Absolutehedge.com is an alternative UCITS database and research platform aimed at the professional allocator community. The site is maintained by the research team at Kepler Partners, if you would like to get in touch please email research@keplerpartners.com.

Criteria for fund inclusion

The overarching aim of the database is to provide professional allocators with a holistic and relevant universe of alternative UCITS funds. For a fund to be included in the database the two core criteria are that it is UCITS compliant and pursues an absolute return approach to investing. The final decision about universe inclusion is discretionary and rests with the research team. Importantly we are looking to maintain a relevant database of funds, rather than the largest possible number of funds so there is a discretionary ‘relevance’ filter.

Funds are further classified based on the main type of alternative strategy that they employ e.g. market neutral, equity long short, managed futures etc. The classification of funds is fully discretionary and is managed by the research team.

If you would like a fund to be considered for inclusion please email research@keplerpartners.com

Index Methodology

To support the analysis of the universe of funds Kepler Partners maintains an index series the ‘AH Index Series’. The AH Global Index is an equally weighted index of all alternative UCITS funds where we receive performance data. There are further strategy and sub-strategy indices which follow the same index methodology and are built around the strategy that a particular fund employs. Typically the main institutional share class is used in the funds base currency, and as such the index series will contain a range of currencies and can be considered ‘local’. If an institutional share class is not available then the research team will make a discretionary decision as to the most suitable and representative alternative.

Research

Around the core database of funds we also publish research on the alternative UCITS space. This focus of this research is on enabling allocators to better navigate and understand this universe of funds. As such our research falls into three main categories: Fund, Strategy, and Industry. Kepler Partners LLP maintains a number of contractual relationships with the managers and sub-investment managers of UCITS products which may pose a potential conflict of interest. We clearly disclose all of our relationships and take steps to insure the impartiality of our research. Notwithstanding this all of our research should be considered “non-independent” and readers should consider it as marketing.

MIFID II

Absolutehedge.com provides non-substantive material and analysis. Under MiFID II these constitute a minor non-monetary benefit and are provided free of charge.