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Pre-conference workshop: Tuesday, October 14, 2008
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| Operational Risk for hedge funds: what do investors look for in conducting operational risk due diligence? |
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8am | Registration
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9am | Workshop welcome and introduction
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9.15am | Putting operational risk into context
- Defining the key elements of operational risk
- Why managing operational risk is important?
- What happens when it goes wrong?
- Core elements of good operations
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10.30am | Morning coffee break
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11am | Importance of processes, controls and risk management
- Using technology effectively
- Structuring operating platforms
- Outsourcing: good or bad?
- Role of support functions – compliance, human resources and finance
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12.30pm | Lunch break
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1.30pm | Identifying operational risk problems and resolving them
- Identifying and comparing your operations against market or best practices
- What is a reasonable comparator or benchmark?
- Where do investors focus?
- Role of the regulator and industry associations
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Conference day one:Wednesday, October 15, 2008
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8am | Registration
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9am | Chairman’s opening remarks
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| CANADIAN MARKET DEVELOPMENTS |
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9.15am | Investor panel session: Canada’s place in the global hedge fund industry
- How mature is the Canadian marketplace?
- Inefficiencies caused by fewer traders and analysts
- Investments in Canada’s natural resources: the next wave
- Where do opportunities exist for growth?
- Innovation in the smaller Canadian environment
- Opportunities for emerging managers
- Due diligence and liquidity in hedge fund investing
- Canadian energy trusts: a re-birth or on the wane? Are there better ways to invest in energy infrastructure
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| INVESTOR NEEDS AND ALLOCATIONS: LOOKING FOR VALUE IN HEDGE FUND ALLOCATIONS |
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10am | Keynote address: governance involved in moving from funds of funds to an internal portfolio of single strategy funds
- Benchmarks: how to measure manager efficacy
- What type of investment structure is appropriate for your board?
- Making the initial commitment to funds of funds
- When to move to multi-strategy, single manager, or single strategy approaches
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10.30am | Morning coffee break and networking
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11am | Panel session: international institutional hedge fund investors and their process
- Long process for integrating hedge funds
- Transparency requirements in dealing with public pension funds
- Developing relationships with consultants
- Institutional concerns about net of fees in long term
- Due diligence in assessing hedge fund opportunities
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| | Neil Paragiri, Managing Director, Head -North America, Harcourt Alternative Investments US
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| INVESTING ACROSS BORDERS AND JURISDICTIONS: REGULATION AND COMPLIANCE |
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11.45am | Panel session: legal and compliance issues of concern to raising funds from the US and overseas
- Marketing to institutional investors in the US and overseas
- Working with a third party marketer
- Investors moving from fund of funds to direct investment
- What are the benefits of accessing foreign capital?
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12pm | Networking lunch
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1.30pm | Panel session: regulatory changes and recommendations on the horizon in Canada
- Gaps in the provincial/federal approach to hedge fund regulation
- Updates in best execution regulation
- Maximizing value within alternative trading systems
- Trade through in multiple marketplaces
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| | Jim Twiss, Vice President, Market Regulation Policy, Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada
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| OPERATIONAL INNOVATIONS |
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2.15pm | Panel session: fund administration and operations
- Creating and setting up funds to access markets worldwide
- Growing importance of the role of the administrator
- Keys to strengthening operational controls within a hedge fund
- Published industry “sound practices” – are they adequate?
- Is increased regulation the key?
- How to identify funds that could have problems down the road
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2.45pm | Speed networking
The revolutionary, exciting, quick and non-pressurized way to meet fellow conference delegates and industry peers in a 45 minute session. These brief meetings are the starting point for conversation and networking throughout the conference. This is where long-lasting and fruitful relationships begin.
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3pm | Afternoon coffee break and networking
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| QUANTITATIVE TRADING DEVELOPMENTS AND RISK MANAGEMENT |
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3.30pm | Panel session: direct market access and alternative trading systems
- Direct market access in the Canadian space
- Alternative trading systems and best execution
- Crossing networks and dark pool investing
- Assessing how a quant model will work during a financial crisis or extraordinary event.
