Finance Monthly Global Awards 2016 Edition

62 www.finance-monthly.com Finance Monthly Global Awards 2016 UNITED KINGDOM TOP 5 MULTI-ASSET FUNDS - What were some of your major achievements in the past twelve months? As well as our flagship fund being up over 24% YTD, we have been recognised with a large number of reputable awards throughout the year: • Top 10 women in investments  (2016), City A.M. • Power 100 Women (2016), City A.M. • Best Global Multi Asset Fund Manager 2016,​I-Invest • Best Diversified Macro Fund (2016), Wealth & Finance Intl • Most Influential Woman in Multi Asset Management 2016, Wealth & Finance Intl • Game-Changer of the Year (2015, 2016), ACQ Awards • Macro Fund Manager of the Year (2015, 2016), ACQ Awards • Multi Asset Fund of the Year (2015, 2016), ACQ Awards • Most Innovative Hedge Fund Manager (2016), AI Magazine The role of CEO is well positioned to drive cultural change within a company. What goals did you arrive with as a CEO of Armstrong Investment Managers? The continued success of our funds will derive from our investment in human capital. Whether that means recruiting and consulting experts in their respective fields, considering the latest peer-reviewed research to identify strategic opportunities, or passing the output of quantitative models under the lens of our discretionary views, no method, algorithm or machine can replace the broadness, adaptability and ingenuity of the human intellect that created them all in the first place. Please describe your investment philosophy. Our investment process is built on a set of key beliefs: ● The pursuit of excellence requires significant investment in human capital. ● The interaction of model driven trade and discretionary beliefs is the key to long run out-performance. ● Peer reviewed research and development are required to identify strategic opportunities. ● Our research mandate focuses on:  (i) Generating superior alpha by identifying asset pricing anomalies; (ii) Generating superior returns by harvesting risk premia within ex ante volatility bounds.  ● Our investment mantra allocates between contrarian and trend following strategies, value/growth and carry investing, within and across asset classes. ● Inflation is the ultimate destroyer of long run purchasing power. Real diversification is a key component of our investment beliefs.  How do you see the industry developing and do you feel you are well-placed to operate through these changes? Thegrowthinthemarketdataindustryhasbeenexponentialandquantitative algorithms have therefore been similarly gaining in popularity over the last decade. To participate and compete in this arena requires a complex set of quantitative skills and understanding of different econometrics models, in order to efficiently analyse the wealth of information at hand. Dr. Ana Cukic Armstrong, PhD, is an investment professional with over 20 years of financial institutional experience. She leads the award-winning team that strives to combine the experience and reliability of an institution, with the client-focus of a boutique firm and the team provides inflation- beating solutions to institutional, retail, and family office investors. The interaction of quantitative systematic investment strategies with the common-sense approach of discretionary management is a defining characteristic of the way we manage money. While purely discretionary managers are struggling to find sources of return without a trend in markets, and model-driven trading that doesn’t make sense in the current environment has incurred sharp drawdowns, we have been able to bring both approaches to bear to provide solutions to existing problems. Whether inmaking correct calls on the pound around Brexit, benefitting from foreign currencies correlated with the oil price recovery, stopping our long-short momentum trading, or exploiting mean reversion on equity index spreads, this interplay has been essential to our success. What sort of quantitative research have you employed? Our Global Macro fund relies on a variety of quantitative techniques. Among the strategies we have developed and utilised are ‘Cross Sectional Momentum’ and ‘Beta Arbitrage’. Cross Sectional Momentum is looking to identify instruments that have been outperforming in a broad universe of different assets: equities, bonds, currencies, commodities and add exposure to those stocks. Similarly, it is looking to identify which stock to sell to remove the market risk. Each “buy” is offset by “sell”. This strategy aims at positive returns regardless of the market movements. Beta Arbitrage is looking to identify mispricing between risk and return. Investors would like to be compensated for the risk they are taking with a higher return. This is not always the case. For example, last year, adding an exposure of low risk stocks and selling the stock of higher risk would have generated higher return than vice versa.