invest.com launches “hedge fund for the people”
- invest.com is the first online investment company in the UK to specialise in alternative investments;
- It has received $20m investment from a number of global investors including tech VC fund, Singulariteam;
- invest.com domain name ranks as one of the top-25 most expensive in the world;
- All new customers that sign up to its platform within the first month will have the management fee waived in perpetuity.
Invest.com, a new online alternative investment company, has today launched in the UK with the aim of giving retail investors access to alternatives – an asset class which until now has been reserved for professional investors and the very wealthy.
The portfolio management service offers seven alternative investment strategies (similar to those employed by quant hedge funds) with next-day liquidity, and uses computerised algorithms to trade automatically. In so doing, it continually optimises the strategies and takes advantage of changing market conditions.
Ophir Gertner, founder of invest.com, commented: “By giving customers access to alternative investments, we are enabling them to build smarter, more diversified portfolios that are equipped to perform better when major asset classes, such as equities, fall. Customers are able to build portfolios for both the long and short term investments depending on their different investment goals.”
“Alternative investments is an asset class that has seen extremely high growth in recent years, more than doubling in size since 2005. However, hedge funds and many other alternative investments have typically been very elitist – available only to very wealthy investors, despite the obvious benefits they would give all investors. invest.com is therefore bringing a hedge fund for the people to market.”
invest.com’s trading strategies have been developed by a team of experts, over a period of three years. The team has a wealth of experience in computerised portfolio and algorithmic trading, including in senior management roles with JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, and a variety of hedge funds.
invest.com’s portfolio management service involves a minimum investment of £1,500 for a customised portfolio (or £500 for a self-tailored portfolio). Strategies range from low-risk to high-risk and customers are channelled through a series of questions from a robo-adviser which recommends how much of their portfolio – typically between 10 – 20 per cent and up to 40 per cent – they should invest in alternatives, depending on the answers they give.
invest.com also offers two trading platforms, both for the experienced and the less experienced investors where customers can buy and sell contracts for difference (CFDs) in a wide range of financial assets such as shares, currencies, commodities and indices.
invest.com charges a flat 1.5 per cent annual management fee (ranges from 0.99-1.5 per cent) and 15 per cent of profits earned – comparatively less than typical fees charged by hedge funds. However, for its launch in the UK, the company is waiving its management fee for life for all new customers that open a portfolio within the first month – i.e. until Sunday 22nd June 2016.
Investors benefit from real-time updates on the performance of their portfolio which is managed in one wallet, and can access their portfolio via invest.com’s website, mobile website and app. They can also see detailed reports of the activity within their portfolios, including strategy composition, current and past positions and performance, charts comparing portfolio performance to S&P500 and a full breakdown of fees.
Between now and the end of 2017, invest.com plans to launch in several other countries and markets, including Germany, Italy, Russia, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as launching several new alternative investment products.
Source: Invest.com
