12/10/2011 Author: Elana Margulies

New EF programme targets institutions

EF Financial Services, a Mexico-based CTA manager, has launched a version of its managed account programme targeted specifically towards institutional investors.

EF Xi debuted last month and adopts the same investment approach as the maiden EF X programme, but has longer trading periods, thereby reducing trading frequency.

“Now that we have tried the strategy and gone through different phases of the market, we thought it was mature enough to offer to institutions,” said Eduardo Frid, principal.

EF Xi is aimed at institutional allocators including family offices and funds of hedge funds, and has a higher investment minimum and capacity than the firm’s flagship offering, geared toward retail clients, which debuted in mid-2009. The institutional programme has a $100,000 threshold and $100m capacity, while the retail has $10,000 and $50m, respectively.

Before Frid registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a CTA and became a member of the National Futures Association (NFA) in 2009 and began trading for outside clients, he founded educational firm EF Pro Trading in Mexico City.