Trudi Usher Boardman

Successful hedge fund managers exercise shrewd investment, analytical, and risk-management skills. Top firms become known for their expertise in a specific sector or asset class, stellar returns and ability to attract top talent. The range of HF sub-strategies is wide and spans equities, credit, currencies, rates, and commodities.

“We invest in 15-30 high-conviction managers for each of our funds of hedge funds, in most cases for the long term. We also create custom HF mandates that align with client preferences,” Trudi explains. Pictet Alternative Advisors (PAA) categorises the vast HF universe across 4 main strategy areas - Global Macro, Relative Value, Equity Hedge and Event Driven - and seeks to identify best in class managers in each strategy*.

Trudi joined PAA in 2023, having started her career as an analyst at a global investment management firm.

“In 2000, I was a young analyst at an investment management and advisory services firm working with institutional investors. One day, I joined a meeting with the HF team out of curiosity. I found the topic so intellectually fascinating that I volunteered to write the minutes and started to spend more and more of my time conducting HF research.” A year later, she was approached by a former colleague to join him at a global prime broker **.

“I realised I wouldn't understand the industry by only seeing a mature sub-set of the HF universe. So, at the prime broker, I worked with managers in their launch phase, witnessing firsthand that success required more than analytical or trading prowess. The best HF managers combine sharp analysis with business acumen and leadership. Without the infrastructure of larger firms, many star traders struggled to replicate their past successes.”

In a subsequent role at a Swiss hedge fund allocator, Trudi allocated capital directly. The experience enhanced her own analytical skills and helped her to transition from thinking like an analyst to thinking like a portfolio manager. Returning in 2013 to the global investment manager where she started her career, Trudi advised and invested on behalf of institutional investors, including pension funds, family offices, endowments, and foundations.

In 2023, Trudi joined Pictet. “I was well aware of Pictet’s long-standing role as an investor in alternatives,” she says. Her team of 12 highly experienced HF specialists, with an average of 15 years each in the HF industry, is made up of HF research analysts and customised-solutions experts. Together they oversee PAA’s multi-manager HF strategies and invest for private and institutional clients. “Many of our clients are highly sophisticated. They value our long history in the hedge fund industry and our ability to offer customisation.”

Staying on top of fund performance and new opportunities is essential for the team to stay ahead, which is challenging as hedge funds do not have the same reporting obligations as listed companies or traditional mutual funds (which must comply with strict public disclosure requirements). “There is no Bloomberg terminal to tell you how a hedge fund is performing.” To find out, Trudi’s team needs to do their own sleuthing, manually. “You continuously need to build your sourcing pipeline: running reference checks by calling network contacts and asking how a manager reacted during stressful periods or how partnerships broke up.”

Trudi and her team, along with PAA Operational Due Diligence and Multi-Asset Quantitative Solutions, spend a lot of time on due diligence, to try to avoid any surprises (underperformance, risky bets etc.) and help ensure PAA invests in top-tier managers.

Managers with exceptional track records can afford to hand-pick their investors and limit inflows. As an early adopter (Pictet made its first HF investment in 1990), Pictet is lucky enough to be among those investors that top-tier HF managers want to work with - and even has access to funds that have long since closed to new investors today. “Often managers approach us on suggestion from other HF firms that we’ve worked with previously and had a good relationship. Our reputation is crucial. Our integrity, client quality, and rigorous due diligence make us an attractive partner. Unlike fast money, we are seen as stable, long-term, high-quality investors. Often, we are one of the few Swiss or European investors in funds dominated by far bigger investors such as US-based endowment funds, foundations, families or pensions.”