• What is driving the investor desire for transparency and liquidity?
• Are hedge fund investments just for portfolio diversification?
• How is the hedge fund industry responding to investors’ need for innovation and is it doing enough?
   

• What are the differences between hedge funds & managed accounts?
• What are the benefits of managed accounts?
• Different levels of transparency and what they imply for investor
• Do managed accounts imply a compromise in manager quality?
• Are managed accounts more expensive?

• What characterizes the Spanish investor and why managed accounts?
• Creating long-term customised solutions
• The benefits of independent risk management  
• Easy access to hedge funds; investors less familiar with hedge funds gain exposure without the need to select individual managers
   

• When do structured products make sense? Who for?
• How are leading investors in Spain benefiting from the use of new products?
• The advantages of open product architecture
• Evaluating investor appetite for structured product solutions

• Measuring the performance of underlying assets
• Evaluating risk parameters and developing reliable benchmarks
• Are structured products fairly priced?
• Underlying fee structures

Comparative value of equity linked and fixed income products

• Why do cash enhanced products particularly suit the Spanish investor profile?
• Investment objectives of a cash enhanced fund
• An attractive alternative to money market funds; transparency, cheap to buy and own, solid relative performance

• How much does the investor have to adjust their risk tolerance in order to enjoy higher returns?
• Enhanced approaches to adding risk, limiting liquidity and increasing potential returns
• Implementing an effective cash strategy
   

• What do guaranteed products have to offer the Spanish investor?
• Quantifying the potential benefits and risks
• An example of a guaranteed product for a Spanish investor
   

• What global issues could cause a shift in investor attitudes?
• What lessons have policy makers in advanced and emerging market countries learned from US sub-prime turbulenceWhat can we learn from large institutional investors with a long track record in hedge fund investing?
• How can we define the asset class and what can we expect from it?
• What is the role of hedge funds in a multi-asset portfolio?
• What are the implications from the risk management perspective?

• Exploring the spectrum of attitudes to risk; how risk averse is the Iberian investment culture?
• European political attitudes towards hedge funds
• The Spanish financial industry in a European context; is there a visible convergence towards Europe?
• Differences in attitudes to risk between London & Madrid financial centers
• The shift in Spain from risk-taking revenue to commission-based philosophy

• What improvements need to be implemented in order to further bolster the market?
• Investing in single manager funds based in non OECD countries?
• What have changes in legislations meant for local pension funds?

• Determining the driving forces behind the Spanish hedge fund market
• Industry pioneers feedback of the newly established Spanish hedge fund market – present & future
• Funds of hedge funds heavy market; what are the prospects of further single hedge fund launches in Spain?
• A visible convergence towards Europe – how is Spain matching up to leading hedge fund markets?

• Performance figures for the last year
• Key trends in the market over the last year
• Is it a happy birthday for Spanish hedge funds?
• How many single funds and fund of funds have been launched?
• Who is currently actively investing?

• The importance of a thorough selection process
• The importance of an appropriate pay-off
• Bringing together the underlying and the pay-off: meeting the client’s needs and constraints

• Absolute returns?
• Diversification?
• Exposure to different asset classes? 
• Would investors be surprised at the level of beta in their multi-strategy hedge funds?

• Do ETSs offer cheaper, more diversified solutions?
• Hedge fund replication – do index products clash with traditional fund of funds?
• Generating additional alpha through 130/30 funds

• Alpha = manager skill?
• A tool or a replacement for the fund manager?
• Quantative vs qualitative; data, information & investment decisions

• Are hedge funds encroaching on private equity territory?
• Dealing with liquidity – how comfortable are investors with lock-ups?
• Can hedge exploit what private equity cannot offer?
• Protecting your assets – can hedge funds sell the lock-up idea?

• Issues encountered during the first year of experience
• Comparative analysis with other domestic markets
• Expected evolution for the forthcoming years

• History – the great returns of the 90s
• 2001 – 2002 debacle
• Healing process

• Hedge fund UCITS update
• The Latest innovation in hedge funds index ETFs – what are the
  possibilities?

• Have tighter credit conditions had an impact on how hedge fund strategies operate?
• Where are we in the next distressed debt cycle?
• Identifying investment opportunities in the distressd market

• What factors are driving convergence in investment management?
• What is its nature, scope and scale so far?
• What benefits have accrued to clients and their managers?
• Will the recent turmoil in the markets slow down its pace?
• What further actions will improve the benefits of convergence in future?

• Challenging the efficient markets hypothesis - When does rational response become irrational exuberance?
• Decision making behaviour under uncertainty – what are the real risks of investing in hedge funds?
• Behavioural finance; exploring the connection between psychological research and economic analysis
• Exploring prominent financial bubbles, crashes and other market inefficiencies
• Following a year of active hedge fund investing, how does Spain fit in to the global framework of rational and irrational attitudes to investing?

• What does the Spanish hedge fund market have to offer to retail investors compared to other European markets?
• What do retail investors need to know?
• The potential growth in retail distribution networks; will hedge funds eventually be considered as just another asset class?
• What is the level of understanding of those who are actually explaining hedge funds to retail investors?

• To what extent have private banks grasped the specific nature of hedge funds?
• Understanding fee structures in fund of hedge fund products
• How do family offices perceive hedge funds and what role do private banks have to play in the education process?
• How much more risk are individual investors prepared to take in order to achieve higher returns?

• How comfortable are Spanish institutional investors with single funds?
• Are institutional investors at the leading edge of hedge fund investing?
• What have the changes in legislation meant for local pension funds & insurance companies?
• Three all-important questions that an institutional investor should be asking about risk management & due diligence
• What regulatory changes need to be implemented to facilitate further investments
• How are insurance companies gearing up to incorporate hedge funds into their investment portfolio?
• Does insurance companies lack of experience equate to lack of understanding?

• Why take the extra risk of investing in single funds as opposed to fund of funds?
• Investor preference and tolerance to risk
• Home grown talent or international experience?

• Are managers who generate alpha skilled or lucky?
• Experience? Judgment? Views on risk?
• How do you differentiate between fund of hedge funds?
• Are Spanish fund of hedge funds challenged by global players?
• Generalist vs specialist 

An opportunity to hear presentations by local and international single fund and fund of hedge fund managers on their investment experience, strategies and styles.

• In which sectors are single hedge funds managers currently moving?
• How can we capitalize on the opportunities in other asset classes (real estate, commodities, infrastructure, carbon trading)
• Which asset classes should we steer clear of? (assets inflated by oil money)

• Flow of funds – have we seen significant patterns emerging over the last year?
• How are the big contenders performing? (Latin America, Asia, Middle East, Africa)
• How have emerging markets performed in the face of global instability?
• Who are the new contenders to watch out for?(Egypt, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey)

• BRIC or non-BRIC? Are less prominent emerging markets attracting investor attention? (Egypt, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey)
• Is investing in BRIC funds much more about timing than successful analysis? Avoiding the speculation frenzy
• How are investors using ETFs and indices as an alternative route to emerging markets?