Hedge Fund Awards 2016

Hedge Fund Awards 2016 85 ~ Best Currency & Macro Absolute Return Boutique - UK & Sustained Excellence in Currency Absolute Return Strategies The Macro Currency Group is a global macro and currency specialist, offering a range of absolute return products to the hedge fund, liquid alternatives and traditional currency overlay space. We speak to Mark Farrington about the company’s work and how they came to win these two highly prized titles. Here at The Macro Currency Group (MCG), we serve a wide range of clients, from public to private sector, pension funds and mutual funds, offering financial solutions which utilise our knowledge of our place within the market place and asset class spectrum. The funds that MCG manage are particularly aimed at generating surge returns at cycle turning points and delivering true alpha returns uncorrelated to traditional betas like equities, credit and commodities. As traditional global macro historically provided, MCG has delivered its strongest performance in years of crisis and poor beta asset class returns (1997, 2000, 2004, 2008 and again in 2015). Equally, MCG has delivered a continuously uncorrelated return profile to other hedge funds and currency managers. For our hedge fund products and absolute return mandates, we are typically funded out of the Alternatives’ sleeve of a multi-asset class product. Within a multi-manager product like a currency fund or fund of funds, MCG represents ‘the uncorrelated to trend and carry; fundamental discretionary manager’. As the diversifier in the fund, we are typically given the largest capital allocation of the managers. While the hedge fund industry is fast moving and many fund-style trends have changed, the MCG has posi- tioned itself firmly in the global macro space and waited for cycle changes to favour our style. Our return his- tory is incredibly consistent with very little style drift over 18 years. This has meant that our style is sometimes out of favour, particularly during trend overshoots, however, eventually the trends reverse and call in demand for fundamentally-driven global macro managers like MCG. As such the primary distinguishing characteristics of our investment style are adaptability and forward looking nature. We are constantly identifying forward looking investment themes which yield a return which is consist- ent, yet uncorrelated to the traditional FX styles such as trend, valuation and carry. Alongside this, MCG has always sought to build a team with complementary skills in order to offer our clients the best possible service. We cover over 30 countries and analyse relative asset class performance across a broad spectrum of risk assets, and as such this breadth of coverage requires skills and educational back- grounds that can provide both specialist insight and broad global macro understanding. Therefore we always recruit staff that has a strong specialist starting point and a particular career interest in developing a broader global macro skillset. Company: Macro Currency Group, investment boutique of Principal Global Investors Name: Mark Farrington, Head of Macro Currency Group Email: [email protected] Web Address: www.macrocurrencygroup.com Address: 103, Mount Street, W1K 2TJ, London Telephone: +44 (0)20 7710 0245