hedge fund BlueCrest Capital Management is to return investors’ money after being hit by outflows and pressures on its profitability through fees, staffing and meeting client needs.
People tend to dedicate most of their time to thinking through short-term solutions. While central banks saw QE as the easiest way to provide an imminent boost to their ailing economies, the current migration crisis is just as much a product of short-termist thinking.
Emerging market equities have returned to favour with European investors, for as long as it lasts. After 10 straight months of net outflows, money is finally flowing into the asset class again, according to the latest Morningstar fund flows data.
Low volatility stocks lose their defensive characteristics when rates go up and markets are under stress, fund managers told the audience at Expert Investor Norway last week. Is this a risk which could seriously unsettle markets, after the huge inflows into low volatility strategies in the past years?
