Cash and Hedge Funds are King in 2015

In my AFR column over the weekend, I evaluated the performance of our preferred portfolio posture in 2015, which is a bar-belled strategy split between cash and alpha-focussed long-short and market neutral hedge funds with minimal beta. Given extreme market volatility, abysmal equity market returns, and never-ending shocks, this approach has proven to be very successful. In this context, I also revisit the returns generated by products I have previously highlighted, including VGI Partner's long-short global equities solution, Perpetual's market-neutral Pure Alpha fund, and NWQ's mutli-manager strategy, amongst others. I conclude with some analysis of so-called "alternative beta", which is an interesting opportunity asset-allocators should consider. In particular, I sat down with the principals of the Paris-based hedge fund, CFM, which has a team of 40 PhDs and 70 computer scientists dedicated to unlocking persistent, exploitable, and scalable statistical anomalies across financial markets that can provide bona fide, uncorrelated sources of beta that diversify risk even during times of extreme duress. Read for free via Twitter (VIEW LINK)