News
4 Feb 2014 - Moody's forecasts shift towards alternative investments is credit positive for asset managers
A new report released by Moody's Investor Services suggests that an increased shift towards higher allocations to Alternative Investments, including absolute return driven strategies, is a result of investors'search for higher returns.
Moody's report indicates that the increased allocations to alternatives are likely to continue and that skilled asset managers will benefit accordingly as FUM increases. As such some traditional fund managers have been acquiring alternative asset-management expertise, noting that building such expertise organically takes a long time.
Moody's notes that the higher investment management fees, coupled with the ability to charge performance fees, is a significant attraction to fund managers adding alternative products to their existing offerings.
The Moody's report is based on their global research but is likely to be reflected in Australia as investors become increasingly aware of the quality of Australia's pool of fund managers, and are attracted by the risk adjusted returns available from thier absolute return funds. At the same time offshore asset managers continue to target the ever increasing superannuation asset pool.
For more information see Moody's media release.
4 Dec 2013 - CPD Points coming soon!
CPD points soon to be available
Australian Fund Monitors has been accredited for awarding continuing professional development points by the Financial Planning Association of Australia.
The AFM accreditation number is 006078 for 0.50 points.
CPD points will be available after reading an AFM Fund Review and answering 5 questions via an online Q&A system. Successful participants will be able to download a certificate at the end of the test.
Certified Financial Planner (CFP) professional members are required to keep up to date with industry knowledge to maintain their professional proficiency and status. This continuing professional development translates to CPD points which are to be maintained and recorded over a three year period (triennium). The current triennium runs from 1 July 2012 - 30 June 2015. CFP professionals must achieve a total of 120 CPD points during each three year period. The breakdown of these points needs to be as follows:
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at least 50% accredited,
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50% non-accredited
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including 3 ethics points.
CFP professionals must accumulate a minimum 35 points each year.
20 Sep 2013 - Auscap discussion on Large Cap versus Small Cap investing
Auscap Long Short Australian Equities Fund
The manager of the Auscap Long Short Australian Equities Fund has written an interesting article on the relative merits of investing in large and mid cap versus small caps.
This article can be accessed using the following link: Auscap Long Short Australian Equities Fund
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
5 Sep 2013 - Hedge Funds: 2 strategies working in 2013
HEDGE FUNDS: 2 STRATEGIES WORKING IN 2013
Just as the various sectors of the stock market are subject to different performances over time, so fund strategies and styles of portfolio management differ over the investment cycle. This makes an investor's selection of managed funds, and particularly actively managed and alternative funds, vital to their portfolio performance.
The attached table shows the performance of each strategy in AFM's database over the past seven years, and highlights the inconsistency of performances, and as investors know well, that of financial markets in general.
There are a number of clear messages to take from this table in addition to the obvious one that the performance of the market itself is subject to extreme swings. Firstly, when the market performs strongly ('07, '09 and 2012) it outperforms most alternative or active strategies. However, when the market falls or performs badly, such as in 2008, 2010 and 2011, nearly all alternative and actively managed strategies perform better than the market.
This is logical and to be expected. Generally non equity assets and markets are not correlated to the share market (although this didn't hold completely true during the GFC) and the "short" side of many hedge fund portfolios acts much like an insurance policy: When the market goes up and the short positions underperform, you don't need insurance even though you have paid for it, but when the market goes down the short insurance "pays" for itself.
It's not quite as simple as that of course, as the ability of many fund managers to reduce their overall market exposure by moving to cash in negative markets also provides a significant opportunity to avoiding risk.
Equally, different funds within each strategy can provide wide ranging performances depending on the skill and implementation of their respective portfolio managers. In the attached report, Chart 1 shows the performance range of individual funds over the past 12 months, with performances ranging from -50% to +75%.
Best Performing Strategies:
Taking the past 12 months the range of performances of differing strategies has once again been wide ranging, as can be seen from Chart 2 in the attached report. Only two outperformed the strongly rising ASX200, but all the top performing strategies were equity based.
Over the past 12 months one strategy that has performed strongly is Equity Long, with an average performance of 26.37% benefitting from the broadly rising market. Some might question why "long only" funds are included in AFM's tables, but such funds generally have very concentrated, high conviction portfolios, some with only 15 or 20 positions, and many are able to adjust overall market exposure by holding significant cash exposure.
Equity 130/30 has performed even better with a performance over 12 months of +29.62%. Why? Because in equity 130/30 the manager short sells 30% of the portfolio by value, and uses the proceeds to increase their long exposure to 130%. Providing the stock selection is on target, the overweight long positions outperform the market, and the short positions either provide some protection, or add to performance if those stocks fall in value.
