The fund, which was launched with more than $100 million in assets, is a portfolio of hedge funds which will initially allocate to between 10 and 15 holdings. 

IAM has been investing in CTAs since 1994, and this latest fund offering is the culmination of 12 months of research into the optimal way in which to invest in CTAs, the firm said.

"The CTAs strategy has consistently been IAM’s favoured strategy during 2008 based on the attractive risk/return profile, and we continue to be positive on the outlook for returns going into 2009. This fund will capture the opportunities present in the CTAs strategy while better diversifying risk for investors,” said Morten Spenner, IAM chief executive.

"CTAs have high returns but low correlation to other hedge fund strategies and to equity markets. During the current turmoil, volatility has not risen in CTAs as it has for most other strategies. At the same time, managers have been able to extract returns from the volatile environment.  Importantly, we also regard the strategy as having ample capacity; as of Q3 2008 the global assets under management of CTAs was $226 billion.”

According to the firm, CTAs are a useful addition to investment portfolios as they utilise futures which are highly regulated and liquid, carry low trading transaction costs and minimal counterparty risk.  AIM says its portfolio construction also allows the fund to diversify across trading models, time horizons, markets, and underlying assets and so reduce the risk contribution of any one particular manager.

IAM has offices in London, New York and Stockholm, and at 30 September 2008 IAM’s assets under management stood at $3.3 billion.