Conversation with Euan Munro, a director of Standard Life Investments, is sprinkled with the sort of phrases one might expect to hear from a hedge fund manager.

The Fife-born, long-time Edinburgh resident speaks fluently in the language of global macro hedge funds. "US forward-start duration", "large-cap/small cap relative value" and "Russian equity exposure" trip readily off the tongue. But it would be a mistake, he says, to confuse the Global Absolute Return Strategies fund he manages with a hedge fund. The two are not the same.