Polar Asset Management Partners Inc.

Polar provides discretionary investment management to private pooled funds and institutional separately managed accounts, typically operating through master-feeder structures and some standalone funds. Its product lineup includes multi-strategy funds, long/short equity strategies, North American micro-cap strategies and occasional co-investment vehicles.

Polar employs a mix of fundamental and systematic techniques across those strategies and discloses routine use of leverage and a broad set of derivative instruments in its funds; the brochure notes separately managed accounts are subject to the same risk factors when they employ such techniques. The firm also uses sub-advisory arrangements for portions of certain master-fund sleeves and manages each separately managed account according to its stated objectives and guidelines.

Compared with many peers in the investment-manager category, Polar is distinguished by maintaining multiple offices and having its principal office located outside the United States while remaining SEC-registered and subject to other domestic and foreign regulatory regimes. The firm also lists institutional investors such as employee benefit plans and public pension plans among its investors and explicitly discloses that borrowing and derivatives may be used in account management — attributes that are less common among managers focused primarily on pooled vehicles.