- Quant investing in unstable markets
TBA, Vice President Quantitative Trading, ITG Canada
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| TACTICAL TRADING STRATEGIES |
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4.15pm | Keynote address: distressed opportunities created by the US economic slowdown
- Distressed credit funds
- Buyout opportunities
- Debt related opportunities – defaults, buyouts, and restructuring.
- Distressed opportunities in auto parts, forestry, and paper
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4.45pm | Panel session: profiting from and managing volatility exposures
- Using options to enhance returns and mitigate volatility
- Countertrend foreign exchange
- Directional play, counter trends, systematic, algorithmic trading
- Using commodities to compliment an active long/short equity strategy
- Profiting from volatility in oil and gas metal and minerals
- How will a big turn in the commodities market affect Canada?
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| | Jason Marks, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner, GMP Investment Management L.P. John Lee, Founder and Principal, Mau Capital Management LLC.
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5.30pm | End of day one
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Conference day two: Thursday, October 16, 2008
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| ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO ACCESSING HEDGE FUND RETURNS |
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8am | Registration
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9am | Chairman’s opening remarks
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| STRATEGIES FOR ALL MARKET CONDITIONS |
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9.10am | Panel session: strategies that are delivering returns
- Liquidity and long/short strategies
- Volatility plays in currency and commodities
- New quantitative strategies
- Niche strategies: environmental play
- Liquidity and alternative trading systems
- Global macro
- Risk arbitrage and CTAs
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| | Frank Maeba, Vice President, Head of Trading, DGAM Diversified Global Asset Management. Jason Russell, Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, Global Macro, Salida Capital
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9.55am | Panel session: successful long/short strategies in the Canadian marketplace
- Opportunistic long short
- Special situations trading
- Small and midcap equity investments
- Relative value/paired trades
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| | Arun Kaul, CIO, Hillsdale Investment Management Allan Brown, Chief Executive Officer, Burlington Capital
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10.40am | Morning coffee break and networking
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| HEDGE FUNDS INVESTING IN REAL ASSETS |
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11.15am | Panel session: convergence strategies for accessing private equity
- Profiting from long term investments
- Optimal level of diversification/geography mix in a private equity portfolio
- Is now a good time to adjust the composition of your private equity portfolio?
- To which extent has the leveraged buy out model been affected by the credit crunch?
- Are lockups a barrier to courting investors?
- Risks and potential conflicts from crossover funds
- Do hedge funds offer an advantage over traditional private equity funds?
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12pm | Case study: profiting from natural resources
- Canadian precious and industrial metal investments
- Have metal prices peaked?
- New opportunities on the horizon
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| | John Lee, Founder and Principal, Mau Capital Management LLC.
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12.30pm | Networking lunch
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2pm | Roundtable discussions
Roundtable 1 Accessing international hedge fund investors
Roundtable 2 Convergence strategies for accessing emerging markets
Roundtable 3 Issues regarding direct market access
Roundtable 4 What strategies work best on the Canadian market?
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| | Neil Paragiri, Managing Director, Head -North America, Harcourt Alternative Investments US Arun Kaul, CIO, Hillsdale Investment Management Jason Marks, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner, GMP Investment Management L.P.
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3pm | Keynote address: how do synthetic hedge funds and index replication serve investor needs
- Academics are driving this new route while investors are still reluctant
- How do new products differ?
- Lessons to learn from alternative beta research
- Application via the concept of core-satellite
- What’s in store for the future?
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3.30pm | Afternoon coffee break and networking
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4pm | Case study: benchmark hedging for pension funds
- Mitigating benchmark risk through diversification
- Creating a hedge fund within a pension fund
- Improving the risk/reward tradeoff by means of lower correlation
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Lett, Managing Director, Alpha Beta Strategies, Integra Capital Management
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4.30pm | Panel session: moving beyond long only investments with 130/30 strategies
- Mechanical breakdown of 130/30 strategies
- Choosing the right management structure
- Quantitative versus fundamental 130/30 strategies
- Additional 130/30 approaches
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| | Arun Kaul, CIO, Hillsdale Investment Management Jim Allan, Chief Investment Officer, Roundtable Partners
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5.15pm | End of conference
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