Marshall Wace

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Marshall Wace is among the most powerful hedge funds in the City of London with an estimated $15 billion under management (FT). The organisation is controlled by Paul Marshall (a prominent Liberal Democrats supporter) and Ian Wace, 43. The pair were estimated to be worth £175 million (€253m, $322m) in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006. The fund is estimated to be among the ten biggest in Europe and operates from offices close to the Strand. The organisation has been estimated by The Times to currently be responsible for 3-4 per cent of the total equities traded in London. Much of the firm's success is believed to stem from a complex computer system called TOPS (Trade Optimised Portfolio System) which uses algorithms to rank advice offered by salesmen and analysts.

Marshall Wace also manages the award-winning Eureka Fund and Eureka Interactive, Europe's largest tech, media, technology (TMT) sector hedge fund. Though there are some smaller hedge funds registered with the capital markets regulator as foreign portfolio investors , none of them has the asset base to match Marshall Wace's, which is among the more prominent and reputed entities in this category to enter India in recent times (August 2004).

The Eureka Interactive Fund follows a “long-short equity strategy” which essentially is a directional strategy involving equity-oriented investing on both the long and short sides of the market. The objective is not to be market neutral. 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 futures and options to hedge. The focus may be regional or sector specific. Marshall Wace pays a rumored $250m in commissions to brokers a year, based on its high trading volumes and sophisticated system for measuring brokers’ performance.

The Times ran a profile of Marshall Wace in October 15, 2005. Performance summary and top 100 hedge funds to watch from Financial Times.

[edit] Absolute Return for Kids

Paul Marshall and Ian Wace are passionate supporters of Absolute Return for Kids, which supports deprived children in Britain, South Africa and Eastern Europe.

Every year the Ark dinner brings the world of serious A-list celebrity and hedge fund money together. This year it raised a record £11m (2007). Wace lives in Battersea. Marshall is one of the biggest backers in the City of London of the Liberal Democrat party. Close to Phil Hylander (see 39), his former protégé at SG Warburg and Deutsche Bank, who runs global equity trading at Goldman Sachs.