- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

Related

CTAs Snub Bitcoin Futures

Latest Report

- Advertisement -

Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is listing a bitcoin futures contract on December 18, after having received approval from the regulatory body CFTC, according to a press release. The new contract will be listed on and subject to the rules of CME.

The contract will be available for trading on the CME Globex electronic trading platform, and for submission for clearing via CME ClearPort.

In a comment Terry Duffy, Chairman and CEO of the CME said on Friday:

“We are pleased to bring Bitcoin futures to market after working closely with the CFTC and market participants to design a regulated offering that will provide investors with transparency, price discovery, and risk transfer capabilities.”

However, the optimism is seemingly not shared by CTAs, i.e. hedge funds seeking to extract trends through trading on the world’s futures markets, that HedgeNordic talked to during a roundtable session in Helsinki on November 28.

None are ready to start trading the contract at this point.

“At the moment there are so many other liquid markets that we are expanding into and looking at, that are more established. We wouldn´t need to take on the risk of a new market until we completely understand it fully. Bitcoin is not something we are entertaining currently, says Razvan Remsing at London-based Aspect Capital.

Filip Borgeström of Stockholm-based CTA Lynx reasons along the same lines, when describing what they look for when considering adding markets.

“Liquidity is one issue; the underlying stability of the market is one; and then the third, which we often look at is what kind of profile you get from applying a trend system on a new market. When trading for example equities or bonds, we are fairly confident that our return profile will resemble something that our clients are comfortable with. But if you apply trend signals on Bitcoin or the VIX future, the output will be different than trading more established markets. So then, it’s a question of how will this new market fit into our portfolio and our overall investment objectives. I’m not sure Bitcoin will qualify from that perspective either.”

Martin Estlander, founder of Finnish CTA Estlander & Partners, is also sceptical but leaves the door open for including the bitcoin contract in the future.

“From our perspective, we have a very clear set of rules as to when to take on a new instrument. And I doubt that Bitcoin will qualify for client portfolios from the start. But I accept that we’ll be open-minded and will always wait for the regulators and all reviews. We would definitely take a very close look and make our own judgment as to whether we will take it on for experimental purposes at some level. We’ll definitely be open-minded.”

 

Image © Elnur – shutterstock.com

Subscribe to HedgeBrev, HedgeNordic’s weekly newsletter, and never miss the latest news!

Our newsletter is sent once a week, every Friday.

Jonathan Furelid
Jonathan Furelid
Jonathan Furelid is editor and hedge fund analyst at HedgeNordic. Having a background allocating institutional portfolios of systematic strategies at CTA-specialist RPM Risk & Portfolio Management, Mr. Furelid’s focus areas include sytematic macro and CTAs. Jonathan can be reached at: jonathan@hedgenordic.com

Latest Articles

Finserve Global Security Fund Boosts Quant Edge with Martin Redgård

Under lead portfolio manager Joakim Agerback, the Finserve Global Security Fund has successfully capitalized on the global surge in defense, cybersecurity, and space investments...

Visio Allocator Storms Back After Difficult March

After posting the worst monthly performance in its 15-year history with a 13.7 percent decline in March, the team behind the multi-strategy Visio Allocator...

Sissener Expands Investment and Sales Teams with Senior Hires

Just months after bringing on Mads Andreassen as Investment Manager, Norwegian fund boutique Sissener AS continues to expand its team with two key additions....

Fenja Capital Deepens Bench as Analyst Moves to Full-Time Role

After earning his Master’s degree in Economics from Aalborg University, Anders Madsen has transitioned from a part-time role to a full-time analyst position at...

Accendo-Backed SSH Secures Major Investment from Leonardo

While public and policy discussions around defence often focus on conventional weapons, many of today’s most active and frequent battles are unfolding in cyberspace....

Swedbank Robur Strengthens Private Equity Team

Swedbank Robur has appointed Lorenzo Gregory Sormani as co-portfolio manager of its private equity fund, Swedbank Robur Alternative Equity I, joining Senior Portfolio Manager...

Allocator Interviews

In-Depth: High Yield

Voices

Request for Proposal

- Advertisement -
HedgeNordic
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.