That's great in a rising market, but the opposite can occur if the market declines and the manager is locked into an overweight long exposure. This is clear when looking back over the seven year strategy performance table at the start of this article. Generally when the market falls, Equity 130/30 funds suffer more than the index and other equity funds as the leverage they provide magnifies the extent of the downside risk.
It is worth noting that there are variations to Equity 130/30 which AFM includes in the overall strategy category, such as 120/20 and 150/50. The logic and implementation tend to be the same, with the difference being the extent of the leverage or market exposure. Effectively these strategies all have fixed net exposures (calculated as their total long positions minus their shorts) of 100%, but with gross exposure (long plus short) of 140, 160 or 200%.
Critics of the 130/30 style argue that being locked into a fixed market exposure in all market conditions doesn't provide sufficient flexibility to dial the portfolio's risk levels either up or down as conditions change. However the strategy is gaining new followers amongst both fund managers and investors, particularly amongst previously long only advocates who are trying to find some risk mitigation in falling markets. Others argue that the leverage created by the gross exposure increases returns, but like all leverage also increases risk.
The alternative to Equity 130/30 is simply Equity Long/Short, which implies that the level of long, short, gross and net market exposure adjusts in line with the fund manager's view of the prevailing market and specific stocks. Normally these funds have a bias to the long side of the portfolio, but performances are governed by both their stock selection and overall market exposure. These funds make up the majority of the "actively managed" universe, both in Australia and overseas.
This in turn does create some bias in these performance tables as they are not adjusted for the weight of funds under management. Equally in those strategies with fewer funds the potential for statistical risk is greater. As always there's no substitute for research, and understanding each fund's investment strategy.
Chris Gosselin, Australian Fund Monitors ©
2 September 2013
Ph: 612+ 8007 6611
This article was written for the Eureka Report and published with permission on 2 September 2013
Hedge Funds: 2 strategies working in 2013 (pdf format)
4 Jul 2013 - Self directed superannuation funds
In this Opalesque.TV BACKSTAGE video, Chris discusses:
- The wide range of strategies offered by Australian hedge funds
- The strength of the Australian regulator
- Attractive liquidity terms and general outperformance of Aussie hedge funds
- Who invests into Australian hedge funds?
- High net-worth / self directed superannuation funds: the most attractive investor base for hedge funds
Chris Gosselin has been in the financial markets since 1986, initially in equities broking in Sydney and Melbourne prior to focussing on information distribution. He has been in the hedge fund sector since 2003, and established Australian Fund Monitors in 2006. Australian Fund Monitors provides a range of research services including due diligence, analytics and fund rankings, servicing both local and offshore investors.
6 Jun 2013 - One big problem for the hedge fund sector
ONE BIG PROBLEM FOR THE HEDGE FUND SECTOR:
THEY'RE AN EASY TARGET
It seems most people's opinions on hedge funds generally fall into one of two categories: Firstly there are those who claim to understand them, and frequently criticise them in the process, and secondly there are those who admit they don't understand them. The problem is those in the second category tend to listen or believe the opinions of those in the first.
And the problem for the hedge fund industry is that as a whole it's an easy target, as the funds that make up the sector is extraordinarily broad and diverse. As a result finding hedge funds or hedge fund managers who fit the negative stereotype is not difficult, in part because they're the ones who get most of the publicity.
I have to admit to potentially being a little biased in the good vs. bad hedge fund debate, and even if I'm not most readers will assume that I am anyway. However it is worth pointing out some facts about the hedge fund sector, while at the same time accepting the reality that not all of them are perfect, and only a minority are truly "best of breed".
So firstly let's look at what makes up the universe. ASIC in its Regulatory Guide 240, is quite clear and correct when it states that there's no firm definition of a hedge fund, but provides a range of features which it uses to identify them. These include a more complex investment strategy that aims to generate returns with a low correlation to equity and bond indices, the use of derivatives such as futures and options, the use of leverage or borrowing, the use of short selling, and finally the charging of a performance based fee in addition to a management fee.
Using the above five criteria when evaluating the performance of hedge funds creates a wide range of funds to choose from, each of which might invest in completely different asset types such as equities, bonds, credit, commodities or currencies which would normally not be associated with each other, and therefore rarely compared.
Adding to the complexity for the casual observer is that there are over twenty different strategies that a fund manager might use. And within each strategy there are further sub strategies or styles to complicate the analysis further. For instance if we just take those funds investing in equities, the www.fundmonitors.com database divides the universe up into eight further sub strategies or styles.
