​Weekly Bulletin: Feb 23-27

This week saw the release of our first special outlook report, which details the latest flow trends and strategies in equity and vol globally. In the U.S., we look at areas such as flow on sectors, XLF positioning, variance flow in single stocks, variance swap replication and exotic hedging strategies. In Europe, we discuss topics including the progress of Japanification, DAX upside, SX5E protection and dividend arbitrage. For Asia, we focus on Japan once again coming into the spotlight for upside flows, as well as looking at developments around Korea and China. In our regular coverage this week, we take another look at oil related flow. It seems the USD50 price of crude is prompting some calendar calls, while some investors have translated the lower prices into a win for the fast food industry. We also talk to Canadian a pension looking to increase their equity neutral expertise, while we also talk to a pension and endowment advisor who says a mass exodus from hedge fund allocations is highly unlikely. In Europe, volatility and arbitrage funds have made an encouraging start to 2015 as most continue to post positive returns following a spike in performance during Q4 of last year, while London-based StoneHedge Partners has hired Theodoros Pitsillides, an ex-structured products salesman at Armajaro Securities. We also have some updated buyside commentary from SigmaSquare and 36 South. Don’t miss that!