The coronavirus crisis has made investors around the globe scrambling to figure out how to re-distribute their portfolios to minimize losses and diversify their investments. Traditionally, this type of high volatility environment is good for the hedge funds as they are better positioned to take advantage of disruptions in the markets. Recent market statistics shows that when the coronavirus pandemics halted the global economy in March 2020, hedge funds outperformed the market Although performance greatly difference depending on the type fund, managed futures funds showing the best results.
To the casual observer, it may appear that all stock indices have been around for the best part of a century. After all, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 is arguably the most recognizable date and event in stock market history, fueling the perception that share prices have been rising and falling for several decades. However, some of the most important indices in 2020 are relative newcomers to the world of finance, including the ASX 200. On 31 March 2020, the ASX 200 celebrated its 20th birthday, with the index comprised of stocks from 200 major companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
CoinShares announced the first gold and cryptoasset index on Bloomberg and Refinitiv. The digital asset manager launched CoinShares Gold and Cryptoassets Index (CGCI) on Bloomberg Terminals and Refinitiv. The first EU Benchmark Regulations (EU BMR) compliant index for digital assets and gold aims to provide exposure for cryptoassets, improve average returns and cut down volatility. The CGCI index has moderate operating costs and provides risk-managed exposure to cryptoassets. The index’ construction leverages the high volatility of cryptoassets, the low volatility of gold, and the lack of correlation between the two.
South Korea’s fintech sandbox received $110 million (KRW 136.4 billion) investment and created 380 jobs. The sandbox has been in effect since April last year and was created by the South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) with initial investment of .5 million (KRW 4 billion). The sandbox allows fintech testing of their proof of concept without regulation and licensing for four years.
RoboForex improved its cryptocurrency pairs with the addition of ETH/BTC and LTC/BTC. The international financial broker has also significantly improved trading conditions for clients using Pro-Standard and ECN accounts. Until now RoboForex clients trading through MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms could only use cryptocurrency pairs with fiat currencies like BTC/USD, ETH/USD, XRP/USD, LTC/USD, BCH/USD, EOS/USD, BTC/EUR and ETH/EUR. The list has been extended to include two assets that consist only of cryptocurrency, already available on the MT4 and MT5 terminals – ETH/BTC and LTC/BTC.
The gold price rebounded after the ECB issued a new stimulus proposal. We are seeing an interesting challenge between the risk on scenario, which is dominating the markets and it is overall negative for bullion, and the hyper expansive monetary policies from central banks, which are supportive for the bullion price.
Stock markets around the world soared on Wednesday and US stock futures were trading higher on Thursday, driven by continued optimism around economies in many regions of the world reopening. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 25,000 point mark after gaining 2.2%, back to where it was in early March, driven by financial and industrial names.
Tensions between the US and China have reared their head again, too. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US no longer considers Hong Kong to be autonomous from China, threatening its special trading status. This could impact its role as a global financial hub.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) blocked the website of an unregulated trading platform, Arotrade. At least 40 Singapore residents filed complaints regarding Arotrade to the police. The online trading platform is allegedly registered in Belize and offers trading in CFDs for different asset classes such as stocks, foreign exchange, commodities, cryptocurrency and indices under the website “https://www.arotrade.com”. The investors transferred over S$330,000 to trade through Arotrade but subsequently unathorised trades appeared in their accounts and they experienced difficulties withdrawing their money.
