Hedge-Fund Veteran Stephen Diggle Returns to Incubate Fledglings

Hedge-Fund Veteran Stephen Diggle Returns to Incubate Fledglings

Stephen Diggle, co-founder of a hedge-fund firm whose assets expanded more than 1,000-fold before it returned investors’ money, is reentering the industry with a plan to back managers and traders seeking a new career in money management.

Diggle’s Singapore-based Vulpes Investment Management opened the multistrategy Kit Trading Fund, led by former Merrill Lynch & Co. trader Michael Downer, on Dec. 1, according to an e-mailed statement. It plans to have as many as 12 managers trading for Kit over the next six to 12 months, using investments by Vulpes and the money the managers themselves can bring in, Diggle said in a telephone interview from Singapore on Tuesday.

Citigroup Trader Fired Over Currency Probe Sues in Singapore

Citigroup Trader Fired Over Currency Probe Sues in Singapore

Article from Bloomberg that caught my attention, the trader in question was fired for rigging dollar/yen rates.

Quote from the article, "...The trader, who was last paid S$18,900 ($13,500) a month...".

Based on Salary.Sg website, the annual income before bonuses, will put her at the top 93.6% of all resident taxpayers in Singapore.

The issue with SGX growth and Singapore economy

The previous post on the new chief of SGX outline the growth strategy of SGX sets me thinking on the same issue.

SGX is facing a lot of difficulties attracting quality companies to list. Major exchanges around the world provides a far more attractive proposition due to capital flow, economic and geographic location. To be frank, SGX have been grappling with this issue for very long time and they have yet to find a good solution or niche.

The lack of quality listing on a domestic exchange is tied to the strength and depth of the local economy. For Singapore, the local SMEs and industries are rather weak. Local companies gets the most recognition in the home market and will tend consider listing the local stock exchange first before considering other bourses. A mis-step by the government policies is while they did a good job in attracting foreign MNCs to set up their base in Singapore. The policies failed in encouraging growth and support for the local industries and companies to grow into larger, regional or global companies.

I would argue that SGX faces a structural challenge. I would make a distinction between government linked companies operating as public listed commercial entities. I do not consider them as success stories in terms of government policies and strategies in growing local companies and industries. If government linked companies are discounted from the listed companies on SGX, the list of locally born and bred companies which made it to listing on SGX would be a rather embarrassing report card.

All business factors have to be seriously examined, manpower, salary, infrastructure, rental costs, transportation options,etc. All of them have an effect, especially magnified for smaller companies with much less spare resources than foreign MNCs. Unless there are major changes to business factors, the continued challenges for SGX will never have a satisfactory solution.

New SGX chief to build bourse into multi-asset platform

New SGX chief to build bourse into multi-asset platform

There won't be a major change of course at the Singapore Exchange (SGX) under its new boss but there will be a sharper focus on the initiatives it launches to keep the business growing.

Chief executive Loh Boon Chye, who took the helm in July, believes his financial industry experience can help drive the bourse forward.

Updated Prop Trading

Updated Prop Trading (Added Ingensoma Trading Group, courtesy of a contributor). Removed various spam comments.

Updated Brokers & Services

Revised and expanded Brokers section to Brokers & Services. Cleaned up layout and links. Removed GFT. Renamed AM Fraser to KGI Fraser. Renamed Ong First Tradition to KGI Ong Capital. Renamed DMG Securities to RHB Securities. Renamed Thinkorswim to TDAmeritrade. Added Services section.

Asia Hedge Fund Startups Slow as Gyrations Curb Appetite

Asia Hedge Fund Startups Slow as Gyrations Curb Appetite

Hedge fund launches in Asia are on track to decline for the third straight year as equity-market volatility prompted investors in the region to pare risk.

Forty-one new hedge funds opened in Asia in the first half of 2015, compared with 55 for the same period in 2014, according to Singapore-based data provider Eurekahedge Pte. Last year, the number of new hedge funds dropped to 117, from 149 launches in 2013 and 180 in 2012, Eurekahedge data show.

MAS panel discusses growth strategies for financial sector

MAS panel discusses growth strategies for financial sector

The panel notes Singapore’s financial centre has made strong gains in asset and wealth management, reinsurance and specialty insurance, and FX and derivatives. But it adds there are several areas in which the industry can do better.

Link to MAS press release is here

Industry Panel Discusses Strategies to Grow Financial Centre

Locally managed assets surge 30% to $2.4 trillion

Locally managed assets surge 30% to $2.4 trillion

Singapore's asset management industry turned in strong figures last year, driven by interest in the Republic as a pan-Asian asset management hub and Asia's growth.

Total assets managed by locally based managers surged by 30 per cent to $2.4 trillion last year, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in its annual industry survey report. This was considerably faster than the 11.8 per cent growth in assets under management (AUM) in 2013.

Updated Prop Trading

Updated Prop Trading (Removed Kuranda, added Hyundai Able Investments).

HFT Powerhouse Amsterdam Glimpsed Through Speed-Trader IPO

HFT Powerhouse Amsterdam Glimpsed Through Speed-Trader IPO

Flow Traders BV’s initial public offering will give the world another glimpse into the workings of a high-frequency trading firm. It also shines a light on Amsterdam, a powerhouse in the world of electronic trading.

Hedge Funds Win Through Stock Connect

Hedge Funds Win Through Stock Connect

A clutch of Asian hedge funds that seized on a new trading link between Hong Kong and Shanghai are posting outsize returns at a time when other investors remain wary of placing big bets on Chinese companies.

Analysts needed now at Singapore funds

Analysts needed now at Singapore funds

The hedge fund sector may be a relatively small player within Singaporean financial services, but it still has its unique set of employment challenges. While earlier this decade hedge funds in Singapore were adding traders, now they need more research analysts.

T Rowe Price, others peer into Virtu's high-frequency world

T Rowe Price, others peer into Virtu's high-frequency world

A group of T. Rowe's traders paid a visit in September to Virtu Financial, a firm known for its technological prowess.

The visit was described by two sources, one from T. Rowe and one from Virtu. Other firms have also made the pilgrimage to the company as investors try to get a handle on what makes the market-making firm tick, a source at Virtu said.

How Top-Performing Hedge Funds Found Gems and Gamed 'Stupid' Wall Street

How Top-Performing Hedge Funds Found Gems and Gamed 'Stupid' Wall Street

Brett Jefferson told his 5-year-old son this about Wall Street recently: “Never will you find a place Six years after the 2008 debt crisis exposed how clueless the smart people on Wall Street can be, both men are profiting from what could be called the schadenfreude trade -- buying for pennies what big investment banks once flogged for dollars. Their bottom-fishing lifted them into the top five of Bloomberg Markets’ annual ranking of the best-performing hedge funds managing $1 billion or more.

Asian Hedge Fund Bosses Strike Out on Their Own

Asian Hedge Fund Bosses Strike Out on Their Own

A number of global fund executives struck out on their own in Asia this year, bolstering the profile of the region’s industry and landing them first in line with investors eager to get in with big-name managers.