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CFTC.gov Swaps Report Update
March 21, 2018--CFTC's Weekly Swaps Report has been updated, and is now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
Merk Insight: Investing & Politics
March 20, 2018--When it comes to your investment portfolio, do you ignore the noise coming out of the White House? Do tariffs matter? Or would it be more prudent to chill and focus on other potential drivers of the markets?
I have (somewhat cynically) noted that the less investors have been thinking, the better their investment performance must have been over the past decade. Could it be that our intellect actually gets in the way of making good investment decisions? When it comes to trying to project what influence politics has on investments, this may well be the case.
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Source: Merk Investments
Barclays debuts 2 leveraged ETNs focused on dividends
March 20, 2018--- Barclays has brought to NYSE Arca two 200%-leveraged exchange-traded notes sponsored by Fisher Investments designed to deliver high dividends
The Barclays ETN+ FI Enhanced Global High Yield Exchange Traded Notes Series B is designed to replicate the MSCI World High Dividend Yield Index..
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Source: smartbrief.com
The Eurekahedge Report March 2018
March 20, 2018--Highlights from this month's report
Hedge funds declined 1.62% in February and were up 0.37% year-to-date with total AUM growth still in the green despite losses in February which eroded the solid gains in January. Investor redemptions stood at US$5.0 billion in February while performance-based losses of US$34.2 billion were recorded.
Almost 35% of the fund managers are in the red for the year in what is turning out to be the toughest start to the year for fund managers since 2016.
While hedge fund capital allocations were in the red for the month of February, investor subscriptions have favoured CTA/managed futures and event driven strategies which have seen inflows of US$0.8 billion each followed by long/short equities and arbitrage strategies with inflows of US$0.4 billion each.
view the North American Hedge Funds Infographic March 2018
Source: Eurekahedge
AdvisorShares-This Week in Active ETFs: Using Volatility the Wrong Way Can Hurt Returns
March 19, 2018--AdvisorShares Weekly Market Review-Week Ending 3/16/2018
March Magic!
Macro
You know the saying about never being given more than you can handle? Markets might be getting tested on that point as the trend of increased political volatility continues to accelerate. Last week Rex Tillerson was fired via Twitter then news of HR McMaster's ouster being imminent.
This sort of turnover in the inner circle of the executive branch is as far as we know, unprecedented and it is also unanalyzable in terms of impact on markets. It won't matter, unless it matters.
Markets did not panic by any means but they did drift lower for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3%, the S&P 500 declined 1.2%,the NASDAQ dropped 1.4% and the Russell 2000 was down 0.7%. Despite the modest declines, the CBOE Volatility Index was only modestly higher on the week, closing Friday at 15.80.
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Source: AdvisorShares
Has the Cryptocoin Market Met Its Match in the SEC?
March 18, 2018--More than 180 coin offerings in March are expected to raise $795 million, a 45% decline from February's total
Regulators looking into potentially widespread violations in cryptocurrency markets have taken a bite out of the once-soaring investor demand for token deals.
While the pace of new proposed initial coin offerings has remained near record levels, there has been a marked deceleration in the amount of money being raised and a change in the source of the capital being provided.
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Source: Wall Street Journal
CFTC.gov Commitments of Traders Reports Update
March 16, 2018--The current reports for the week of March 13, 2018 are now available.
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Source: CFTC.gov
Renaissance Capital Scheduled U.S. IPOs
March 16, 2018--Dropbox (DBX)-San Francisco, CA
Deal Size: $612 mil Exchange: Nasdaq
Lead Underwriter: Goldman Sachs
Provides a web-based cloud storage and collaboration platform
Sunlands Online Education Group(STG)- China
Deal Size: $162 mil Exchange: NYSE
Lead Underwriter: Goldman Sachs (Asia)...
IPO Commentary
Spotify could be worth $25 billion. Or $9 billion.
Spotify Technology (SPOT) filed an updated prospectus disclosing that 3.0 million shares.
IPO Index Performance
The Renaissance IPO Index has returned 4.8% so far this year,
compared to 2.8% for the S&P 500.
IPOUSA
IPO Activity
There have been 33 IPOs priced so far this year, a +43% change from last year.
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Source: Renaissance Capital
Thomson Reuters U.S. Weekly FundFlows Insight Report: Equity Funds Attract Net New Money for the Week in Spite of Fears of Inflation and a Trade War
March 15, 2018--For the first week in four investors were net redeemers of fund assets (including those of conventional funds and ETFs), withdrawing $291 million. However, the headline number was a bit misleading.
While fund investors were net redeemers of money market funds (-$24.2 billion), they padded the coffers of equity funds (+$20.4 billion), taxable bond funds (+$3.2 million), and municipal bond funds (+$339 million) for the fund-flows week ended March 14, 2018.
Despite concerns that U.S. tariffs could ignite a trade war and possibly stall global and U.S. economic growth, investors cheered a stronger-than-expected February nonfarm payrolls report, cautiously pushing up select market indices ahead of next week's FOMC meeting.
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Source: Thomson Reuters
Research Affiliates-Performance Measurement: How to Do It If We Must
March 15, 2018--Key Points
Investment professionals can overdo performance measurement simply because technology makes it so easy and it seems a worthwhile task to constantly gauge if clients are on the path to meeting their long-term financial goals.
Too often, however, "doing something" based on short-term performance measurement can degrade the long-term performance potential of a portfolio by chasing recent winners.
If we must regularly assess performance, let's focus on performance relative to expectation distributions, such as a strategy's expected tracking error of returns relative to its benchmark.
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Source: Research Affiliates