Alternative asset manager BlueCrest Capital has teamed up with Merrill Lynch to launch a Ucits version of its trend-following Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) strategy. The new BlueTrend UCITS Fund will be available to institutional and retail investors in UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The BlueTrend CTA strategy is a systematic, diversified trend-following programme, which trades more than 150 markets globally 24 hours a day. The strategy has $7 billion under management and the new Ucits version of the fund will aim for annual returns of some 15-20% and a Sharpe ratio of more than one. Such CTA strategies aim to capture and ride market trends and assert to be an easy way to gain commodity exposure. Systematic trend-following strategies such as BlueCrest's often follow signals generated by algorithms, created by market research and technical analysis of historic price movements. Merrill Lynch is acting as the sponsor of the new fund and it will form part of its Luxembourg Sicav, Merrill Lynch Investment Solutions (MLIS). http://www.citywire.co.uk/professional/-/news/fund-news/content.aspx?ID=338869
What they actually do is buy the S&P-500 and charge fees that are 100-times greater than what Vanguard does.