Conference Day: Investing in Emerging Markets Strategies

You are invited to join us in the centre stage area for the keynote speakers View centre stage agenda here

13:00 Networking Lunch For Delegates & Speakers Networking Lunch For Delegates & Speakers

Chaired by: Alison Graham, CIO, Voltan Capital Management Alison Graham, CIO, Voltan Capital Management Chaired by: Alison Graham, CIO, Voltan Capital Management Alison Graham CIO, Voltan Capital Management Alison Graham is Chief Investment Officer of Voltan Capital Management and portfolio manager of Voltan Frontier Markets Fund. Ms. Graham has over seventeen years’ experience in emerging and frontier markets finance. Until 1998, she was a partner and senior analyst for Latin American equities at the investment bank Caspian Securities. In 1998, she moved to Moscow to join United Financial Group wher [read more]

14:00 Opening Speaker Alison Graham, CIO, Voltan Capital Management Worsening government balance sheets, bad debt, poor economic growth and crazy volatility spikes are all making investors look more towards the emerging markets.  Alison Graham, the chief investment officer of Voltan Capital Management looks at 60 countries ranging from the Republic of Georgia to Cambodia and from Bangladesh to Botswana. Her goal is to look for "places where things are changing but the market hasn't recognized it yet”.  Whether we are talking about Nigerian banks, Chinese investors, Cambodia or Iraq, the new frontiers are sometimes — and quite aptly —compared to the emerging markets of 20 years ago. The potential for profits is obvious. A recent $750 million Eurobond issued by Zambia, for example, was reportedly 20 times oversubscribed.  Stock indexes in the frontier markets are turning out some eye-popping numbers, too. According to the MSCI, between January and mid-November 2012, Kenya’s stock market was up a staggering 55.7%. Others were almost as impressive — with Kazakhstan’s up 38.2%, Estonia’s up 29.2%, Ghana’s up 24.8% and Botswana’s up 17.7%.  You really should not miss this opening talk in the Emerging Markets stream of the conference, because it will tell you where others are making some real money. Alison Graham CIO, Voltan Capital Management Alison Graham is Chief Investment Officer of Voltan Capital Management and portfolio manager of Voltan Frontier Markets Fund. Ms. Graham has over seventeen years’ experience in emerging and frontier markets finance. Until 1998, she was a partner and senior analyst for Latin American equities at the investment bank Caspian Securities. In 1998, she moved to Moscow to join United Financial Group wher [read more]

14:30 Panel: Working with new partners and finding new liquidity in the emerging markets: managing risk, effectively using technology and building new relationships Alex Fleiss, Chairman & Chief Investment Officer, Rebellion Research Partners, L.P Larry Tabb, CEO, Tabb Group Joel Varpasuo, Head of Trading, Pohjola Asset Management Sergei Sinkevich, Head of DMA Sales, Otrkitie Frontier markets also tend to have low debt-to-GDP levels, high economic growth rates when compared to developed and emerging markets, a rapid growth potential and attractive valuations of local businesses. However, building a toehold in a new market, particularly one that is still in the very early stages of its economic development, can be very difficult. Finding trusted trading partners is probably the greatest challenge, whilst eliminating information leakage is practically impossible. So this panel discussion is going to focus on two major issues. One is the opportunity presented by the emerging markets, and the other is the risk. Find out from the experts about:  • Measuring liquidity in an emerging markets – does it matter?  • Transaction cost – different approaches  • Minimising information leakage – different strategies for different markets  • Clearing, settlement and counterparty risk management  Alex Fleiss Chairman & Chief Investment Officer, Rebellion Research Partners, L.P Alexander Fleiss serves as Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Rebellion Research Partners LP, a Global Macro hedge fund powered by Artificial Intelligence and based in New York. Mr. Fleiss has spoken about Artificial Intelligence investing in the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Geo Magazine and Institutional Investor. Prior to co-founding Rebellion Research in 2007, Mr. Fleiss served as a Pri [read more] Larry Tabb CEO, Tabb Group Larry Tabb is the founder and CEO of TABB Group, the global financial markets’ strategic advisory and research firm focused exclusively on capital markets. TABB Group helps senior leaders throughout the industry make critical decisions about their business by accurately assessing their customer base, competition, and evaluating key market opportunities.Founded in 2003 and based on an interview-bas [read more] Joel Varpasuo Head of Trading, Pohjola Asset Management Sergei Sinkevich Head of DMA Sales, Otrkitie

