Aspect Launches Lower Fee, Lower Volatility Vehicle

Aspect Capital, the US$6.4bn systematic investment manager, announced today that it has extended its range of products available to investors with the launch of a lower fee, lower volatility product which trades the Aspect Core Diversified Programme. The vehicle, which started trading on 13th September, has received approximately USD100m in seed capital from a European institutional investor. The investment vehicle is structured as an Irish Collective Asset Management Vehicle (ICAV) – also known as a Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund (QIAIF) – with Aspect leveraging its scalable existing technology and infrastructure to allow it to trade in a cost-effective way. It aims to deliver pure momentum-based returns using Aspect’s existing trend following technology and rigorous risk management framework, targeting an annualised volatility of 10%. The product’s annual management fee is 1% and no performance fee is charged.

It is designed to give investors access to an existing strategy, the Aspect Core Diversified Programme, which has been available in separately managed account format and, in the US, as a ‘40 Act mutual fund since 2014. The new vehicle provides daily liquidity and aims to identify and capture directional price trends across a diversified range of 80-90 highly liquid financial and commodity futures and forwards markets. The markets are spread over four asset classes: commodities, currencies, fixed income and stock indices.

Anthony Todd, CEO of Aspect, said: “This strategy benefits from the continuous research and development that has gone into the Aspect Diversified Programme over the past 20 years. It is able to take advantage of Aspect’s significant experience in developing and operating medium-term trend following models, which has always been our main focus. This extension of our investment offer reflects our commitment to provide investors with high quality systematic, quant-driven strategies globally via a range of appropriate fund structures and underpins Aspect’s prospects for future growth.”