This year is no different. Ash Williams, executive director and chief investment officer of the $150 billion Florida State Board of Administration, one of the US's leading public investment institutions, will keynote at the event, giving insight on the investment needs of the US public fund market. Giving the European perspective to hedge fund investing, particularly to CTAs, is Martin Källström of Sweden's AP1.
Williams and Källström will be joined by Dame Amelia Fawcett, chairman of the Hedge Fund Standards Board and chairman of the Guardian Media Group, who will share with the audience how hedge fund standards will help investors find further comfort with hedge funds.
The two-day London conference will open with a global macro panel that will include renowned investors such as George Papamarkakis of North Asset Management revealing the secrets of making macro work in markets often ruled by politics more than economics.
For both hedge funds and funds of funds, 2012 could be the tipping point at which some investors walk away from the strategies following three years of unimpressive performance. A panel of investors, including Mike Weston of DMGT Pensions, will take a closer look at performance, benchmarking and timing, in a session called 'Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics: The truth about performance'.
Day Two will open with an investor-led panel discussing 'The art of hedge fund investing: Where do hedge funds fit in?'. What is different this year is that as sophisticated investors seek more customised solutions they are looking to partner with their advisors. And InvestHedge is doing the same, with dedicated investment workshops on pressing investor issues such as portfolio construction and due diligence run by asset management partners such as Aberdeen Asset Management and Aurora Investment Management.
If the art of hedge fund investing is as much about getting the strategy right as picking the right manager, the two-day event will have a number of strategy related sessions likely to cover tail risk, equities, emerging markets, Asia, M&A, regulation, marketing, transparency, risk management and commodities.
For fans of the UCITS world, Absolute UCITS will be hosting its annual conference: 'Alternative UCITS: 2020 & Beyond UCITS' concurrently on 3 October. Click here for further details.
There will be plenty of networking opportunities during the two day conference, including a drinks reception after the conference on 2 October in the Enlightenment Gallery, the oldest gallery in the Museum. During the drinks reception, delegates are invited to a private viewpoint of the new summer exhibition of 'Shakespeare: Staging the world' in the Reading Room.