Man Group's Polish hedge fund will look to profit from both bull and bear markets Shutterstock

Man Group, one of the world’s biggest alternative investment hedge funds, is preparing to enter the Polish market. In cooperation with TFI Skarbiec it will launch a fund called Skarbiec Alternatywny, meant to make money for investors during downturns as well as upturns in the stock market, according to Gazeta Wyborcza.

The Polish investment fund market has remained largely traditional until now, with investment funds mostly concentrating on shares and bonds. Only recently have fund managers started to look towards commodities as well as short selling.

Hedge funds such as Man Group invest mostly in futures, betting on the rise or fall of various financial instruments. Although such funds already exist on the Polish market, according to Man Group estimates they currently have only a 1.5 percent share of the market; their average market share in the EU is five percent.

“I think that Man Group hasn’t chosen the worst moment to enter the market as the recession is generally over, but I wouldn’t expect such funds to have a major impact on the market in the near future,” said Przemysław Kwiecień, chief economist at X-Trade Brokers. “Instead, it will still be very much a niche product.”

Mr Kwiecień said the level of awareness of the mechanisms involved in even traditional investment funds was still low among Polish investors, who therefore were would not easily be lured into complex investment processes.

“Of course with time, the market will develop and these instruments will become more popular. That is a natural process, but it will take more than one hedge fund to do that,” he commented.