Hedge Fund Awards 2015

Hedge Fund Awards 2015 www.acquisition-intl.com 36 Best for Short Term Derivatives & FX Spots Trading Opportunities – UK Sequoia Capital Fund Management LLP Sequoia Capital Fund Management LLP pursues a short-term systematic approach to trade a diversified portfolio of G10 currencies striving to achieve consistent, superior, risk-adjusted returns, says Douglas Garistina, CEO Sequoia Capital Fund Management LLP (SCFM) was established in 2011 as an alternative investment management company specialising in investing via quantitative strategies, which are the result of several years’ research and development in the algorithmic trading space. “At SCFM we aim to produce genuine, quantitative, absolute returns strategies which can be run systematically,” says Douglas Garistina, CEO. “Our focus is on shorter-term opportunities in liquid markets as this time-frame is where genuine Alpha opportunities exist and can be exploited. With this focus, we find we are able to deliver highly diversify- ing returns streams to our investors’ portfolios. By having a clear focus and a unique product offering, we stand-out from the crowd in what has become a highly competitive and mature industry. “We are extremely excited by the recent improvements we have seen in our market environment and the diverging economic paths of the G10 countries as this bodes well for opportunities that our models are designed to exploit.” SCFM’s team is its greatest strength, says Garistina. “Each person on our quant team contributes their unique background, knowledge and experience into a rigorous and collaborative R&D process. Additionally, our operations team and our developers have built an institutional-qual- ity infrastructure for servicing our clients and working seamlessly with our service providers. The strength of our teams gives us the strong foundation upon which our business will grow.” SCFM is a research-driven firm with a commitment to constant im- provement in all areas of its business, Garistina says. “We have a very strong and diverse team bringing many outside-of-industry ideas and techniques to our strategy development process. This leads to strategy profiles that cannot be found elsewhere and that offer genuine diversifi- cation. With our short-term strategy focus, we recognise that we will not be a part of every investor’s portfolio but will be an important component of a select group of investors. This enables us to work more closely with each of our investors to ensure an alignment of expectations between us and through offering flexibility in how our investors can access and utilise our strategies.” “We consistently receive a few pieces of positive feedback from our investors, which may have been instrumental in earning us this award; 1) they tell us how they appreciate the level of transparency that we maintain with them; 2) what we are offering is truly unique and; 3) our research efforts and the quality of our operations and infrastructure are very impressive for a firm of our size.” As 2014 comes to a close and we move into 2015, the generally difficult environment that the CTA and FX spaces have faced over the past several years has led to all managers in this space to be tarred with the same brush to a certain degree, says Garistina. “As well, we have seen some major FX funds shut down over the past year or so. This has created a challenging asset-raising environment. We have been very fortunate that our strong performance in 2012 and the first half of 2013 differentiated us from our peers, enabling us to on-board some blue-chip investors during this period. With our models recently getting back on form, we are optimistic that our offering will continue to attract high-quality investors wanting to diversify with a short-term systematic FX Alpha strategy.” The UK is an ideal place to operate a business such as SCFM, says Garistina. “London contains the global headquarters and operations for most of the large financial institutions that we work with and the network of industry expertise in London is second to none. Equally, the UK regulatory structure is both strong and clear without being overly burdensome, although pan-European regulations have recently added complexity and have the potential to dull the shine of London as the best place to operate in our industry. Garistina says the firm is grateful to be named ‘Best for Short Term Derivatives & FX Spots Trading Opportunities – UK’ in the Hedge Fund Awards. “Our entire team of quants, developers and ops have devot- ed enormous efforts over several years to creating high-performance models, systems and infrastructure so that we can deliver a first-class experience to our investors. Recognition such as this means so much to the team for all of their hard work. “Awards such as these offer an unparalleled opportunity for smaller emerging managers like us to gain recognition in the global arena for the unique and compelling strategies we are offering. Importantly, it also provides the broader investor community with an up-to-date shortlist of stand-out strategies and firms which warrant a closer look. As for the future, SCFM plans, in the near-term, to broaden its investor base beyond the hedge funds, pensions and family offices we currently work with to better utilise the capacity of our FX strategy, says Garistina. “We then look forward to working with our investors towards rolling out some exciting new strategies that have been in the pipeline for some time so that we can offer a broader selection of our unique brand of strategies.” n Company: Sequoia Capital Fund Management LLP Email: douglas.garistina@ sequoiacapfm.com Website: www.s equoiacapfm.com Address: Ground Floor Lincoln House, 137-143 Hammersmith Road, London W14 0QL UK Phone: +44 203 588 4770 Fact File Best for Short Term Derivatives & FX Spots Trading Opportunities – UK