New York-based Castlestone Management last month launched its first UCITS-compliant fund, the Dublin-listed Aliquot Active Commodity Index (UCITS) Fund.

The fund is exposed to the energy, agriculture, metals, water and alternative energy sectors via indices, swaps, swap options on indices, future indices and exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded commodities.

The firm said it anticipates strong demand for this fund, and its planned roll out of other UCITS-compliant products.

“Gaining the flexibility to change exposure to individual commodities allows us to manage risk and opportunity for investors far more effectively,” the firm said.  “Our fund managers can reduce exposure to overpriced assets while increasing the weightings to those, which have greater potential to rise. There are very few actively-managed commodity funds in existence, and the vast majority of those that are UCITS-compliant don’t have this flexibility.”

The firm currently manages US$1 billion in single-strategy hedge funds and funds of hedge funds.