HSBC Global Asset Management is launching its HSBC GIF Global Macro II Fund, a leveraged version of the group’s flagship absolute return portfolio, the HSBC GIF Global Macro Fund.

The HSBC GIF Global Macro Fund has been co-managed since its June 2007 launch by Guillaume Rabault and Jim Dunsford. Both will be responsible for the new fund.

The macro investment strategy of the new fund will be identical to that of the original portfolio. Investing in a wide variety of liquid asset classes including cash, equities, bonds and currencies worldwide, it seeks to exploit pricing anomalies using complementary quantitative and qualitative based strategies.

Rather than gearing up in a conventional sense, the HSBC GIF Global Macro II portfolio will be constructed by doubling up all positions of the existing version. Like its sister, it is a UCITS III-compliant, Luxembourg-domiciled SICAV offering daily liquidity.

“This launch is very simply driven by client demand. Many macro investors seek higher returns and can stomach greater volatility so our base strategy is too conservative for these particular individuals to meet their needs. As we have prior experience in adjusting our capabilities to meet different return objectives, we were happy to engineer the same solution in our flagship UCITS III strategy,” said Charles Robinson, head of alternative distribution at HSBC GAM.