Hedge funds post negative returns again

Hedge funds posted their second consecutive month of negative returns in October with the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index down 0.24%, while the MSCI World Index finished the month up 1.15%. On a year-to-date basis, hedge funds are up 3.47%, falling behind underlying markets as the MSCI World Index returned 5.18% over the same period.

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Here are some key takeaways.

• Hedge funds posted their sixth month of negative returns for the year to finish October down 0.24%, with preliminary figures showing that investors redeemed US$1.6 billion during the month.
• CTA/managed futures strategies were the top gainer during October, gaining 0.26% and maintaining their lead over all other strategies with year-to-date returns of 6.30%.
• Net asset flows into hedge funds for the year stand at US$56.9 billion despite investors redeeming a cumulative of US$18.9 billion in the last four months alone.

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• China A-Share investing hedge funds posted their sixth consecutive month of positive returns and are up 9.90% October year-to-date.
• Event driven funds reported the largest loss out of all strategic mandates at 2.09% in October, their biggest loss in a month since 2011.
• On the whole, Asia ex-Japan was the best performing region, finishing the month up 0.55% — out of which India focused hedge funds gained 1.51% while Greater China funds were up 1.31%.
• Eastern Europe and Russia investing funds were down 2.26% in October, and are down 13.59% year-to-date — the worst performer among all regional mandates.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.