NEWS
17 Mar 2016 - Signature Quantitative Fund
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| Fund Overview | SQF has been established to profit from anomalies surrounding event driven, behavioural & factor based structural market inefficiencies which generate significant profits and are uncorrelated & persistent over time. Specific strategies such as dividend arbitrage, index addition and deletion, tax year end, capital raisings, among other strategies are used by the Fund. The Fund's initial focus is on investing in Australian and New Zealand markets. |
| Manager Comments | Capital Raisings contributing positively to SQF's returns. Alpha Capture underperformed due to the short exposure to resources. Dividend Arbitrage and Index Rebalance Strategies underperformed slightly. The Fund had a net exposure of 45%, of which 14% was in the Consumer Discretionary sector. Click the link below to view the latest Monthly Report. |
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17 Mar 2016 - Clarity Multi Strategy Fund
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| Manager Comments | Since inception, the Fund has an annualised double digit returns of 25.33% p.a. (Index 9.25% p.a.), which has been achieved with higher volatility of 14.14% p.a. (Index 10.74% p.a). While the Fund had positive over two months, the volatility of the returns is something the Fund would like to reduce. The top two sectors traded by the Fund in February were Resources/Commodities and Manufacturing. The total turnover for the month was A$138m, majority was split by country in Australia at 45% and USA at 30%. Click below to read the latest Fund monthly report. |
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16 Mar 2016 - Fund Review: Morphic Global Opportunities Fund February 2016
MORPHIC GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Morphic Global Opportunities Fund.
Key points include:
- The Fund is a global equity long/short manager with a long bias and a macro-economic overlay. The mandate allows the Fund to short sell, use derivatives and invest in assets such as commodities & currencies.
- Morphic's philosophy is that only funds with flexible investment and hedging strategies will be able to deliver acceptable, steady, real, absolute returns over the investment cycle.
- The Fund is an early stage, boutique, Sydney-based fund established in 2012 with experienced CIO's, and an investment team of 6 including a risk manager.
- The Board has a majority of independent members with significant risk and investment experience.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Morphic Global Opportunities Fund AFM Fund Review February 201616 Mar 2016 - The Paragon Fund
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| Fund Overview | Paragon believes that markets are not always efficient, exhibiting a common tendency to price securities well outside of their intrinsic value over the medium term. This market characteristic provides the opportunity for Paragon, an active manager with a flexible mandate, to generate superior investment returns over the longer term. Paragon believes that it is critical to understand both the companies and the industries in which they operate, in order to fully comprehend each investment opportunity. Accordingly, a fundamental approach to company research is taken. Assessing the potential downside is also paramount in framing the risk/reward trade-off for potential investments. |
| Manager Comments | Key positive contributors for February included longs in Blackham Resources, Troy Resources and IDP Education, offset by declines in Amaysim (surprise profit downgrade) and the shorts as the market rallied into month end. At the end of the month the Fund had 34 long positions and 14 short positions. Click below to read the latest monthly report. |
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15 Mar 2016 - Meme Australian Share Fund
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's investment strategy seeks to identify low-risk entry opportunities and then build positions in these stocks. Once established in the portfolio, individual stock holdings are maintained for as long as their long-term upward trend remains intact and while they continue to make positive contributions to portfolio growth. Positions are reduced and ultimately closed out as their trends become exhausted or as their relative long-term performance against the broad market weakens. The Fund believes that longer time frame investments also provide a number of advantages. The effect of false signals and 'noise' which attend shorter term time frames is mitigated by only attending to signals which are confirmed by our longer term assessments. Also, the Fund gains exposure to the more expansive price trends which can last for months and years, allowing dividends and distributions received during this time to further enhance portfolio returns. |
| Manager Comments | The five most positive contributors to the fund's February performance were Ramelius Resources, St Barbara, Newcrest Mining, Saracen Minerals and Doray Minerals. The five most negative contributors were Oncosil Medical, Blackmores Limited, Smartgroup, Onevue and Collins Foods. The total number of portfolio stocks remained steady from the previous month at 90, and portfolio cash sitting at just above 5%. During the month, the Fund's exposure to the Materials, Utilities sectors and to cash increased. While exposure to Energy, Industrial, Consumer Staples, Health and Information Technology sectors decreased, with exposure to other sectors remained relatively stable. Click below to read the latest Fund Manager's commentary on the Fund. |
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15 Mar 2016 - Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund February 2016
BENNELONG LONG SHORT EQUITY FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund.
- The Fund is a research driven, market and sector neutral, "pairs" trading strategy investing primarily in large cap stocks from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with over thirteen year track record and annualised returns of 18.51%.
- The consistent returns across the investment history indicates the Fund's ability to provide positive returns in volatile and negative markets and significantly outperform the broader market. The Fund's Sharpe Ratio and Sortino Ratio are 1.14 (Index 0.26) and 1.97 (Index 0.26) respectively.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
14 Mar 2016 - Fund Review: Optimal Australia Absolute Trust February 2016
OPTIMAL AUSTRALIA ABSOLUTE TRUST
AFM have released the most recently updated Fund Review on the Optimal Australia Absolute Trust.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
- Optimal Australia is a specialist Australian equity investment manager and the Fund has a long/short equity strategy typically with a low but variable net market exposure comprising 40 to 65 stocks broadly selected from within the ASX200.
- The investment team comprising George Colman, Peter Whiting supported by Stephen Nicholls and Justin Hay have over 100 years combined experience in equity markets.
- In February, the Fund rose 0.8%. The Fund's approach to risk is shown by the Sharpe ratio of 1.49 (Index 0.11), Sortino ratio of 3.36 (Index 0.04), both of which are well above the ASX 200 Accumulation Index and has recorded 80% positive months.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
1.78% in February.
