Author: Lily Harper

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Exchange traded funds myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Latest news on ETFsVisit our ETF Hub to find out more and to explore our in-depth data and comparison toolsThe thematic fund sector, wounded by bad news from disappointments such as the meteoric rise and fall of Cathie Wood’s technology-focused exchange traded funds, is finding pockets of support, market observers say.Overall, the funds, which encourage investors to focus on narrow long-term trends such as ageing populations or clean energy, have been battered over the past few years. After net inflows peaked…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK has some of the smallest homes in Europe and new-build ones are especially bad. That is at least what you would believe if you read what is largely available on the topic.When I first began investigating, I did not disagree. I had been into plenty of new-build flats and houses where this seemed true — a particular favourite being the master bedroom where you could end up boxed in by a combination of the bedroom, en suite and cupboard doors…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Customers of CME Group have strongly criticised the US futures exchange after it was given the green light to become one of their main competitors.Banks and small brokers have sharply criticised the Chicago group after it won approval last week to also act as a futures broker — blurring the traditional dividing line between operating an exchange and being a member of it.“[It] raises serious concerns about market regulation and systemic risk,” said Walt Lukken, chief executive of the Futures Industry Association.CME…

I am looking to purchase a home in the Knightsbridge area of London. I am concerned that information in the public domain about my net worth and the recent sale of one of my businesses for an impressive return will materially impact my negotiations in the purchasing process. I am considering buying a property anonymously to address this. Is this advisable? Are there any legal considerations I need to be conscious of?Parminder Sidhu, partner and head of residential property at Wedlake Bell Parminder Sidhu, partner and head of residential property at Wedlake Bell, says good luck with the search for…

When a student podcast asked incoming Schroders chief executive Richard Oldfield about the most important lessons from his career, his answer was unequivocal. “Never, ever put off a difficult decision,” he told the interviewer from the London School of Economics in February.A painful trading update on Tuesday that sent the FTSE 100 asset manager’s shares to a decade low showed that there may be many such decisions ahead of him.Oldfield, who takes over from Peter Harrison on Friday after just over a year as chief financial officer, broke with recent Schroders practice and gave shareholders a more detailed breakdown of the…

The US presidential election is finally here, and volatility is simultaneously everywhere and nowhere in financial markets. This apparent contradiction stems from the unusually large spread that has opened up between two linked but different measures of market turbulence, neither of which on its own gives the full picture. Realised volatility is backward-looking, calculated as the annualised standard deviation of an asset’s daily returns. By this measure, both the US stock and bond markets appear remarkably calm. Setting aside the recent tech-led sell-off and yesterday’s rally in Treasuries, both prices and yields have been rising steadily, rather than explosively.Implied volatility, in contrast,…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Hedge funds myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The hedge fund manager that made the largest single donation to the UK Labour party in the run-up to its election victory this year has reported a sharp fall in profits following a restructuring.Quadrature Capital Limited, a UK-based investment firm with a fund based in the Cayman Islands, posted a 76 per cent fall in pre-tax profit for the year to January, from £231mn in 2023 to £56mn in 2024, company filings show.The fall was the result of a corporate restructuring which…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.State Street’s asset management arm is looking to buy a stake in a private credit or infrastructure manager, as one of the world’s largest passive fund managers tries to boost its presence in the fast-growing realm of alternative assets.“We are shopping” for either a full acquisition or a minority stake combined with product partnerships, Yie-Hsin Hung, chief executive of State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), told the Financial Times.The $4.7tn money manager wants to do a deal because it is behind rivals in…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Schroders warned on Tuesday that it faced outflows of about £10bn this quarter, illustrating the challenge facing Richard Oldfield who took over as chief executive of the UK asset manager this month.Schroders said that its solutions business would face an outflow of about £8bn from its legacy Scottish Widows mandate while institutional clients intended to withdraw about £2bn.The blows come as Schroders suffered £2.3bn of outflows in the three months to September, leaving its total assets under management at £777.4bn. Its joint…

Election aftermath to start: The outcome of the 2024 US elections will have sweeping consequences for the business world. Here’s an overview of which sectors and companies have the most to win or lose depending on who emerges victorious.Welcome to Due Diligence, your briefing on dealmaking, private equity and corporate finance. This article is an on-site version of the newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every Tuesday to Friday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newsletters. Get in touch with us anytime: Due.Diligence@ft.comIn today’s newsletter:Presidential election reaches ‘peak uncertainty’Presidential…