Boston Wants Low Beta Hedge Funds While HSBC List Tells Different Story

Low beta? JPMorgan’s Capital Introduction Group needs to learn how to plan its road trips better. In December they traversed up to Boston to speak with hedge fund allocators when they might have chosen to make December a Florida and Texas trip with golf on the agenda. What the bank executives discovered was that institutional investment managers in perhaps the most Yankee of all cities are not seeking to change their line-up of hedge fund managers. Assumed Red Sox fans indicated a slightly more cautious stance on credit and event driven exposure, while human-led discretionary decision process are the strategy gaining traction along with low-beta approaches. Take these thoughts and connect dots with JPMorgan’s survey of Japanese institutional investors, who think 2016 will be challenging and they want to gain exposure to volatility strategies and minimize unnecessary beta risk, and overlay it with the recent HSBC performance report, to get a wider picture of market forces

Boston wants low beta, but low beta to what?