Written by Preqin
Returns of 1.18% take 12-month performance to the highest level recorded since May 2013
2016 Hedge Fund Letters
The Preqin All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark recorded returns of 1.18% in February, building on the 1.43% gains seen the previous month. This contrasts with the losses that hedge funds incurred in February 2016: the industry has now recorded 11 months of positive gains in the past year, and 12-month performance has consequently risen to 13.63%, the highest level since May 2013 (+13.76%). Most leading hedge fund strategies returned positive figures in February, with event driven strategies (+1.46%) and equity strategies (+1.54%) funds once again posting the strongest gains.
Hedge Funds – Other Key Performance Facts:
Relative value strategies funds were the only leading strategy to record losses in February, with returns of -0.04%. Macro strategies (+0.60%), credit strategies (+0.71%) and multi-strategy funds (+0.85%) all returned less than 1.00% for the month.
Over 12 months, equity strategies funds have now returned 16.21%, while event driven strategies have made gains of 20.63%.
CTAs bounced back from losses in January to post gains of 1.01% in February, although performance is still negative (-1.32%) over a 12-month period.
Activist hedge funds have followed a strong year in 2016 with two consecutive months of gains in 2017; returns of 0.99% in February take 12-month performance to 18.71%.
Asia-Pacific hedge funds posted strong returns of 1.82% in February, above the level seen for Europe-(+0.94%) and North America-focused (+1.11%) funds.
Smaller hedge funds continue to outperform their larger counterparts in 2017. Funds with less than $100mn in AUM returned 1.38% in February, compared to gains of 1.14% for large funds of $1bn or more.
Despite suffering losses in 2016, funds of hedge funds have now posted four successive months of positive returns; gains of 0.64% in February have put 2017 YTD performance at 1.46% and 12-month gains at 4.79%.
