Liquid Alternatives

The Liquid Alternatives team brings together over 125 years of combined experience in investment management, pensions, derivatives, operating across both traditional and alternative assets. This seasoned group of professionals is dedicated to delivering innovative investment strategies through deep sector knowledge and technical expertise.

Leading the team is Russell Catley, Head of Liquid Alternatives, who has over 35 years in financial services and more than 25 years of derivatives experience. As the founder and former CEO of Atlantic House Group, Russell had previously held senior roles at AXA Investment Managers and Citigroup Global Markets.

Paul Adams is Head of Portfolio Management, with 25+ years in financial services across cash equities, systematic and flow derivatives, and quantitative investment strategies. He previously held roles running cross-asset derivative desks at several major Global Investment Banks, most recently the Head of Cash Equity and Derivatives Sales for Europe at RBC.

Jon Gumpel is Head of Multi-Asset and was one of the founders of Brooks Macdonald. Jon is a multi award-winning manager of the Defensive Capital Fund which he grew to £700m over 9 years. He is a proven manager with over 35 years' experience of managing multi-asset portfolios across economic cycles.  He is also the lead Portfolio Manager for the MGTS Downing Diversified Opportunities Fund.

‍Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

‍Renato Guerrieri, Head of Quantitative Strategy, brings over 15 years of experience in wealth and asset management, beginning his career at Deutsche Bank. Renato specialises in proprietary model design, factor-based analysis, and scenario simulations, supported by an MBA in Quantitative Finance and a BSc in Banking & Finance.

Huw Price is the Head of Structuring, with a strong focus on risk, regulation and product governance of the funds. He has over 35 years' experience in financial services and asset management and has consulted for the FCA on the implementation of derivatives into UCITS funds. Huw sits on the Liquid Alternatives investment committee, and was most recently Executive Director at Santander Asset Management.

Together, this team offers a powerful blend of strategic insight, technical depth, and hands-on experience.

Our Liquid Alternative solutions are designed to deliver specific outcomes that benefit investors; consistency of return, genuine diversification and resilience. Risk management is central to everything we do, our strategies allow us to pre-determine return and risk characteristics over a given investment horizon, by constructing positions with clear payoff profiles, allowing us to better control drawdowns and ensuring risks are known, intentional and continually monitored.

Our strategies are designed to be less dependent on market direction. We focus on consistency of returns, relative value, structural opportunities, and return drivers that can perform across a range of market conditions, with ongoing monitoring to ensure risks remain aligned with expectations.  We diversify across instruments, structures, and sources of return. Diversification helps reduce concentration risk and smooth portfolio outcomes without diluting the clarity of each strategy’s risk profile.

While our approach seeks to limit downside, no investment is risk free. Market stress events, liquidity constraints, and model assumptions can all impact outcomes. Our objective is not to eliminate risk, but to manage it consciously and transparently.

With all investments there are risks to consider.
Here are some risks of investing in our liquid alternatives at Downing:  

• Market risk (including equity market moves and gap risks)
• Derivative, counterparty & collateral risk
• Liquidity risk (daily dealing, but stressed conditions can impact pricing/liquidity)
• Interest‑rate/duration risk (managed and typically hedged)
• Model/operational/regulatory risks

While liquid alternative investment strategies target to offer investors targeted optimised outcome, such as increased predictability, consistency, resilience and diversification, it is important to be fully aware of the risks involved. Speaking with a qualified financial adviser or discretionary fund manager can help you understand if this investment aligns with your portfolio objectives.  

Always review the Prospectus and latest factsheet before investing.

MGTS Downing Active Defined Return Assets Fund and the MGTS Downing Diversified Opportunities Fund are fully compliant UK UCITS funds with daily dealing. (See factsheet and prospectus.)

Today's markets present unique challenges, with rising asset-class correlations, concentrated equity markets, and traditional portfolio construction struggling to deliver adequate returns or risk diversification.  

We believe in a solutions-based approach, working with wealth managers and advisors to solve real-world challenges, optimising risk-return outcomes, improving portfolio metrics and providing alternative sources of liquid real returns.

MGTS Downing Active Defined Return Assets Fund: a core building block for multi-asset portfolios targeting predictable, consistent defined returns across the economic cycle.  We combine proven systematic strategies, with specialist active management to deliver predictable client outcomes and a less emotional journey.

MGTS Downing Diversified Opportunities Fund: a genuine global portfolio diversifier, delivering compelling risk-adjusted returns combing attractive yield and defensive compounding growth. Using a mix of traditional and alternative assets with low volatility and low correlation to traditional benchmarks. Powered by a unique macro and quantitative approach.

The funds do not routinely utilise leverage (so are 1x leverage), except within the normal capacity of any UCITS fund which can use short term leverage up to prescribed UCITS rule limits.  We do use financial derivatives within UCITS risk limits - risk is monitored daily and managed through the process outlined in the Prospectus and RFI/DDQ.