Emerging Manager Spotlight

Emerging managers had the spotlight in the hedge fund industry February 24 in Midtown Manhattan, thanks to Boothbay Fund Management’s Second Annual Emerging Manager Networking Event at the exclusive LAVO Nightclub. The New York-based firm is run by 20+ year industry veteran Ari Glass; its flagship portfolio allocates capital via managed accounts extensively, but not exclusively, to non-correlated emerging managers. It also manages a first loss platform.

“Managers emerging today are every bit as talented as the prior generation of managers,” said Glass. “They are just unfortunate to have entered the hedge fund industry after it matured, and as a result find it difficult to raise capital commensurate with their risk adjusted returns.  To Boothbay, that represents an opportunity.”

Over cocktails, passed hors d’oeuvres and desserts, over 100 industry professionals (ranging from all types of allocators, managing partners and service providers focused on emerging managers) mingled over the latest trends in the space. From the manager perspective, the biggest challenge as a start-up continues to be raising capital and, as a result, a number of the managers select their prime brokerage relationship based on the ability of their capital introductions team to get in front of investors.  Meanwhile, from the allocator perspective, the family offices and fund of hedge fund managers said they were looking at niche strategies.