Lombard Odier celebrates LO Funds - 1798 Tactical Alpha´s first birthday
Lombard Odier celebrates this month LO Funds - 1798 Tactical Alpha fund´s first birthday, with current assets under management of EUR 260mn and cumulated performance of 3.1% (3.9% year to date). A tactical asset allocation fund designed to deliver consistent returns with low correlation to traditional asset classes, it is UCITS-III compliant and is aimed at institutional, high net worth investors and independent financial advisers, who appreciate daily liquidity, transparency and operational robustness. LO Funds - 1798 Tactical Alpha can take both directional positions (long or short) and relative value strategies in equities, bonds, currencies and commodities, focusing only on highly liquid instruments such as listed derivatives. The unique feature of the fund is that beyond asset class diversification, the investment process is built on time diversification. Indeed, the portfolio risk budget is split into three different time horizons – long, medium and short – each with a specific investment process (specific decision tools and risk-budgeting policy), overseen by lead fund manager Christophe Morel, who said:“Tactical asset allocation is only effective when tactical drivers are considered according to the relevant time horizon. Valuation is more important to longer-term positions for example whereas technical analysis is a key factor in shortterm investment decisions. By focusing on each time horizon separately, we believe that we can maximise the benefits of tactical asset allocation – controlled risk, steady returns, and low correlation with other assets. This timediversification approach has proved effective and is creating considerable interest among our investors”.
Tactical Alpha is managed by Christophe Morel, Thierry Michel (long-term time horizon), Laurent Michel (mediumterm), Thierry Béchu and Laurent Pallanca (short-term). The team and the investment process have a successful fiveyear track record comfortably beating its peer group with a limited drawdown. Thierry Béchu is the new portfolio manager responsible for the short-term sub-portfolio and is considered to be one of the leading expert on technical analysis, with more than 20 years of investment experience in this field and the author of a reference book on the subject. Jean-Louis Nakamura, CIO of the Asset allocation group at Lombard Odier Investment Manager comments:
"Our investment approach demands that each book be managed by experienced portfolio managers, focused on their respective time horizon and investment style. Within their field of expertise and their risk budget limits, they are able to manage each sub-portfolio in an unconstrained manner. In these circumstances, Thierry is a particularly welcome addition to the team."
