A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that holds liquid assets and that makes use of complex trading and risk management techniques to improve investment performance and insulate returns from market risk. Among these portfolio techniques are short selling and the use of leverage and derivative instruments. In the United States, financial regulations require that hedge funds be marketed only to institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals.
A mutual fund is an 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 in Europe, and the open-ended investment company (OEIC) in the UK.
The term soft dollars refers to a Wall Street practice, especially in the asset management and securities industries, and means the benefits provided to an asset manager by a broker-dealer as a result of commissions generated from a financial transaction executed by the broker-dealer for client accounts or funds managed by the asset manager. In a soft dollar arrangement, the investment manager directs commissions generated by a client's or fund's transactions to a broker-dealer or other trading venue. Soft dollars, in contrast to hard dollars which have to be reported, are incorporated into brokerage fees and paid expenses, which may not be reported separately. Most investment managers follow the limitations detailed in Section 28(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. In particular, if soft dollar arrangements are entered into with respect to registered investment companies and pension plans, compliance with Section 28(e) is generally required. However, hedge funds, which are generally not registered, may not be subject to the limitations of Section 28(e) and, thus, in some cases, the fund's commissions may be used for the adviser's benefit. In situations where fund commissions are used outside of the Section 28(e) safe harbor, full and comprehensive disclosure must be provided to fund investors.
Morningstar, Inc. is an American financial services firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, founded by Joe Mansueto in 1984. It provides an array of investment research and investment management services.
MSCI Inc. is an American finance company headquartered in New York City. MSCI is a global provider of equity, fixed income, real estate indices, multi-asset portfolio analysis tools, ESG and climate products. It operates the MSCI World, MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) and MSCI Emerging Markets Indices among others.
Man Group plc is an active investment management business listed on the London Stock Exchange. It provides investment funds in liquid and private markets for institutional and private investors. It is the world's largest publicly traded hedge fund company, reporting $178.2 billion in funds under management as of June 2024. The firm is headquartered at Riverbank House in London and employs over 1,800 people in various locations. The company was a sponsor of the Man Booker Prize from 2002 to 2019.
Lipper Average also known as Lipper Index are a series of indices produced by Lipper, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters, that establish benchmarks to measure the performance of a portfolio, or of various mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. They allow an investor, a portfolio manager, or an institutional investor to compare the performance of their investment portfolio against other, similar investments. Historical trends, strengths and weaknesses can be evaluated.
FactSet Research Systems Inc., trading as FactSet, is an American financial data and software company headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States. The company provides integrated data and software. For fiscal year 2023, FactSet's total ASV and professional services revenues were $2.09 billion. FactSet's total market value is approximately $15 billion.
Socially responsible investing (SRI) is any investment strategy which seeks to consider financial return alongside ethical, social or environmental goals. The areas of concern recognized by SRI practitioners are often linked to environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics. Impact investing can be considered a subset of SRI that is generally more proactive and focused on the conscious creation of social or environmental impact through investment. Eco-investing is SRI with a focus on environmentalism.
Thomson Reuters Corporation is a Canadian multinational information conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and maintains its headquarters at 19 Duncan Street there.
London Stock Exchange Group plc, also known as LSEG, is a global provider of financial markets data and infrastructure. Headquartered in the City of London, England. It owns the London Stock Exchange, Refinitiv, LSEG Technology, FTSE Russell, and majority stakes in LCH and Tradeweb.
GFMS are research and consultancy company for the precious metal markets. Since 2011 they have been part of Thomson Reuters. As well as other commodities, they research gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and copper trading.
CDA Investment Technologies was a Maryland-based financial research firm founded by Robert A. Levy. It was a pioneer in early financial databases, but was best known for its mutual fund rankings, whose quarterly release would attract national attention in the 1980s and 1990s. After being bought by the Thomson Corporation in 1987, it was an independent subsidiary until 1998, when it was blended in with Technimetrics to become Thomson Financial Investor Relations.
Markov Processes International, Inc. (MPI) is a provider of investment technology, research and analytics. Its products are used by organizations across the financial services industry, esspecially institutional investors - asset managers, hedge funds, fund of funds - but also including private banks, investment advisors, private wealth professionals, and family offices. MPI's flagship software product is Stylus.
The Refinitiv Business Classification (TRBC) is an industry classification of global companies. It was developed by the Reuters Group under the name Reuters Business Sector Scheme (RBSS), was rebranded to Thomson Reuters Business Classification (TRBC) when the Thomson Corporation acquired the Reuters Group in 2008, forming Thomson Reuters, and was rebranded again, to The Refinitiv Business Classification (TRBC), in 2020. Since the creation of Refinitiv in October 2018, TRBC has been owned and operated by Refinitiv and is the basis for Refinitiv Indices.
Refinitiv Indices is a line of indices and index services from Refinitiv:
S-Network Global Indexes, Inc. was an American company that published and developed proprietary and custom stock market indexes. In 2022 it was acquired and merged with Alerian to form a new company VetttaFi. Founded in 1997, S-Network specialized in smart beta and thematic indexes that served as the basis for ETFs until its products we merged under VettaFi.
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 swaps. They are responsible for the trading within managed futures accounts. The definition of CTA may also apply to investment advisors for hedge funds and private funds including mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in certain cases. CTAs are generally regulated by the United States federal government through registration with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and membership of the National Futures Association (NFA).
LSEG Data & Analytics, formerly Refinitiv, is an American-British global provider of financial market data and infrastructure.
Donnelley Financial Solutions (DFIN) is a financial compliance company based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The company provides software as a service (SaaS) products, software-enabled services (SeS), print, and compliance services related to US Securities and Exchange Commission regulations to companies in capital and investment markets.
