AlphaSimplex Group (AlphaSimplex) is an American

investment management Investment management is the professional asset management of various securities, including shareholdings, bonds, and other assets, such as real estate, to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of investors. Investors may be institut ...

firm based in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. The firm relies on quantitative analysis for its approach to investing. On October 20, 2022, it was announced that Natixis Investment Managers would sell AlphaSimplex to Virtus Investment Partners. The deal is expected to be completed by March 2023.

Background

AlphaSimplex was founded in 1999 by

Andrew Lo Andrew Wen-Chuan Lo () (born 1960) is the Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Lo is the author of many academic articles in finance and financial economics. He founded AlphaSimplex Group in ...

. Lo is a professor of Finance at

MIT Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (MIT Sloan or Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs, ...

. He was Chairman and Chief Investment Strategist of the firm until 2018 when he transitioned to his current role as Chairman emeritus and Senior advisor. In 2007,

Natixis Investment Managers Natixis Investment Managers is an American French-based global asset management company that claims USD $1389.7 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2020. The company has headquarters in Paris and Boston and it is the second bigg ...

acquired AlphaSimplex. In the same year, AlphaSimplex and

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...

launched the first 130–30 fund index. The firm's most notable funds are its Managed Futures Strategy Fund launched in 2010 and its Global Alternatives Fund launched in 2008. Its Managed Futures Strategy Fund uses a quantitative approach to

trend following Trend following or trend trading is a trading strategy according to which one should buy an asset when its price trend goes up, and sell when its trend goes down, expecting price movements to continue. There are a number of different techniques, ...

. Its Global Alternatives Fund is a

mutual fund A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV i ...

that provides the strategies and properties of

hedge funds A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as shor ...

to average investors who otherwise would not be able to invest in hedge funds due their strict investor requirements. The firm also had a Liquid alternative fund called Diversifying Strategies Fund that was launched in 2009 but closed in 2013 due to poor returns. The firm is registered with the

Commodity Futures Trading Commission The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an independent agency of the US government created in 1974 that regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, which includes futures, swaps, and certain kinds of options. The Commodity Exchange Ac ...

as a commodity pool operator (CPO) and

commodity trading advisor A commodity trading advisor (CTA) is US financial regulatory term for an individual or organization who is retained by a fund or individual client to provide advice and services related to trading in futures contracts, commodity options and/or ...

(CTA). Since 2010, flat fee trend following has been its flagship CTA strategy.

References

External links

* {{authority control 1989 establishments in Massachusetts Companies based in Boston Financial services companies established in 1999 Investment companies of the United States Announced mergers and acquisitions