To make matters worse it doesn't end there. Even taking equity long/short, (the most popular equity type strategy) there are funds which specialise in specific market sectors, such are large cap/small cap or industrials vs. resources. Some go further and focus on small cap and emerging resource or gold stocks.
Styles differ also - quantitative and discretionary, as does the geographic universe or mandate which might cover Australia, Asia, Asia ex Japan, Europe or the US - and so it goes on.
The point of detailing all this is that the term "hedge fund" casts a very wide net indeed, and frequently there is little to no comparison or correlation between one end of the spectrum and the other.
The same can be said of performance, and indeed it is worth noting that one of the objectives of hedge or alternative funds for institutional investors is to diversify their exposure to a specific asset class so that when one (such as equities) performs badly others (such as bonds or commodities) provide some protection against the volatility.
Read the entire article by Chris Gosselin here.
One big problem for the hedge fund sector (pdf format)
15 May 2013 - Meet the Manager - Morphic Asset Management
Continuing our highly successful "Meet the Manager" presentation series, Jack Lowenstein, Managing Director, Joint Chief Investment Officer, Morphic Asset Management will present an overview of the Morphic Global Opportunity Fund on Thursday 16th May 2013, which he describes as being, "Global with a long equity bias and a macro overlay".
Morphic's philosophy is summarised by the view that only funds with flexible hedging strategies will be able to deliver acceptable, steady, real, absolute returns for investors over the investment cycle. The latest copy of our Research Review of the Fund is here.
Jack will share his views on the outlook for the global economy and markets. He recently returned from Japan and will give us some insights into the changes in markets and sentiment since Prime Minister Abe's election.
Thursday 16th May 2013 at 12:30pm
Sydney city venue to be advised
RSVP by Monday 13th May 2013
If you are interested in attending this "Meet the Manager briefing", please reserve your seat and we will send you confirmation of your registration by return email.
Morphic Fund Review March 2013 (pdf format)
26 Apr 2013 - Meet the Manager
In 2012, AFM hosted a series of lunch presentations entitled "Understanding Hedge Funds" which provided investors with a more balanced view on the sector than is sometimes portrayed in the media. Following feedback from a number of our guests we also organised briefings and presentations for a small group of investors to "meet the manager" and hear from individual fund managers in person.
Our "Meet the Manager" briefings will be held every month, over breakfast or lunch and will showcase AFM's Fund Manager clients, their available Funds and views of the current market and opportunities ahead.
If you are interested in attending any of AFM's "Meet the Manager" briefings, please reply by email.
Fund Managers wishing to participate in the presentation series are invited to contact Chris Gosselin, CEO, to discuss the opportunity.
9 Apr 2013 - 6 Ways Hedge Funds need to Adapt now
SEI's sixth annual survey of institutional hedge fund investors was conducted in November 2012 by the SEI Knowledge Partnership. Online questionnaires were completed by senior investment professionals at 107 institutions.
Endowments and foundations account for 19% of all survey respondents. Pension plans account for another 18% of respondents, with public plans dominating. Family offices account for 9% of responses. Funds of hedge funds (FoHF) accounted for one-third of all responses. FoHF data was tabulated separately from other institutional investor responses. Remaining responses came from banks, insurance companies, and non-profit organisations.
To read the full report, please click here.
6 Ways Hedge Funds need to Adapt now (pdf format)
7 Apr 2013 - Meet the Manager - InSync - now closed
Last year we hosted a series of lunch presentations entitled "Understanding Hedge Funds" which provided investors with a more balanced view on the sector than is sometimes portrayed in the media. Following feedback from a number of our guests we also organised briefings and presentations for a small group of investors to "meet the manager" and hear from individual fund managers in person.
Our next "Meet the Manager" briefing is with Monik Kotecha from Insync Funds Management on Wednesday 10 April 2013.
Monik's fund, the Insync Global Titans Fund, invests in a concentrated portfolio of large cap global stocks with a focus on those companies that can consistently grow dividends and earn high returns on invested capital. The latest copy of our Research Review of the Fund is here.
Monik will share his views of the market and the opportunities and risks which lie ahead. Having just returned from the UK and meeting many leading multinational companies he will also be able to provide an update on the global trends and observations they provided.
If you are interested in attending this Meet the Manager briefing, please reply by email and we will send you confirmation of your registration and inform you of the Sydney city venue.
Wednesday 10 April 2013 at midday
Sydney city venue to be advised
RSVP by Thursday 4 April 2013
AFM Fund Review (pdf format)