14 Mar 2016 - Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's discretionary investment strategy commences with a macro view of the economy and direction to establish the portfolio's desired market exposure. Following this detailed sector and company research is gathered from knowledge of the individual stocks in the Fund's universe, with widespread use of broker research. Company visits, presentations and discussions with management at CEO and CFO level are used wherever possible to assess management quality across a range of criteria. Detailed analysis of company valuations using financial statements and forecasts, particularly focusing on free cash flow, is conducted. Technical analysis is used to validate the Manager's fundamental research and valuations and to manage market timing. A significant portion of the Fund's overall performance can be attributed to the attention and importance given to the macro economic outlook and the ability and willingness to adjust the Fund's market risk. |
| Manager Comments | The Kardinia portfolio had a Growth and Momentum bias which dragged on performance. At the individual stock level, Surfstitch did the majority of the damage. Other significant detractors from performance were Blackmores, Bellamy's, Isentia and National Australia Bank. On the positive side, short positions in Share Price Index futures and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, as well as longs in BWX, Burson and Transurban were the best contributors. Net equity market exposure (including derivatives) was reduced over the course of the month from 32.3% to 27.0%. Click below to read the latest Fund Report. |
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12 Mar 2016 - Hedge Clippings
Hedge funds aren't nasty, they're sensible!
Certain sections of the media have been getting excited about the prospect of those 'nasty' hedge funds with short positions losing money thanks to a "short squeeze" rally in the price of the banks and Fortescue Metals Group (FMG). Of course there are some who think (Gerry Harvey for instance, who has always been ready and willing to talk his own book) that all short sellers should "be put up against a wall and shot" (his words, not mine). Others seem to believe that the only reason share prices fall is because of short selling by hedge funds.
Let's put this in perspective: Firstly the banks:
The price of CBA fell from $95 twelve months ago to $72 during September, following which there was a rally back up to $85 by the end of the year. Then a further fall to $72 followed towards the end of February, since which time it rallied back towards $75.
So apart from the fact that most of the downward pressure on CBA has come from "long" investors exiting or reducing their holdings because it was overpriced, any smart hedge fund should have been "short" at prices of over $90, and would have been more than happy to exit those positions between $70 and $75.
Only about 3% of the total big four banks' stock is "borrowed", which includes borrowing by traders who need to cover their option positions. While the banking sector may be large, that's not enough to have enabled short sellers to have cut the price by 20%. The reality was that at $95 the CBA was overpriced and conditions for banks were, as George Colman from Optimal Australia said at the time, "as good as they get", and the downside was inevitable.
Let's take a look at Fortescue:
In June 2008 FMG was trading at close to $11, riding high on the back of iron ore prices of around $140 a tonne. By January 2009 the price at fallen to $1.94 before rallying over two years to $6.65 in January 2011, before falling to $1.60 in January 2016.
FMG's share price might well have bounced $1.00 from that low, but that completely ignores the fact that they had fallen from $11 to $1.60 during their volatile journey.
It's not only short sellers that push the price of stocks down. It is the outlook for the company's earnings and profitability. Long only investors reduce their holdings, and just as importantly buyers pull bids back because there is limited value, or the stock is overvalued.
Message: Don't blame short sellers for the company's prospects and share price. Having said that manipulation of news and research (whether positive or negative) should not be allowed to benefit the peddlers of such information.
Performance updates and reviews received this over the past week included the following PERFORMANCE UPDATES:
Against a backdrop of further volatility in commodities and general de-risking in February the ASX200 Accumulation Index fell 1.76%. The S&P500 fell and the Asia Pacific ex Japan Index fell 0.63%. Meanwhile:
The Optimal Australia Absolute Trust recorded a positive 0.80% return, in another tough month to outperform by 2.56%.
The Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund rose 2.37%, to outperform by 4.13%.
KIS Asia Long Short Fund returned a positive 0.67% for the month, to give an out-performance of 1.30% against the Asia Pacific ex Japan index.
The Alexander Credit Opportunities Fund returned +0.55% for the month of February.
Morphic Global Opportunities Fund fell 2.24% in February, underperforming its benchmark (MSCI AC World Total Return in Australian Dollars), which fell 1.65%, by 0.59%.
The Newgate Real Estate and Infrastructure Fund returned -0.24% for the month of January.
FUND REVIEWS released this week: Insync Global Titans Fund
And on that note, have a great week-end.
Regards,
Chris
CEO, AUSTRALIAN FUND MONITORS
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11 Mar 2016 - KIS Asia Long Short Fund
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| Fund Overview | Whilst the Fund's primary strategy is focused on long/short equities, the ability to retain discretionary powers to allocate across a number of other investment strategies is reserved. These strategies may include, but not be limited to: convertible bond investments, portfolio hedging, equity related arbitrage, special situations (e.g. merger arbitrage, rights offerings, participation in international public offerings and placements, etc.). The Fund's geographic focus is Asia excluding Japan, but including Australia). The Fund may invest outside of this region to the extent that: 1. The investment decision is driven from the Asian region or; 2. The exposure is intended to mitigate risk or enhance return from factors external to the Asian region. |
| Manager Comments | Since inception, the Fund has an annualised return of 14.45% p.a. In comparison, the AFM Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index has an annualised returned of 1.48% p.a. The Fund has achieved this double-digit performance with lower volatility of 5.60%, to give notable Sharpe and Sortino ratios of 1.88 (Index -0.13) and 4.20 (Index -0.24) respectively. |
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