“This is the largest one-month gain for hedge funds since February 2000, when the Barclay Hedge Fund Index soared 6.76 percent,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
“The resurgence of global equity markets in April has given a big lift to most hedge fund strategies.”
“All of the MSCI Barra equity indexes in developed markets and emerging markets posted gains last month, many of them in double digits.”
In April, 16 of Barclay’s 18 hedge fund indices gained ground. The Barclay Emerging Markets Index shot up 9.65%, the Event Driven Index gained 8.00%, Equity Long Bias rose 7.36%, the Healthcare & Biotechnology Index was up 6.14%, and Technology gained 5.57%.
“Risk appetites among investors seem to have increased in April,” says Waksman, “and emerging markets, which had been shunned in January and February, appear to be a major beneficiary.”
The Equity Short Bias Index plunged 7.68% in April and Equity Market Neutral slipped 0.92%.
“Equity Short Bias had its biggest one-month drop since April of 2001, when the Index lost 8.55 percent,” says Waksman.
“Hedge funds trading the short side had record gains in 2008, when they were up 40.91 percent for the year. Although they’ve given back 10.64 percent in the past two months, Equity Short Bias is still leading all hedge fund strategies with a 9.88 percent gain over the past 12 months.”
The Barclay Fund of Funds Index gained 0.63% in April.
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Sol Waksman is an experienced media source, providing perspectives on hedge fund and managed futures trends. For more commentary or background, call 641-472-3456 or email swaksman@barclayhedge.com.
BarclayHedge (formerly The Barclay Group) was founded in 1985 and actively tracks more than 6,000 hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, and managed futures programs. Barclay has created and regularly updates 18 proprietary hedge fund indexes and eight managed futures indexes.
Institutional investors, brokerage firms and private banks worldwide utilize BarclayHedge data as performance benchmarks for the hedge fund and managed futures industries.