Lyxor/IKOS Offering
Posted on: 06 Jun 2012 by James Farmer

Think Alternative Ucits Investments, Think Lyxor Asset Management and the Lyxor/IKOS offering; Lyxor Asset Management talks to IFA Magazine:

US and emerging market risky assets are more attractive in risk/return terms . Against a background of the global financial crisis, in which emerging markets have generally fared better than the advanced economies,  interest in the profiles of emerging market equity and credit assets for long/short and relative value strategies is prevalent (Florence Barjou, Global Macro and Hedge Fund Strategist and Portfolio Manager, Lyxor Asset Management).
Investment in some European risky assets is a potential “value trap.”  Barjou has  favored investment in US risky assets, justifying the mixed economic data from the US as testimony to not just US but US corporate propensities to invest in their own futures, pointing to potential further US unconventional quantitative easing, and corporate cash rich balance sheets, respectively.
Neutral on global commodities, Barjou has not given any portfolio prominence to an asset class which she believes is going to be curtailed by “modest” global growth, going forward.
Barjou believes that the stage is set for the success of long/short and relative value strategies, in terms of the margins available, from successful and failed business models……, as reflected by risky assets within the more growth-oriented US and emerging markets.
Within this context Barjou has commented on the conservatively positioned, Lyxor Alternative Fund of Funds. “This fund profits from long/short equity and event-driven strategies, and has been recently rebalanced to encompass more arbitrage-related strategies, and as such presents both challenge and opportunity from undervaluations and overvaluations on an allocation to risky assets in the emerging markets and the US.”

Advisers with a sense of what to invest in and where to invest, should be persuaded to recommend professional alternative CTA managers. Timing is everything, and a mechanical quality from a reliance on technology has increasingly found expression in recent times. Such is the case for the Lyxor Dimension’s UCITs platform recent offering, namely, the Lyxor/IKOS Futures Strategy Index Fund, which utilises systematic tools to profit from asset overestimations and underestimations impacted by dislocation and harmony alike.
As an alternatives CTA, following trends/counter-trends/insights, transitory and potential longer aberrations, Lyxor/IKOS flitters between profiteering from conflicting ECB policy news, amongst other factors.
Consistent with Lyxor Asset Management views that the European debt crisis is the leading source of market volatility on global assets, Lyxor/IKOS keeps itself poised to take future profits on global assets impacted by news that the ECB is still prepared to cut interest rates to stimulate growth in the euro-zone, and via a “regime switching” model, it takes futures profits, on the same assets, from news that the ECB does not wish to lend further to failing euro-zone nations. Accordingly, the Lyxor/IKOS offering whilst still in its infancy, by securing bi-directional profits from signals of global growth and recession, respectively, is by its positioning more likely to fulfil yield expectations from trading global assets.

Nathanael Benzaken, head of business development, Lyxor Dimension offerings, said:
“Advisers can be assured that investment in the Lyxor/IKOS UCITs offering is “capable of delivering a strong value proposition for (retail) investors”.

Benzaken, further encourages advisers to consider Lyxor Dimension UCITs offerings over peer offerings because the Lyxor Dimension is dedicated to affording retail investors participation in only those innovative offerings that work as a UCITs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: asset class | balance sheets | cta | driven strategies | economic data | emerging market | emerging markets | failed business models | global commodities | global financial crisis | global growth | global macro | hedge fund | long short equity | market equity | portfolio manager | relative value | risk return | risky assets | value strategies