Moving from a larger trading desk to establish one’s own fund requires a great deal of planning and having the right team to execute it – and in nowhere can this be more glaring than in trade execution and mid/back-office processes.
This session in the series will focus on what start-up managers need to know in order to create their own trade desk (especially those who came from a fire-and-forget trading structure where they could focus on portfolio management exclusively). It will also cover IT set-up and other areas that new manager might not be as strong in (but need to be) when they start out.
Our speakers include a trade execution specialist, out-sourced IT consultant (used by many portfolio managers), and a manager with extensive back-office experience.
Date: Thursday, Nov 28, 2019
Location: KPMG, 333 Bay Street, Toronto ON (map)
Time:
4:00pm – Registration
4:30pm – Panel and Q&A
5:30pm – Reception
6:00pm – Session Ends
Speakers:
CEO, Jitneytrade
Founding Partner, Coach House Partners
Michael started his career on trade desk support over twenty years ago – and has never really left. Prior to establishing Coach House Partners, Michael led the Enterprise Engineering & Operations teams responsible for the Global Trading Floors at two of Canada’s top five banks. Within technology, Michael was always known as the technical expert and steadily climbed the management ranks. While in the trading rooms, “get me Fowler” was heard more and more. Michael’s established low level command of the trading environments made him the first call for real time fixes and uniquely qualified him to design and implement more robust longer term solutions. Through Coach House, Michael and his team continue to provide candid advice and expert solutions to banks, hedge funds and other non-financial clients that require secure and continuously available environments.
President, Corton Capital Inc
David Jarvis – President, Chief Executive Officer, Portfolio Manager of Corton Capital Inc.
David Jarvis is the founder and one of the principals of Corton Capital Inc. and acts as the firm’s Portfolio Manager. From September 2017 to September 2018, Mr. Jarvis, was the President and Director of Kaleido Capital Ltd. From October 2015 to September 2017, Mr. Jarvis was the Chief Compliance Officer of Forge First Asset Management Inc. where he was primarily responsible for compliance and risk management. While at Forge First, David developed enhanced compliance systems, designed and ran “mock” compliance audits and developed internal risk management guidelines addressing key risk areas – market risk, liquidity risk and credit risk. From 2005 until September, 2015, Mr. Jarvis was a founding partner, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Compliance Officer and a Portfolio Manager of Spartan Fund Management Inc. During his tenure with Spartan, David conceived, designed and co-built the first hedge fund platform in Canada with over 15 funds, portfolio managers/traders/analysts including funds based in Canada and the Cayman Islands. At Spartan David worked closely with each fund group and customized compliance and risk management programs for each type of fund style. During his time with Spartan, the Spartan Multi Strategy Fund LP received Morningstar’s Gold Medal for Best Multi Strategy Fund (Canada) in 2011 after winning the Silver Medal in 2010.
David has also been a Director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Leviathan Cannabis Group Inc. (CSE: EPIC) since November 2018. Leviathan is a publicly traded cannabis company focused on creating brand loyalty while building medical and recreational distribution channels for hemp derived products. Since March, 2010, David has also provided expert witness reports and analysis from time to time in relation to compliance and operations for brokerage and asset managers dealing with such matters as suitability, “know your client”, disclosure obligations, and institutional operational practices. In this capacity, David has been retained by retail investors, institutional clients, and several law firms.
David played an important role in the establishment of the Canadian chapter of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA Canada) and served as the organization’s first Vice-Chairman from 2003 – 2005. David also served as an active member of the Practices & Standards Committee and the Compliance Officers’ Network, 2016 – 2018, of the Portfolio Management Association of Canada (PMAC).
David holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and has an MBA (Queen’s University) and an Hons. BA – Economics (University of Western Ontario).
President, CAASA
James co-founded CAASA in response to industry support for a Canadian alternatives association to serve all aspects including: hedge / alternative strategies; private lending; private real estate; private equity; plus emerging areas where Canada is a leader such as digital assets / blockchain and robo-advisors.
Prior to CAASA, James was the Chief Operating Officer of AIMA Canada where his team of three worked with 12 committees to produce 50-60 events per annum across Canada, organize 100+ committee meetings, and increase member numbers over his 7-year tenure from 66 to 164 corporate entities.
James also has experience in research and writing for the CAIA Association as well as serving on CAIA’s Exam Council and as a grader for the Level II portion of the exam. He also had roles in institutional sales and FoHF structuring in Seoul, South Korea, as a Product Manager at ICICI Wealth Management, and an Investment Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities. He graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BBA (Finance).
This is part 5 of our Starting an Alternative Fund series to be held throughout 2019. The topics this series will cover are the following:
Establishment:
- Structure and registration of the Fund Management Company – including roles, tax planning, proficiencies, capital requirements, creating a business plan, and (important!) managing expectations of investors and those starting the company
- Onshore fund structuring and tax planning – types of funds (including liquid alts) and costs
- Offshore fund structuring and tax planning – jurisdictions, why do so, advantages and disadvantages of structures, cost of going offshore; as well as how to engage service providers in various jurisdictions
Mid/back-office:
- Choosing service providers – primes, legal, auditor, fund administrator
- Compliance and Operations facets of establishing and maintaining a fund management company and various funds
- Finding staff/talent and compensation structures
- Getting ready for operations audits – including prescribed ones by securities commissions and those performed by out-sourced due diligence companies and in-house talent of potential investors
- Specific service providers and niche functions – which might include software, performance reporting (solutions), and trading venders; class action services, Fundserv back-office functions, Managed Account Platforms, due diligence services, and listing funds on an exchange
Sales & Marketing:
- Selling into the Retail channel – true retail/liquid alts as well as Accredited Investors/Offering Memorandum product (will include a primer on liquid alts and the market to date)
- Selling to sophisticated investors – including the Retail Accredited Investor channel, multi and single family offices, and institutional investors such as Canadian and foreign sovereign wealth funds, foundations & endowments, and public & private pension plans (both direct and through investment consultants)
- PR and exposure – honing your message and how to use earned adverting (aka free PR) to deliver it to the right audience (includes use of social media)
- Public opinion and industry surveys – using broad and targeted surveys to deliver actionable data for use in product design, pricing, and messaging
Registration:
CAASA Members:
$30
Non-members:
$50
Plus applicable taxes.
Registration is required as capacity is limited.
For more information, please contact Paul at paul@caasa.ca or 647-953-0737
