Marshall Wace LLP is a hedge fund

Hedge fund

A hedge fund is a private pool of capital actively managed by an investment adviser. Hedge funds are only open for investment to a limited number of accredited or qualified investors who meet criteria set by regulators. These investors can be institutions, such as pension funds, university...

 in the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

 that was founded by Paul Marshall

Paul Marshall (financier)

Paul Roderick Clucas Marshall is a British investor and philanthropist.He was educated at St John's College, Oxford, and holds an MBA from INSEAD Business School....

 and Ian Wace

Ian Wace

Ian Gerald Patrick Wace is a British born financier, co-founder of Marshall Wace Asset Management, a London-based hedge fund.Marshall Wace is one of Europe's leading hedge fund institutions with circa $15 billion under management. Marshall Wace Asset Management manages the award winning Eureka...

. Marshall is chairman and chief investment officer and Wace is chief executive officer.

The firm operates from fund management offices in London, Greenwich, and Hong Kong, where it also has a joint venture with GaveKal Asia Limited. The head office in London is on the top floor of The Adelphi, close to the Strand

Strand, London

Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...

.

Marshall Wace manages a number of fundamental long/short equity funds. The investment process for each uses fundamental analysis that seeks to identify companies which are substantially mispriced on an absolute or relative basis. Managers have the ability to shift from value to growth, from small to medium to large capitalization stocks, and switch from a net long position to a net short position. Managers can also use futures and options to hedge.

In addition to its fundamental long/short equity strategies, Marshall Wace runs a proprietary alpha capture system

Alpha capture system

An alpha capture system is a computer system that enables investment banks and other organisations to submit "trading ideas" or "trade ideas" to clients in a written electronic format, for example TIM Group's TIM Ideas product. Financial Services Authority Markets Division: Newsletter on Market...

 called TOPS (Trade Optimised Portfolio System), which polls the investment ideas of equity sell-side practitioners (generalists, sector specialists, strategists and economists) around the world and uses algorithms to analyse and optimise this information into liquid equity portfolios.

Most of Marshall Wace's investors are major institutions. However, a number of its funds are UCITS-compliant vehicles. In addition to the funds Marshall Wace runs itself, a significant proportion of the money it manages for clients resides in separately managed account

Separately managed account

A separately managed account is an individual managed investment account offered typically by a brokerage firm through one of their brokers or financial consultants and managed by independent investment management firms and have varying fee structures...

s.

The firm formed its joint venture with Hong Kong-based research and investment management house GaveKal in 2008. MW GaveKal has a number of Asia-focused equity funds both long-only and long-short that are managed within it.

Marshall Wace was a founder member of the Hedge Fund Standards Board (HFSB) and is a member of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA).

Personnel

Before starting the fund, Paul Marshall was Head of European Equities at Mercury Asset Management

Mercury Asset Management

Mercury Asset Management plc was a leading British investment management business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...

 and Ian Wace was Head of Equities Trading at Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...

. Marshall is one of the biggest backers of the Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

 party in the City of London and chairs the CentreForum

CentreForum

CentreForum is an independent, liberal think-tank that seeks to develop evidence-based, long-term policy solutions to the problems facing Britain. It is based in Westminster, London, and was formerly known as Centre for Reform....

 think tank.

Wace is chairman of the charity Absolute Return for Kids

Absolute Return for Kids

Absolute Return for Kids is an international children's charity based in the United Kingdom.ARK is a registered charity under English law and is based in London...

and Marshall is also a supporter. Absolute Return for Kids supports deprived children in Britain, South Africa, and Eastern Europe. Every year the Ark dinner brings A-list celebrity and hedge fund money together. It raised £11m in 2007.

External links

• Marshall Wace
• Profile of Marshall Wace, The Times, October 15, 2005
• AIMA
• GaveKal
• Hedge Fund Standards Board