15:00 Afternoon Coffee Afternoon Coffee

15:30 How to Reduce Dropped Trades and Latency in Emerging Markets and Increase Revenue Jeff Kim, COO, USA/EMEA, CDNetworks Online financial trading by retail customers is experiencing massive growth in the world’s emerging markets. Trading platform vendors that can ensure fast transaction times in markets such as China, India, and Russia will increase customers and revenue. In this session hear how a major European trading platform realized revenue gains of millions of dollars per day because latency-induced broken trades were effectively eliminated in China. This session will cover: Impact of Internet latency on financial transactions. Sources of transaction latency in key emerging markets. Advanced content distribution technology to overcome latency issues. Successful examples of other trading platforms in emerging markets including Saxo Bank. How to enhance revenue and increase customer satisfaction around the world. Jeff Kim COO, USA/EMEA, CDNetworks Jeff Kim is COO for CDNetworks US/EMEA and is responsible for the end-to-end customer experience. Jeff’s responsibilities include leading sales, service, marketing, product management and customer support. Jeff has championed the development of CDNetworks’ Web Performance Suite, and in positioning CDNetworks as the trusted global advisor to enterprise companies with mission critical applications.< [read more]

16:00 Special Regional Focus Panel: Russia & Eastern European Markets Measuring liquidity in an emerging markets – does it matter? Gregory Fishman, Chairperson, Quantum Brains Capital Ivan Kurtović, Director of Portfolio Management, Intercapital Asset Management Marek Trepka, Consultant, T-financials Sergei Poliakoff, Managing Director, Moscow Exchange Measuring liquidity in an emerging market – does it matter? The Russian economy is growing faster than any of the European economies. Foreign debt is almost non-existent, the budget is, for the moment, roughly in balance, and the opposition is still fragmented and leaderless.  Unemployment numbers are still at the pre-crisis level. Against this background, the negative dynamics of the industrial output stands out, especially as its annual growth rate has decreased twofold. According to the results this year, considerable net capital outflow from the private sector was registered. But the Sovereign credit ratings of Russia remained unchanged and international reserves along with sufficient level of liquidity in the banking system were preserved. In general, the Russian economy, supported by high prices for oil, demonstrated high stability to global shocks.  With this background, trading in Russia seems promising and profitable. But then again, there are other challenges that you may not have come across. For example, liquidity may be plentiful but settlement is still a major pain. It is likely that the risk factors are very different to the ones you are used to. So come and learn all about the challenges and tricks of effective trading in Russia and Eastern Europe:  • Transaction cost – different approaches  • Minimising information leakage – different strategies for different markets  • Clearing, settlement and counterparty risk management  • Accessing fixed income liquidity  • Settlement and custodian challenges  • Building a trusted network of partners  • Minimising transaction cost  • Tackling tax challenges  • Establishing the best route to liquidity  Gregory Fishman Chairperson, Quantum Brains Capital Gregory Fishman has graduated from the ITMO – one of the best technical Universities in Russia. Being an irrepressible personality he decided to pursue his passion and made life long commitment to cutting edge technologies and deep science fields for Artificial Intelligence. In 2006 he established a private R&D Institute and started building a strong team of scientists and develope [read more] Ivan Kurtović Director of Portfolio Management, Intercapital Asset Management Marek Trepka Consultant, T-financials Marek Trepka graduated with the degree in Banking & International Finance from the Cass Business School in London. Being Polish, but having spent more than 10 years of his career in London and Dublin, he combines the knowledge of both Eastern and Western European financial markets. Over the last 13 years Marek Trepka got to know the financial trading from many different angles:Work [read more] Sergei Poliakoff Managing Director, Moscow Exchange

