Active Alpha, the Switzerland-based trading-oriented equity long/short manager with $160 million of assets, says the large-cap stocks in which it trades are so liquid that it could run up to a capacity of $1.0 billion before any cap, its chief executive told this publication.

The firm’s AA Equity Fund holds European and US assets – taking a purely trading strategy and has, since its inception on September 2008, risen 27 per cent – no mean feat considering that period encompassed huge market swings.

Daniel Schweizer told WealthBriefing that his fund was a “niche player” within the universe of long/short equity funds.

“We’re in a position to close the fund inside within one to two days. We are confident that we can raise further assets. The fund has a capacity of $1.0 billion. We do offer investors monthly liquidity with 15 days’ notice…..we do expect investors to commit at least for a month,” he said.

Starting its fund more than two years ago within the larger alternative investment firm Horizon21 and with institutional backing, the firm spun out in the third quarter of last year to become an equities-focused investment boutique. To reassure investors, the firm kept existing service providers.

“Key to our investment success is a highly efficient information gathering process that we have refined over the past 20 years as proprietary traders and fund managers. Being very close to the markets from the European open to the US close requires an extraordinary commitment but allows us to trade various cross-regional opportunities untapped by our regionally-focused rivals,” Schweizer said.

Schweizer and the two senior portfolio managers, Michael Uebersax and Silvio Zgraggen, worked together for more than 15 years at UBS.