Credit Suisse Announces the Launch of New Long/Short Equity Replication Index

Credit Suisse announced today that it has launched the Long/Short Equity Replication Index, the first in a planned suite of Alternative Index Replication (AIR) products that will be designed to replicate the performance of the major hedge fund strategies.

The Credit Suisse Long/Short Equity Replication Index aims to capture the risk/return characteristics represented by the Credit Suisse/Tremont Long/Short Equity Hedge Fund Index. Index values are finalized daily and quoted on Bloomberg under the symbol AIRI.

Oliver Schupp, Head of Beta Strategies, said, “Long/short equity is typically the largest allocation and dominant return source in hedge fund portfolios, and investors today are growing increasingly concerned about the correlation of their hedge fund investments to the broad equity markets. This index allows them to gain systematic exposure and enhanced liquidity through a direct investment, or to tactically adjust their portfolios through a short position.” Walter Rotondo, Head of Fund Linked Products, went on to say, “The Long/Short Equity Replication Index allows our clients to participate in the performance of this rapidly growing market segment.”

The Credit Suisse AIR approach, led by Head of Research, Jordan Drachman, draws upon a strategic alliance with leading academic researchers in the field of quantitative investments: Professors Bill Fung, David Hsieh, and Narayan Naik. These three research advisors are pioneers in the field of alternative beta, providing unique insights and helping to fine-tune the development of the long/short equity replication model with experienced, independent viewpoints that ensure a sound academic basis for the methodology.

Credit Suisse has helped pioneer the measurement of alternative beta for more than a decade. By bringing together indexing expertise, the academic partnership and extensive global resources, Credit Suisse has created a solid foundation for developing alternative index replication products.