SINCE the beginning of July professional investors in Slovakia have been able to invest in Polaris Alpha, a hedge fund created by the investment company Polaris Finance SICAV plc. Its exclusive distribution partner is Across Wealth Management, the latter informed The Slovak Spectator in a press release.
Polaris Alpha is the first open-ended hedge fund to be launched by Polaris Finance. Its goal is to generate an absolute return of 10 percent per annum regardless of movements in financial markets.
According to Július Strapek, the director of Polaris Finance and the managing partner of Across Wealth Management, the need to create the fund arose from the current situation in the market.
“Turbulence in financial markets over recent years negatively affected the portfolios of clients,” Strapek said, as quoted in the Across Wealth Management press release. “Thus solutions are increasingly sought that will protect capital and secure positive yields independently of the development of financial markets.”
The investment strategy of a hedge fund focuses, aside from traditional tools, on financial derivatives such as futures and options. It uses these to manage risk more effectively and the investment strategy is based especially on technical analysis, according to the firm.
“The fund focuses on two basic approaches to management of a portfolio,” Branislav Habán, director of Polaris Finance and portfolio manager, explained.
Within its growth component small volumes in the form of futures and options are systematically traded in a high frequency on the precondition that the trend of the market is recognised.
The stabilisation component focuses on maintaining the value of the portfolio via classical tools in the financial and bond market, stocks, stock indices and commodities.
An important part of this approach is diversification not only among various kinds of investment tools but also at the level of the decision-making process and independent decisions by the investment managers who are investing the allocated portion of the portfolio.