16:30 Panel:Focus Latin America Alison Graham, CIO, Voltan Capital Management Danielle Tierney, Analyst, Aite Group Carlos J. Hernandez, Head of trading technology, Interacciones Casa de Bolsa According to the Economist, Latin America's stock markets have seen very mixed publicity in the new economic environment. Share prices have been rising sharply and the economic outlook has brightened. But there has been increasing concern that local markets, already small and illiquid, may dry up altogether. The trouble is that some of the most actively traded shares are in companies being bought out by foreign firms, and others are increasingly being traded in the United States. As a result turnover is not growing.  In some countries, the sale of state assets has been a way of boosting stock market liquidity. Governments have tended to sell shares in state-owned firms either to single buyers (often foreign) or to consortia. Faced with low liquidity on domestic markets, about 200 Latin American firms, almost half of them Brazilian, have made their shares available in the United States in the form of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), thereby reducing trading on domestic exchanges still further.  The opportunity in Latin America is still outstanding, and you need to know how you can benefit from it. Learn from our panel of experts about:  • Minimising transaction cost  • Tackling tax challenges  • Establishing the best route to liquidity  • Working with partners – how different is Latin America from your regular environment?  Alison Graham CIO, Voltan Capital Management Alison Graham is Chief Investment Officer of Voltan Capital Management and portfolio manager of Voltan Frontier Markets Fund. Ms. Graham has over seventeen years’ experience in emerging and frontier markets finance. Until 1998, she was a partner and senior analyst for Latin American equities at the investment bank Caspian Securities. In 1998, she moved to Moscow to join United Financial Group wher [read more] Danielle Tierney Analyst, Aite Group Danielle Tierney is an analyst at Aite Group, specializing in the Latin American capital markets covering equity and derivatives market structure, exchanges, algorithmic and high frequency trading, and macroeconomic and regulatory drivers. She also covers buy-side equity research, buy-side macro trends (hedge fund and asset management, ETFs, Mutual Funds), research portals, and consolidated market [read more] Carlos J. Hernandez Head of trading technology, Interacciones Casa de Bolsa Carlos J. Hernandez is the head of trading technology at Interacciones Casa de Bolsa, a Mexican brokerage firm that caters to sophisticated investment firms seeking access to the Mexican market. He oversees the firm's technological strategy and implementation of lowlatency DMA and sponsored access to the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores. Previously he was a management consultant at NYSE Technologies in N [read more]

17:00 Panel Focus China and Growth Asian economies Kent Rossiter, Head of Asia Pacific Trading, Allianz Global Investors TK Yap, Executive Director, OCBC Panel Focus China and Growth Asian economies Kent Rossiter Head of Asia Pacific Trading, Allianz Global Investors Kent joined Dresdner RCM in May 1999 as the Head of Regional Asia Pacific Trading based in Hong Kong, now running Allianz Global Investors Asian trading desk. As at end of Sept 30st, 2012, Allianz Global Investors Group had assets under management in excess of EUR 300b. From 1996 until 1999, Kent was a Deputy General Manager of Asian Equity Sales at Nikko Securities. Prior to that, he was the Head [read more] TK Yap Executive Director, OCBC

17:45 You are invited to join us back in the centre stage area for 'Guest Speaker Big Ideas' - Building trust of customer: how much is it worth and how can you use effective communication techniques to gain the lost trust? Richard Peterson, Managing Partner, MarketPsych For anyone who doubts the importance of psychology to finance, ask yourself, is customer confidence relevant to banks? And on a larger scale, is trust in the financial system, or the political system, relevant for our societies? Only recently can we generate consistent data on trust and confidence by scouring social media and newsflow for expressions of trust, or more commonly mistrust, in individual banks and the financial system. This trust data tells us that news of trading errors, ponzi schemes, and other scandals are gradually eroding public and investor trust in the financial system. Trust is built over years through a process of "promise and deliver" - the investing public learns and comes to believe that an institution is good to its word based on its fulfillment of its promises. Trusting bank customers see that a bank holds their money securely and returns it with interest at their request, without unexpected or punitive transaction fees. Trusting investors believe market volatility occurs for a rational reason and that investors who lose money do so because they took imprudent risks, not because a rogue algorithm randomly sold off their investment and stopped them out. Trusting traders watch a market order to buy an equity executed at the ask price, not $0.05 above it due to HFT front-running. Restoring trust in the financial system requires transparency, simplicity, and consistency. First, and perhaps most challenging, financial institutions must explicitly acknowledge that their operations are opportunistic - preying on the unsophisticated customers they simultaneously seek to woo. This is acceptable as long as the fees and commissions are made apparent, simple, and clear. The perception of fairness can be restored as first honesty, then transparency, and then both simplification and enforcement of rules and regulations are implemented. We may look at financial institutions today and think, "no way, those changes are not going to happen," but remember that while there is a dearth of trust, there is a surfeit of cash, and that cash will migrate to the safest institution or location, even if that means gold bars in a wall safe. Richard Peterson Managing Partner, MarketPsych From developing quantitative models to imaging the brains of investors, Dr. Peterson has spent his career at the intersection of mind and the markets. Dr. Peterson is Managing Director of the MarketPsych Group of companies comprising MarketPsych Data (financial sentiment data derived from news and social media at marketpsychdata.com), MarketPsych (behavioral economics consulting and training at ma [read more]

18:30 Evening Drinks Evening Drinks