Hedge funds still sluggish

Hedge funds have been in negative territory for three out of four months this year, losing an additional 0.13% in April following the losses from March, according to Eurekahedge.

They’re still up 0.78% for the year, slightly beating the MSCI World Index, which gained 0.75% during the same period.

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Highlights:

• Total assets of the global hedge fund industry are at a new high of US$2.09 trillion, with net asset inflows for April 2014 year-to-date totalling US$52.4 billion. This is US$2.7 billion higher than for the same period last year.

• The Eurekahedge North America Hedge Fund Index is up 2.20% year-to-date, with fund managers having delivered performance-based gains of US$16.0 billion while recording net asset inflows of US$25.4 billion in Q1 2014 – the strongest performance among all regional mandates.

• Long/short equities funds recorded their 17th consecutive month of positive net asset flows; net capital allocations at US$46.9 billion year-to-date. Total assets in long/short equities hedge funds stand at US$708.7 billion, close to their December 2007 historical high of US$756 billion.

• The Eurekahedge Billion Dollar Hedge Fund Club posted performance-based gains of US$1.3 billion in April as larger hedge funds outperformed their smaller peers; delivering performance-based gains of US$11.7 billion while seeing net capital inflows of US$28.9 billion year-to-date.

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• European funds recorded their 17th consecutive month of net asset inflows, with capital allocation of US$24.3 billion year-to-date.

• Japanese hedge funds were down for the fourth consecutive month though they have outperformed the Nikkei 225 Index by more than 10% year-to-date; a significant outperformance.

• Distressed debt hedge funds have managed to stay in the black for the past eight months, with the highest year-to-date returns among all strategic mandates at 3.05%.

• India focused long/short equities funds have delivered the best gains among all regional mandates – up 7.33% year-to-date.

• Funds of hedge funds have outperformed hedge funds in seven out of the past 15 months, with North American funds of hedge fund managers up 6.42% over the past 12 months, surpassing the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index by 1.85% while maintaining a lower annualised volatility.

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Staff

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