Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Two multi-asset, multi-strategy funds part of Nordea’s Alpha Solutions were among the top-rated hedge funds of January 2021, according to asset allocators on fund rating platform SharingAlpha. Nordea’s Alpha 15 MA Fund and Alpha 10 MA Fund were also among the ten highest-ranked hedge funds of 2020, according to the platform that enables professional fund investors such as pension funds and funds of funds to rate investment vehicles on the SharingAlpha platform.
User-generated fund rating platform SharingAlpha, founded by the two brothers Oren and Yuval Kaplan out of their base just outside Tel Aviv, has become the world’s largest fund rating platform in terms of the number of fund selectors contributing to fund ratings. The TripAdvisor-style platform for funds features more than 13,000 fund selectors, rating over 12,000 funds.
Instead of focusing on past performance, fund selectors rate funds on three parameters expected to influence future performance: People – the experience and competitive edge of the fund management team; Price – the costs associated with the fund; and Portfolio – the way the strategy is managed in terms of risk management, ESG practices, among others. Each fund receives a single rating that reflects fund selectors’ combined expectations on the three P’s. Ratings range from 1 to 5, reflecting the professional fund selectors’ assessment of each fund’s ability to outperform a comparable exchange-traded fund (ETF). Ratings between 3 and 5 are assigned to the funds expected to generate positive alpha.
Nordea’s Alpha 15 MA Fund and Alpha 10 MA Fund, both managed by Nordea’s multi-asset investment team headed by Asbjørn Trolle Hansen (pictured), were assigned ratings of 4.71 and 4.54, respectively, for January. Nordea’s multi-asset funds were among the 25 hedge funds with ratings above 4.0. The two funds were also among the highest-ranked hedge funds of 2020, with assigned ratings of 4.61 and 4.53, respectively.
Nordea’s Alpha family – comprised of Alpha 7 MA Fund, Alpha 10 MA Fund, and Alpha 15 MA Fund – all share the same investment approach but exhibit different risk-return profiles. The three funds combine several low-correlated strategies to provide dynamic exposure to multiple asset classes, seeking to capture both traditional and non-traditional risk-premia return drivers. By combining a wide range of strategies, some of which perform well in risk-off environments while others perform better in risk-on environments, the Alpha fund family tends to exhibit low correlation to traditional asset classes.
The family’s flagship product, Alpha 10 MA Fund, returned 7.1 percent for 2020 after gaining 3.3 percent during the month of March. Alpha 15 MA Fund, the most aggressive member of the family, gained 11.6 percent last year, while Alpha 7 MA Fund returned 4.7 percent. Alpha 10 MA Fund had €3.7 billion in assets under management at the end of December, with the three-fund family managing a combined €6.8 billion in assets at the end of the year.