SunGard today announced that ETG Capital has selected SunGard's Kiodex as its trading, position keeping, risk management and operations solution when it launches on June 1. Houston-based ETG Capital is a cross-commodity, relative value hedge fund with exposure to commodities such as power, natural gas, crude, and refined products.
Kiodex Risk Workbench is a Web-based commodities risk management solution that integrates deal capture, valuation models, risk measurement, financial reporting, and independent market data. The market data includes representative prices, volatilities, volatility skews and correlations across the spectrum of commodity markets.
Kiodex provides hedge funds like ETG Capital with independent valuation, sensitivity and VaR, as well as the requisite underlying reference and market data to help support both internal and investor reporting. ETG Capital will leverage the Kiodex Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, combining the centralized, Web-based Kiodex service with downloadable Kiodex desktop applications that can be easily customized for user-specific functions. For example, ETG will tailor downloadable applications like Trade Manager and Scenario Analysis to fit its specific requirements for trade capture, position keeping, and stress testing of mark-to-market valuation and greeks.
Don Addison, managing director at ETG Capital, LLC, said, "Because of ETG's portfolio approach and focus on building a cross-commodity platform, SunGard's Kiodex was a natural fit. I used Kiodex in my prior commodity trading position, so I am very comfortable that the solution will help ETG Capital to meet its commodity trading needs. Kiodex is easy-to-use, and because of its delivery model it will not require a lot of resources on our part. A critical requirement of ours that Kiodex fulfills is the ability to support the multiple commodity asset classes we will trade when we launch, as well as the ability to easily and reliably help us to add strategies as we grow."
Mr. Addison continued, "In addition to scenario analysis and VaR by strategy, there is a nice feature that I had used in my previous position and will use at ETG Capital- the risk reports include a 'Front Month Equivalent' approximation of my risk for each commodity market, rolled up into a single number. Before I leave for the night, I review this report for an added quick check on my position, whether in power, oil, or gas."
Ben Jackson, chief operating officer of SunGard's Kiodex business unit, said, "Two of the investors we talked with as they did their due diligence on ETG Capital expressed that they knew the fund was serious about risk because it would be launching with Kiodex. The Kiodex Software-as-a-Service platform can be customized to meet the needs of ETG Capital and its investors, without requiring a large team or a lot of time to implement and support, regardless of the commodities added. Kiodex helps cross-commodity hedge funds to reduce their time-to-market without having to sacrifice rigorous risk management, flexibility or scalability across the commodity complex."