Artradis

Artradis Fund Management (often referred to simply as Artradis), founded in 2001,[2] was an Asian long volatility biased multi strategy alternative asset manager with operations centered in Singapore and presence in the BVI and Switzerland.[3] Its flagship funds, Barracuda and AB2, conducted market-neutral trading strategies including index arbitrage, warrant arbitrage, stock class arbitrage, convertible bond arbitrage, volatility arbitrage, volatility dispersion, and dividend arbitrage. A common theme through these strategies was to be long tail risk, primarily through volatility.

The company was co-founded in 2001 by Stephen Diggle and Richard Magides[4] and grew assets under management from US$4 million to US$4.7 billion at its peak in 2008, principally in its flagship Barracuda and AB2 funds. These funds halved in size to US$2 billion in 2009 as a result of withdrawals and underperformance,[5] more than halved again in 2010 to US$800 million, and were finally closed in early 2011.[6] Over the life of the funds the net profit to investors exceeded US$2.7 billion, all in years leading to 2007 and 2008, which "were spectacular" according to Mr. Diggle,[7][8] and the founders made Forbes' Wall Street's 20 Highest Earners by earning US$90 million each in a single year, 2008.[9]

Following the performance in 2007, Artradis’ AB2 fund won the ‘best Asian hedge fund’ award at the Asian Masters of Hedge awards.[10] The AB2 fund also won Eurekahedge's ‘best Asian hedge fund’ award for the performance the subsequent year.[11] The Barracuda fund won the AsiaHedge ‘fund of the year’ award in 2008 as well as the Asian Investor fund of the year 2007.[12]

Investors who purchased units in 2008 or subsequent year lost a significant part of their investment before the funds were shut down: the AB2 Fund was down 23 percent in 2010 and 27.5% in 2009 (cumulative loss of 44%), while the Barracuda fund lost 17% in 2010 and nearly 14% in 2009 (cumulative loss of 29%).[13]