Macro Vol Boosts LeanVal AM’s All-Weather RV Strategy

Germany’s USD1 billion LeanVal Asset Management, previously Conservative Concept Portfolio Management, implements relative-value strategies whatever the weather in the volatility market. Steffen Kern, who is responsible for volatility trading at LeanVal, said during the first half of the year the firm’s USD700 million flagship strategy, Athena, was mostly flat because the market was upward drifting and not showing much realized volatility. But the macroeconomic challenges from geopolitics, interest rates and monetary policy, have boosted the strategy’s returns in the second half of the year, he said. Athena is up 3.9% year-to-date.